I loved this so much. It's not my first thing by the author I've read, and she's one of my favorites. This collection displays her writing voice in such a perfect way, with stories that feel so incredibly fitting among the rest of the things Castro has written. Such a solid collection, with some really incredible stories!!

A collection of rage and simmering feminine power! V. Castro’s stories never shy away from blood and the supernatural, but buried within the guts of each story is a fiercely beating heart of raw emotion. I can hear the power calling to each main character as they fight for their life or fight for vengeance. Everyone will find a story in this collection that speaks to them whether it’s masked as The Donkey Lady, La Llorona, a murderous being, a winged assassin, or the Living Dead Chola.

MESTIZA BLOOD – A Short Story Collection – by V. Castro – Highly Recommend!

The Following Are My Favorites—Two in particular that made this collection shine, in my opinion; see top favorites below:

‘Night of the Living Dead Chola’ – Love!

‘I was a ghost in life and still in death, but who knew I would have so much power without a heartbeat or breath?’

‘The Demon in My Eye’

‘I woke up this morning wanting to die. I told myself it’s just the demon in my eye, a little bug stuck inside my pupil.’

‘Nightmares & ICE’ – My Heart!

‘Cam Girl Sally’ – Love The Ending!

‘I wanted to live again. I didn’t survive ‘that day’, I died and just went to a place between life and death. But everybody’s luck changes. God can’t ignore all prayers.’

‘Dancehall Devil’

‘They say she is a beauty with hair that will tangle you in tendrils of brown as you spin her around. Before you know it, you are as helpless as a spider’s next meal.’

‘Mal de Ojo’

‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’

‘The Cold Season’ – Love This One! (Top Favorite)

‘The Latin Queens of Mictlan’

‘We are a crew of ride-or-die mujeres making the best of our nightmares, running the levels of Mictlan with the bravado of politicians of the twenty-first century and raking in the profit like those Fortune 500 companies of old. Here, the currency is blood, flesh and piety.’

‘Truck Stop’ – Love This One! (Top Favorite)

‘The Final Porn Star’ – Creepy Good X Vibes From This One!

Thank you, NetGalley and Flame Tree Press, for providing me with an eBook of MESTIZA BLOOD at the request of an honest review.

Another excellent book from V Castro. I did not love it as much as I loved The Queen of the Cicadas but definitely a 4 star read. The stories vary from revenge filled fantasy to classic monster horror but they all are filled with real Latina women with real lives. That is one characteristic of Ms Castro’s writing I really like, I feel like the characters are real, breathing people telling their stories, stories that happen to be filled with ghosts and monsters.

As this is a book of short stories there are some that I enjoyed more then others. The Demon in My Eye was great, I feel like there’s more to this story that could be explored more in a longer story. I also really liked Donkey Lady Bridge and The Final Porn Star.

If you are looking to read more horror written by women and by women of color you can’t go wrong with this collection of stories.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.

Mestiza Blood is a haunting exploration of the intricacies of Chicana life. Through our own legends and myths, Castro perfectly puts to page what it's like to experience life as a person who is consistently split between two worlds.

I love a good shorty story collection. Stories with strong female characters is a win win. Pick it up!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review

I love story collections and this one was dripping with feminism and positive female roles. I absolutely adore books that showcase strong female characters. I've been reading V.Castro since Goddess of Filth and each book I read by her seems to get better and better. She even dips her toes in some more dark, serious horror. Definitely recommend to all horror readers but especially those who love feminine empowerment.

This is easily on my list for Best Books of 2022.

I was kindly sent a copy by Netgalley, but have also been happily watching the author as so many people share their enjoyment of her work! I'm not unusual in that, but I wanted to share my thoughts as well.

Mestiza Blood is an anthology that explores the lives of Latina women, not just in this world, but also in futuristic or fantasy lands. The sheer humanity and strength of 'different' women is lauded here, particularly when placed alongside the challenges that they have to face, and never looking for sympathy - just respect, and that we hear their stories.

I'm a British woman, but I could absolutely relate to many of the protagonists. V describes humanity and emotion so beautifully that I travelled on the journeys of these warrior ladies, even if their battleground looks just like a normal, everyday home.

