Paradais

By Fernanda Melchor

Inside a luxury housing complex, two misfit teenagers sneak around and get drunk. Franco Andrade, lonely, overweight, and addicted to porn, obsessively fantasizes about seducing his neighbor--an attractive married woman and mother--while Polo dreams about quitting his grueling job as a gardener within the gated community and fleeing his overbearing mother and their narco-controlled village. Each facing the impossibility of getting what he thinks he deserves, Franco and Polo hatch a mindless and macabre scheme. Written in a chilling torrent of prose by one of our most thrilling new writers, Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society--with its racist, classist, hyper violent tendencies--and how the myths, desires, and hardships of teenagers can tear life apart at the seams.

BUY THE BOOK

Published Apr 4, 2023

128 pages

Average rating: 7.25

12 RATINGS

|

|

BOOK TALK

Community Reviews

Agostino212
8/10 stars
Really well done. Super long run on sentences so you have to get used to the style. But it manages to be real, funny and tragic.
Wiccanth
10/10 stars
Wow, this has some of the most intoxicating prose I've ever read, which is an unreal achievement considering how depraved its contents are. It's a very crude exploration of objectification through the lens of abject chauvinism, and with that, a timely reminder that we should always choose the bear. Brava, Fernanda... Brava.....