University City Public Library Book Challenge: Queen Of The Cicadas

Press release from University City Public Library Book Challenge:

November 23, 2021

Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro, 214 pages

In the 1950s, Milagros left her family in Mexico to be a migrant worker in Texas, hoping to earn some money to help them survive and eventually immigrate to the U.S. themselves. Instead, she met a horrific end and the cotton plantation where she died became the site of drought and brutal unexplained deaths, spawning an urban legend among Mexican-Americans. Half a century later, Belinda Alvarez visits the plantation and begins digging into Milagros' story, with stomach-churning and surprising results.

This is a fantastic mash-up of folklore, urban legend, and the foundation of a new feminist religion, though it's really hard to categorize because of that. It's horror, yes, but it's more than that. Really, this could have been a much longer book, with more details about Milagros and Belinda, and I would still have been captivated.

This press release was produced by University City Public Library Book Challenge. The views expressed here are the author’s own.