Some of the tales are neatly self-contained, while others (so many others!) had me wanting more. The amazing animal-women hybrids were especially brilliant, staying with me as I longed to see more of their world.

I've already dived into more of V's work, and she's an automatic pre-order for me now. So glad that she's sharing her own unique and wonderful magic with us!

I sat on this one because I wanted to read it so badly but, I also didn't want to have nothing of Castro's to read when I was done with it. The stories in Mestiza Blood are haunting and harrowing. It's truly impressive how Castro manages to bring specific nightmares and horrors to the fore, while also bearing witness to the universality of womanhood.

A master class in short story writing! Loved it! I am anxiously awaiting whatever Castro crafts next.

Every piece I’ve read from V Castro has been great, and this collection is no exception. I loved the variety in the stories and as always enjoy her blend of horror with a lot of heart and a dash of spice. Her characters are well written and it’s easy to empathize with them as a reader. I love her unique voice. These stories are very memorable.

I felt so weird reading this,. The first story was great, but then i could only select a few that i trully enjoyed.- I was maybe hoping fo a general theme, and i didn't find it. As a latinx I didnt feel 'represented' but I wasn't reading for that experience, actually; just, wanted to see new, fresh voices, closer that the eurocentric fantasy we are accostumed to

I was a good read for bits.

This is another one that I was very excited for that ended up being a miss for me. Once again, I think it comes down to personal taste, and these just weren't for me.

I love short stories, and after reading Queen of the Cicadas I was very interested in reading this collection. I love urban legends and stories based in folklore and this was right up my alley. Make no mistake, Castro's writing is dark and it goes places you might not expect, but that is what I appreciate about her writing. I also love the way she writes women, they are strong, flawed, and sexual and just real and I love that so much. Just be warned that there is a lot of gore and it gets pretty intense, but I think its refreshing to see that in female writers. I have a few other titles by Castro that I am really looking forward to getting to after this!

V. Castro has fantastic ideas (in all meanings of the word), and Mestiza Blood is awash in fascinating, bloody worldbuilding. I was immediately entranced by Night of the Living Dead Chola (it could be interpreted as a La Llorona retelling!), and the rest were just as terrifying, erotic, and enjoyably disgusting. Personally I had some issues with Castro's writing style, like her tendency to over explain character's motivations or backstory. I wanted a bit more mystery or more left to the imagination. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing, and I feel her attention to graphic detail could easily be adapted into visual media - I can perfectly imagine a grindhouse-style short film collection. The stories she tells are so new and innovative - yet inspired by traditional folklore and horror, they all won me over!

MESTIZA BLOOD by @vlatinalondon is a collection of short stories surrounding the Chicana experience that skew dark and dangerous. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and @flametreepress for the e-ARC.

This is one of my favorite short story collections I have read in a long time. It is full of dark fiction mixed with Mexican folklore and almost all the stories are about Chicana women kicking ass.

The stories are a mix of horror, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, folklore - basically all of my favorite things - so it is no wonder I loved it. My favorites included "Night of The Living Dead Chola", "Nightmares and ICE" and "The Final Porn Star."

This was my first foray into V. Castro's work and I have QUEEN OF CICADAS and GODDESS OF FILTH waiting to be read next so I know it will not be my last. What a fantastic, loud, fierce voice in horror fiction!

I'm relatively new to short stories and I really enjoyed this collection! Although I didn't find any particularly scary I did enjoy the majority of them! I enjoyed how they where based on Mexican folklore and there where a few I would definitely some I would like to see as longer stories. I liked the fact that some just took 5-10 minutes to read and others where a bit longer I like just being able to pick it up and read a story no matter how long you have

Review based on an ARC received through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review, many thanks to the publisher and author!

Mestiza Blood is a collection of short stories from V. Castro, an author who usually deals in horror with an undercurrent of sex, folklore, feminine rage, and social issues. This particular collection is made up of 14 stories, most on the shorter side with 3 that are longer than the rest. This collection is not exactly subtle with its’ metaphors, though in this case it works to the stories’ benefit: they’re quick, easy to read, thought provoking, and fun as hell. My favorite story out of the collection is probably Truck Stop, the second last and one of the 3 longer stories; it’s about a woman who has to make use of her unique gifts to make her way in the world, though those gifts have saddled her with a bit of fame and notoriety she wasn’t expecting. All in all, I very much enjoyed this collection, and would definitely recommend it to fans of horror who are fans of or don’t mind explicit gore and sex; one of the only downsides is that I felt some of the shorter stories could have been a little bit longer, to develop their themes more.

