The book follows a collection of characters—Moriviví, Banto, Bayfish, Cheo, Camila, and Urayoán—in the aftermath of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. Camila, having lost her sister Mari to the hurricane, grieves her and carries her rotting corpse around. Urayoán, a power-thirsty self-proclaimed prophet, establishes a quasi-utopian settlement called Memoria ("memory") in the countryside. Cheo, Banto, Moriviví, and Bayfish follow Ura in his journey, only to find a bloodthirsty leader who seeks to be adulated and who revels in exploiting people's desperation to survive.

I wanted to love this book. As a fellow Puerto Rican, I yearned to see my family's story in this pages. However, I was quite disappointed. The characters blur into one—Camila, Cheo, Bayfish barely feel like different voices. I think, however, the most unpleasant aspect was Urayoán's POV. It was both horrendous and one-dimensional. It felt unnecessary. I did not understand why he acted the way he acted; the only explanation is "pure evil," which is a cheap trope, in my opinion. Lastly, some descriptions were unbearably long, and events that might have required more explanation were skimmed through.

Also, this might be minor but, as someone from the town that the story takes place—Utuado—the author got so many details wrong. There is enough detail to suggest he didn't just type "Utuado" in Google and work off of that, but there are enough mistakes to suggest he's never actually been there.

Is it appropriate to shelf this as a horror novel? No one else seems to be shelving it as a horror novel. Maybe if more people had, I wouldn't have been so surprised that my, "I'm taking a break from my scary book lineup to read something different," book was actually, in fact, <i>horrifying</i>.

Go figure.

Um, I'll be honest. I don't really know how to review this one. It's horrific and post-apocalyptic in a way that isn't farfetched like most of the scary stuff I've been immersed in has been, but then that's because the setting of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria is all too real. It razed Puerto Rico to the ground, taking some nearly 3,000 lives with it. Xavier Navarro Aquino has offered us one (admittedly fictionalized) narrative in which a young girl carries the corpse of her sister to a farcical utopia created by the young cult leader Urayoán and his collective of angry and volatile young boys (enter: all the Lord of the Flies comparisons).

Ultimately, this is a narrative of nightmares, of desperation and strife and the uncomfortable reality that Puerto Rico was utterly abandoned in the aftermath of that storm, something that is never lost even in this fictionalized account. The prose is very lyrical and stands well on its own, but it was sometimes a bit too wordy and winding for me. It dampened the impact without actually giving me the break I was kind of aching for, considering how emotionally heavy this book got at times. The prose is absolutely beautiful, but it does have a tendency to take you out of the story when it starts to drag, and I think characterization was a bit lacking overall. Still, it was good. All in all, three out of five.

<i>Thank you muchly to NetGalley, HarperVia, and Xavier Navarro Aquino for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was such an uncomfortable book to read. Like being trapped in the kind of surreal nightmare that makes you squirm with how alike and not-alike it simultaneously is to your life.

The book blurbs all compare VELORIO to Lord of the Flies, but really it is more like Sorrowland, if Cainland had been all there was, if Vern had had no room for small moments of whispered exhalation. Xavier Navarro Aquino both expands Puerto Rico beyond its 3,500 square miles and shrinks it into the smallest pinprick of despair. It is the most accurate description of Hurricane María I have ever read.

VELORIO is definitely not for all, and honestly I'm still not sure if it was for me. I am, however, grateful for a book that doesn't shy from criticizing the US colonization of Puerto Rico and the incompetency of the Puerto Rican government. A book about the post-María reality of our sick, starving, abandoned island written by the hand of someone who was *actually* there.

I got to read this before the January pub date, and while I know 2023 is still several months away, I encourage you to keep this debut author in mind. Puerto Rico has not forgotten María, but sometimes it feels like the rest of the US has. Maybe this book will change that.

This was a dark, intense read that got darker and more hopeless as it progressed. There was a lot of points of view here and as they were all experiencing similar events I found myself losing storylines and confusing characters. I wanted to keep reading, with lower and lower expectations of how this modern-day Lord of the Flies tale ended up. I loved the island descriptions and it was a good look into life after a devastating natural event.

Set in Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria has devastated the island. Told through the point of view of multiple characters, we learn of the tragedy and trauma our fictional survivors faced. For me it had a lord of the flies meets natural disaster feel. The writing was powerful, but the story was sad and bleak. I felt something was missing from the character development, which lead me to not feel much for them, even though the events were heartbreaking. Urayoán was the epitome of a villain. It was a unique and interesting debut novel.

Thank you to netgalley and harpervia for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Not for the faint of heart (or those looking for a quick-and-easy read), Xavier Navarro Aquino's debut novel is a poetic and painful journey through things taken, things taken back, grief, rage, fear, and the various ways we each hold onto hope. While the writing is overall lyrical, there are moments of bare prose that create an atmosphere of a nightmare overlaying a dream; characters fight to move forward in a world that wants to hold them back and down and under.

