The Houseguest: And Other Stories Paperback – November 27, 2018

Amparo Davila's stories translated and collected in The Houseguest are full of strangeness and darkness and melancholy. I find her writing and subject matter highly reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's and wholeheartedly recommend this collection to her fans.There are twelve stories collected here and all of them have their own charms, but my personal favorites include:The Houseguest Our narrator's husband brings home a mysterious and sinister guest to stay in their home. This guest keeps odd hours, stalks our heroine and her maid, and threatens the children. This is a legitimately creepy story, as the titular guest's behavior genuinely unnerved me to read about.Musique Concrete Sergio runs into his old friend Marcela who reveals to him that she is under a lot of stress. Her husband has been having an affair with a seamstress who Marcela believes is also tormenting her at night in the guise of a large frog. Sergio originally believes Marcela to be imagining things in her distress, but then he meets the seamstress for himself...Oscar Monica returns home to her family after years spent in the big city. She finds not much has changed while she has been away. The mysterious Oscar is still caged in the basement, ruling the house with his erratic moods and frightening night wanderings. This story really got under my skin; the threat posed by Oscar is palpable, and the despair felt by his family was haunting.Those were my three favorite stories, but they are all worthy reading to fans of macabre literary fiction. I would gladly read much more of Davila's work if it received an English translation.

There are some stories that are kafkaesque, poesque, and were comparable to works of Shirley Jackson. There are at least three stories that were classic Twilight Zone. Most of them, subtle tales of psychological dread. One particular tale has food screaming in the kitchen. One wonders what food are they serving? One or two stories I felt were bit predictable, and not terribly satisfactory. Still, recommended.

it was a gift, they liked it.

***

I enjoyed the stories in this book. They are eerie, well told. They definitely convey mental anguish. There are common things, so reading the book straight through at times felt tedious. I think it would be best to read a story or two over time.

One of my favorite horror/short story books. defenitly a must read for someone who’s into all things dark and ominous

Muy buen producto

If you like being thrown in the middle of a story with little to no information and no connection to the characters and also enjoy receiving no closure from stories, this is the book for you. It was hard to find any story scary or thrilling or even disturbing when your spending most of the time thinking "wait, what the hell is even going on?" One reviewer described it as edger allan poe for the modern era and I've read tweets with more unsettling tales than anything in this book. The cover snapped with the aesthetic though and thats why I'm giving it 2 instead of 1 star. Did not finish it either, so boring.

One of the most important writers in LATAM

Returned as it did not peak my interest.

Excelente libro

I thought these stories were exceptional. Looked for more by this author but couldn't find any, at least not in English. The translator did a great job!

Que lastima que el libro venia en malas condiciones, esta usado y dañado. La portada está rota y las hojas por dentro igual rotas👎🏽