“Ingrid and her charismatic childhood friend Mayra—described as ‘a kind of wild animal’—are planning a reunion. . . . Settle in for swamp flora that encroaches claustrophobically, ‘intestinal’ green snakes, and plenty of long-simmering antagonism between the two leads.”—Vulture
“Each page will haunt you.”—Debutiful
“A haunting hallucination . . . Mayra has shades of the Southern gothic, but ultimately crafts its own uniquely Florida gothic. This fan of Shirley Jackson devoured this.”—The Southern Bookseller Review
“I ate this greedily; I swallowed it whole. Beguiling and moody and strange, Mayra shimmers with supernatural eeriness and the mercuriality of memory. Nicky Gonzalez unspools all the disorienting, lonely-making work of getting unstuck and finding home and bliss—then, she terrifies you. This is a mesmerizing, hallucinatory adrenaline rush of a novel.”—Claire Luchette, author of Agatha of Little Neon
“Nicky Gonzalez channels Shirley Jackson (something I do not say lightly) in this disquieting, mesmerizing twenty-first-century Southern Gothic. In Mayra, the hazy borders of friendship and identity are blurred, made uncanny and dangerous, and I was hooked from paragraph one.”—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts
“In prose as luscious as the ribs at our beloved Flanigan’s, the story that unfolds between Mayra and Ingrid lovingly embodies the vibrant beauty of Hialeah and the Florida Everglades. Mayra is a haunting testament to the literal terror of being consumed by the very thing you’re trying to escape.”—Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Say Hello to My Little Friend
“Eerie, haunting, and gorgeously written, Mayra is a powerful story of memory, home, and the friendships that make us. I was entranced by its luscious dreamworld of secret doors, traps, wonders, and the uncanny. Gonzalez is a master of tension, tenuous lines, and complicated love.”—Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil
“Gorgeous and hypnotic, surreal and unsettling, Mayra is part coming-of-age story, part Twilight Zone episode, part thoughtful meditation on all of the ways that memory is itself a haunted house. I loved this book.”—Karen Thompson Walker, New York Times bestselling author of The Strange Case of Jane O.
“This debut examines the ways people can either find or lose themselves in intense friendships . . . this slow-burn novel will have readers on the edge of their seats by the end. Recommend to fans of Stephen King’s Duma Key, David Mitchell’s Slade House, or Bunny by Mona Awad.”—Booklist
“A ghost from her past brings a woman to a peculiar, isolated Everglades mansion—and to the brink of delirium—in this ominous and compulsively readable gothic debut. . . . A brilliantly rendered fever dream from which readers won’t want to wake . . . this mesmerizing and luscious trip is perfect for fans of Rachel Harrison and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.”—Library Journal
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