Title: Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale             

Author: Alejandro Torres De La Rocha

Genre: Supernatural Thriller

 

Seventeen-year-old Julián Díaz faces each day burdened by academic expectations and horribly aware of his parents’ sacrifices that enable him to attend the prestigious Jesuit-run Excelsior Academy in Santo Domingo. But, behind Excelsior’s illustrious facade lies widespread brutal abuse, sexual, physical, and psychological, orchestrated by the vicious Profesora Lourdes.

As Julián and his friends struggle, he has visions of the Grim Cojuelo, a horned, masked folkloric figure who seems inextricably connected to Julián and the Excelsior.

Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale takes place eighteen months before Mortal Vengeance. The reader discovers that the Grim Cojuelo, in some guise, will seek retribution on Excelsior, and this prequel mainly explores his psychological motives through Julián’s experiences.

The novel draws on several literary techniques and genres. Primarily a supernatural thriller, De La Rocha weaves through a coming-of-age element, a smattering of romance, and a strong social commentary. Although the plot is extensive, the atmosphere is suffocating.

There is a screenwriterly quality to the opening and, also, the chapter structure, which is intentional and effective. Tenses fluctuate, and the language has an occasional old-fashioned patina, which, again, complements and enhances the narrative’s nuanced, antiquated slant.

Indeed, albeit contemporary, the novel has a timeless aspect. De La Rocha effortlessly conjures the unnerving impression of something preternatural lurking within the Excelsior Academy, veiled behind the ancient aroma of devout Catholicism and institutional secrecy.

The school is a character in its own right, a cauldron of venal immorality that De La Rocha describes in darkly poetic terms and with a keen eye for fine detail. The contrast and interplay between Catholic grandeur and depravity is grimly compelling.

Throughout, De La Rocha’s writing is both lush and austere, short, staccato sentences controlled with precise venom or long, winding ones sparkling with theatrical frisson and metaphor. Periodically, the imagery is a little repetitive, but it could serve to immerse the reader. Overall, the novel could be a leaner.

Julián is the focus, an anguished teenager painfully conscious of not being part of the elite at Excelsior, fearfully struggling under its malevolent weight and his overwhelming guilt. His emotional intensity and torture are captured to harrowing effect, and there is a gripping level of unpredictability in his actions.

However, it is the depiction of his best friend, Lucia Salgado, where De La Rocha excels. She is an intriguing figure, full of intellectual sophistication and enigmatic complexity, who often drives the narrative more than Julián.

All the students are complicated individuals, whose vulnerabilities and manipulations develop in sometimes surprising ways as the violent, abusive acts escalate and silence becomes louder. De La Rocha causes them to turn inward or against each other, reflecting facets of the Grim Cojuelo.

The cabal of teachers at Excelsior is chillingly wicked and malign, in different ways. De La Rocha does not hold back in his perverse portrayals, and, although their behavior is extreme, it is nightmarishly credible and nerve-shredding to read.

Nonetheless, the ghoulish, insidious Grim Cojuelo, steeped in Caribbean Gothic, underpins the narrative and motivates the characters, often subconsciously. De La Rocha also litters Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale with an occasionally dizzying array of subsequent sidelines and complications.

Although most do converge, a couple seem over-engineered and distracting. There are some puzzling developments and a few conveniences. Still, they contribute to Julián’s increasingly disoriented state and the novel’s hallucinatory sheen.

De La Rocha has written a grotesquely beautiful, uncommon novel that is intense and powerful to read. Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale is a masterful prequel, rich in dark Dominican diabolism, twisted theology, and original sin while remaining grounded in the present.

 

 

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