i really enjoyed this one, it examines themes such as the machismo culture within the context of rural argentina specifically, and the violence that comes with gender and sexuality. with short bursts of chapters, selva almada's prose hit hard where it needed to. i also found myself thinking a lot about the family dynamics present that led to the shaping of the two protagonists' respective characters, their fathers, their mothers, their childhood, all of it. queerness was not the main focus of the book (for some reason i went into it thinking that it would be a central theme) but it was fit into the larger theme of violent masculinity. i do however wish the characters of the mothers had been explored better though, i found them both very interesting.