What happens when you—quite literally—carry the weight of the dead?

Velorio is a haunting debut about trauma—natural and humanmade—told through multiple perspectives during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Linked by disaster, each character's story tangles in Memoria, a "city" created by a megalomaniacal would-be dictator named Urayoán.

The writing throughout is beautiful even if the characters sometimes come up short. Most feel like caricatures rather than fully realized people; their personal tragedies run so deep that I could only pity rather than empathize with them. (Cheo, the poet fisherman, being a notable exception. I wanted more from him, always.) Urayoán, the villain, never feels real, existing more as a foil to the rest of the cast than an actual player himself—despite the fact that he's generally instigating conflict and there are entire chapters dedicated to his delusional point of view.

Still.

In trying to decolonize and reclaim autonomy, they create a brutal replacement. It's the paradox of utopia: impossible to achieve except through dystopian means.

At its core, Memoria seems an apt metaphor for an island that's frequently forgotten. When tragedy strikes, when the worst happens, there's nowhere to turn. No one to trust. You grab the line that's thrown to you, even when there's a mad man on the other end of it.

Thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.

This novel is a strange, magnificent blend of the horrific and the sublime, It begins with a mother and her two daughters anxiously waiting the arrival of Hurricane Maria, and the way their fear blends with their matter-of-factness somehow captures perfectly what it must feel like when something awful, and yet inevitable, is coming for you. One daughter survives the hurricane and the other does not, and the reason why the girl dies--her mother is being so insufferable that the girl flees to the next room, which promptly collapses and fills with mud--is all the more disturbing because of the matter-of-fact way these events are played out in the prose. Here is where the narrative voice really begins to drive home what kind of story we're in for--when the surviving sister cuts off her dead sister's little finger--the only piece of her sister not buried in mud--for a keepsake. It's her voice--outrageous and matter-of-fact, filled equally with hopeless despair and child-like wonder, that keeps propelling this story forward into ever more unexpected and creative directions. It's one of those books you need to be in the mood for, because it's relentless; I was in the mood for it. Wonderful.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Set in the wake of Hurricane Maria, Velorio--meaning "wake"--is a story of strength, resilience, and hope." This cast of characters fight against natural elements as well as the government and each other.

I can't say I 'enjoyed' reading this yet I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't work for me.

2.5☆

Velorio is an interesting novel. The book follows 5 people after Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico. You really feel the pain and suffering of the people described trying to survive the aftermath. How the mind can break because it cannot cope with the loss and the pain described becomes your pain. The devastation is beautifully described. My favorite line from the novel "Mami simply went to the window and watched God deconstruct the landscape,.."

Reading this novel is to be absorbed into another culture, a much more primitive environment of a society devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It is a novel of faith and hope!

“To erase old memory and plant new memory is every attempt of conquest” from Velorio

This novel does an excellent job of exploring the “violent” trauma that came as a result of Hurricane Maria in combination with the feeling of abandonment.

It shows the internal struggle from characters to wait for the “savior” that will never come or to become one. This all takes place in an island that, even in the wake of tragedy, was “forgotten” by its colonizer.

Velorio unapologetically reaches out to you with a heartbreaking confession of trauma and pain with the hope of not being once again forgotten.

The people of Puerto Rico were crushed when Hurricane Maria exploded onto their home. Those who were not among the 3000 killed were left abandoned without food, water or power. "Velorio" by Xavier Navarro Aquino brings us fictionalized characters struggling to survive after their world has ended. We are pulled to these people who just look for the misery to end, for a sunlight to awaken them.

Camila is a young girl who has dug her dead sister out of a mudslide, dragging the corpse around to never lose her. This sets the tone for the book early on-- it is going to be a journey of desperation. We meet others drawn to the newly created Memoria, a supposed utopia created by a charismatic and dangerous leader Urayoán. His message is hope for the lost, promising to correct the government evils that have failed the people. Urayoán has his volatile army of young boys psyched up to do his bidding and the shadow of evil grows more ominous and threatening as supplies and patience wear out.

Initially I questioned the need for fictionalized characters when there are real stories to be told from this wreckage. It is not a stretch, however, to see these savage fables as real when humans are sealed in a living hell. "Velorio" is a dark book to read at times, given the catastrophic subject matter but Xavier Navarro Aquino has created a stunning dream world from the real life nightmare.

I thank HarperVia, NetGalley, and Xavier Navarro Aquino for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Velorio #NetGalley #HarperVia

I am posting this on NetGalley and GoodReads July 27, 2021.
"Velorio" publishes on January 4, 2022 and I will be posting reviews with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookBub, Twitter, and Facebook on that date.