V. Castro is good. V. Castro is very, very good, and if you haven’t picked up any of her work yet, I would sincerely ask what you’re waiting for. Life is short. Check out V’s fiction, though if you’re not sure where to start, Mestiza Blood might be a good place.

This is a collection of very high quality, imaginative, and horror filled short stories. V explores various themes throughout, all focused on the Chicana experience. Her writing is vivid, drawing you directly into the lives of these women without wasting a single word. Not every writer is capable of that. There’s revenge, lots of spilled blood, and moments of pure, sweet satisfaction. It’s also unflinchingly honest, about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a Latina woman, what it means to come up against the kind of difficulties life likes to throw at people who aren’t cis, het, white men.

V combines elements of folklore and mythology with horror tropes and modern lives and it works really well in her hands. Out of all the stories, “Truck Stop” was my favourite. It’s raw and beautiful, with love right at the heart, but plenty of horror elements, as well as drawing from the ‘Otherness’ often experienced by marginalised people.

V Castro writes these women as no others have, giving us a variety in the characters we encounter but seeming to draw from her own experience to really make them come to life. “Cam Girl Sally” is shiver inducing and satisfying. “Donkey Lady Bridge” uses striking imagery to drive home all too common events. These tales speak to the Chicana experience in a way we all need to pay attention to. There are elements of the way women are sexualised, especially WOC, how quickly lives can change, how there is always something constantly to fight against. These women succeed, for the most part, overcoming difficult challenges and reclaiming their own lives from those people who do not give a shit, and I think that’s where a lot of the power in this collection comes from. There’s hope, here, and strength, and I hope V has more collections in the future, because I sure as hell will be reading them.

V. Castro has quickly become one of my must-read authors. Her work is truly fantastic! And it’s everything great horror should be: social commentary, feminism, sexuality, folklore, and, as the subtitle says, “a vision of the Chicana experience.” And it’s all creepy as hell!

That Chicana experience is very specific—it's the experience of being a woman who lives in the United States but comes from Mexican roots— and it runs through all of Castro’s work. Her tales are steeped in classic legend and lore, even when the basis for the story may not be exactly a traditional legend (this was the case Queen of the Cicadas, which had me googling the legend to see if it was indeed real. It wasn’t, but it also wasn’t far off from so many known stories of its kind.) That experience means that her work often also tackles the generational differences in experience and expectation between immigrants and their children.

I have also found that motherhood is particularly prevalent in a number of her stories, and Mestiza Blood is no exception. In one, Satan herself is the main character. In another, a woman whose parents have recently been picked up by ICE is doing everything she can to avoid authorities while also taking care of her baby, and she's offered what appears to be an impossible choice. In still another, a woman finds out her child has been cursed.

Another big theme, which makes sense as a woman, and as a Chicana, is revenge. Women getting revenge on those who have done them wrong.

While my own experiences in life may be different than Castro's, no woman goes through life unaware of the dangers that seem to lurk around every corner for us. So I have to say, there is definitely a sense of satisfaction in seeing some of the characters get their just desserts in these stories!

If horror has a job to do, aside from scaring and entertaining, I think, like all fiction, it should offer different perspectives. I like fun, but I also like a little meat to chew on. Substance that takes me out of my own experience and puts me into someone else’s. And of course, since it’s horror, I want it to come through with the scares. But not just jump scares! Actual, chill you to the bone scares!

Mestiza Blood is the kind of collection you'll be tempted to zip through, considering that once you've been ripped through one story, you're propelled directly into the next. But I'd argue this is the kind of collection worth savoring. There's a lot going on under the surface of each story. Castro has a lot to tell the world. And it's only in really examining and pondering over each story that I think some readers will have those dawning experiences, touching the true heart of each story if they really try!

Castro is a blazing new voice in the genre whose work offers all of that and so much more! I really can't sing her praises highly enough. I think that she's one of the authors of the genre who is pushing boundaries with each new work. And I think she's a really powerful storyteller!