Onyx reviews: House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 06/08/2024

It begins with the death of a woman named Maria, killed in a drive-by shooting as she worked checking IDs outside a Puerto Rican nightclub. The reason she was killed and the ever-shifting quest to identify the shooters is what motivates this novel of revenge and retribution.

Maria was mother to Bimbo (real name Andrés), one of a group of five lifelong friends who are on the cusp of manhood, fresh graduates of high school. They are as different from each other as possible: some smart, some thick; some tall, some short; some brown, some black; some fiercely loyal, some less so; some eager to move on to better things, some resigned to remaining in the poverty and violence of the place where they grew up.

Over the years, these friends have always had each other's backs in difficult situations, none more so than Bimbo. Most murders on the island go unsolved, so Bimbo knows that only he can bring the culprits to rough justice. When he calls upon Gabe (the book's main point-of-view character), Xavier, Tavo and Paul, each boy-man must now decide how committed he will be to Bimbo's mission of vengeance. They are all familiar with violence, having delivered beatings in the past to people who committed an infraction against a member of their group, but they understand that this is on a different level. If Bimbo finds the people who shot his mother, a beating won't be enough to even the score. The book explores loyalty in the face of mortal danger and the possibility that they will go down a dark path from which there may be no return.

There's another Maria on the horizon, a catastrophic hurricane destined to strike the island. Puerto Ricans are familiar with the devastation these storms deliver: loss of electricity, fresh water and communication for days if not weeks on end. There are other legends associated with hurricanes: People disappearing, nameless creatures traveling through the storm, and terrifying birth defects. The storm might thwart the fivesome's plans; on the other hand, it might provide the cover they need for their mission, which threatens to put them up against some dangerous men.

Puerto Rico is also a place of legends from myriad cultures, a concept Iglesias describes with the apt word syncretism. Catholicism is strong on the Caribbean island, but there is also a wide variety of mysticisms drawn from Africa and France. Voodoo and Santeria are two of the better known of these, but there are others, and Iglesias adds a few of his own to the mix, inventing dark deities with fearsome powers and drawing from Lovecraftian mythology as well. Although the book starts out feeling like a straight dark crime novel, anyone who's read his previous novel, The Devil Takes You Home, will know that supernatural elements are bound to creep into the story.

As the members of the crew negotiate the dangerous path from suspect to suspect, doling out increasingly violent payback for the nightclub attack, they also cause collateral damage. Their group suffers an unbearable loss. Gabe's mother is beaten in her home to warn him off further pursuit of the people responsible for Maria's death. They get things wrong time and time again, and Bimbo becomes increasingly manic. Gabe's girlfriend wants him to follow her to the mainland and extract himself from this culture of violence and, though he's tempted, he finds it harder and harder to get away. He may hate the things Bimbo suggests but he is compelled to do them anyway.

Maria arrives, laying waste to the island's infrastructure, raising omnipresent resentment about the way this territorial island—many of whose residents are fiercely nationalistic—is ignored and mistreated by the nation that has colonized them, treating them as second class citizens.

Iglesias grabs readers by the hand and doesn't let go as he drags them through a trail of violence and destruction. He immerses them in Puerto Rican culture and history and forces them to bear witness to terrible acts of revenge, even when it's clear that the teens may be going too far. Like Gabe, readers may dislike Bimbo's chaotic plans but they will continue to read about them anyway. This is dark stuff and the main question is: if the teens succeed, what will become of them in the aftermath?