This book is set after Hurricane Maria on an island that has been ravaged by the hurricane, but also by human violence. This book was fast-paced and I loved the way the story weaved like a post-apocalyptic nightmare after a disaster. This novel follows a group of survivors who are looking for something, anything, and try to get to a supposed utopia called Memoria. At this point, the cultish vibe is heavy and dark, but the best part of this book is the hope that people have. It’s a wonderful book that I absolutely loved and would recommend to others!

So I have to start off by saying that Velorio felt absolutely true (the story is fiction but based on actual events), relatable and though the story had supernatural and almost mystical world building it also felt like this place and people could very well had inhabited Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria.

This multi-POV story follows several characters tied together by tragedy and through their experience end up in Memoria; a newly created city by a leader taking advantage of their situation to crown himself a leader in the vein of jesus himself. What at first begins as a place that sought to fight the faults of the old government soon mimics and makes the situation for the people allowed within it's make-shift walls far worse and threatening. Through their shared journeys; Banto, Morivivi, Camila, Urayon, Chao and Bayfish tell the story of healing and recovery of an island ravaged by the forces of nature.

Each character had a unique voice and perspective and I found the banter and language (even though I am Mexican not Puerto Rican) totally relatable and funny, and moving and heartbreaking. With vivid story telling Xavier Navarro Aquino managed to tell a story that was moving and well paced and it's characters jumped to life off the pages. Bravo.

Raw and haunting, Velorio depicts the trauma following the aftermath of Hurricane Maria on an unnamed island that was colonized and then abandoned.

Velorio, means “wake”and is meant to be a story of resilience and hope. Following the hurricane we follow several characters as they battle the elements as well as their own beliefs and ideology on the small island. A haunting story, I would recommend it to those who enjoy realistic fiction set in the tropics.

I really liked this book. It was so scary, it was hard to put down, as you knew the children's violence was increasing. The thing that was most striking, though, was the post-apocalyptic story that found subtle ways to remind you that this was actually something that took place in present-day America. While the main plot may not be a true story, the push to show how many folks disappeared in the wake of Hurricane Maria makes you wonder just what really did happen after the storm, and what we could have done differently to support the area. Fantastical, yet real.

Beautiful, powerful writing. And at the same time so much darker and more terrifying than I imagined possible. The author’s considerable talent intensifies the experience, putting you right in the middle of humanity at its worst. This is an important book, but not for the faint of heart.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

I knew that this was bound to be an emotionally difficult read. I live in Central Florida and was engaged in assisting many refugees of Hurricane Maria in 2015. I heard their stories and felt their pain and trauma. I understood that they were the lucky ones. They survived. They got out.

When I saw the description of “Velorio” that HarperVia will be publishing in early 2022, I braced myself, knowing that I wanted to read it as soon as I could. “Velorio” is Xavier Navarro Aquino’s debut novel. I do not know of his background or history, but I am certain that he knows what he is writing about. “Velorio” is the story of those that were not so lucky. They didn’t get out.

As prepared as I was to hear the stories, and as inured as I am to deep trauma, I was often taken aback during the read. It is brutal in parts in a way that creeps up on you. It could be an over-the-top horror story except that you know that it is plausible, if not totally true.

At the end of the day, “Velorio” is a story of human survival in situations where death is all around. It’s a depiction of the human condition under maximum duress, a society at war with nature and its self. It describes people at their best: building community, helping others despite imminent danger to oneself, respecting elders, caring for the survivability of children. It describes people at their very worst: megalomaniacal sociopaths, guided by evil spirits conjured up in their demented minds, manipulating vulnerable, naive, frail people who only want to survive. It makes space for poets and humanists who have a moral core that is hard to find space for in an apocalyptic, dystopian world.

There are several characters to keep track of, but Navarro Aquino makes it manageable by sectioning the novel in crisp, compelling 1st person narratives, mixed voices and tones. It all comes together along the way and especially in the end.

Again, warnings for those who are in any way faint of heart. “Velorio” is a thriller that is all too easy to believe could happen to any of us at any time. Navarro Aquino is a talent to keep a close eye on.

Thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for the eARC..

“We saw people acting as birds fall today.” -From Velorio

3 stars

Warnings: child abuse, suicide, desecration of a corpse, fatphobia, death, homicide

Beautiful poetic prose weaves a fragmented story with lots of heavy subject matter. It starts off that way, on a subject I just felt really turned away at, so it was really hard for me to get into the novel. The summary should have warned me, but I guess I pictured it in a different light or something. Eventually characters and storyline come together. Many characters point of view are given, some with large blocks of texts that span several pages making parts hard to follow. Each segment always has a dramatic lyrical sentence start, which will probably lure most readers to keep going. Honestly if I weren’t reviewing it, I wouldn’t have finished reading with what Camila did.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.