The Pink Agave Motel & Other Stories

In this equal-parts creepy and sultry collection of 12 interconnected horror shorts from Castro (The Haunting of Alejandra), monsters drawn from Indigenous folklore rise from the shadows to wrest back their power and control over humans. The flesh-eating seductresses of the opener, “Carnival of Gore,” target wealthy and corrupt men during Rio’s Carnival. In “Only Fans,” Aztec god Huitzilopochtli bestows volcanic powers on the narrator, who goes on to lure men to join her revolutionary army. Each entry builds to the title novella, in which Valentina, another flesh eater, runs a motel as a safe haven for creatures like her. Castro has a powerfully sensual style, and part of the pleasure here is the union she creates between the desires for consumption, destruction, and sex. At times, the prose overshoots its poetic goals and lands at abstractly purple, and the descriptions of blood and gore occasionally feel repetitive. Still, for lovers of sexy gothic horror, there’s plenty here to enjoy. (Feb.)