Children of Chicago
Cynthia Pelayo
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In Children of Chicago (2021), acclaimed gothic and horror author Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo creates a new urban legend along the lines of Bloody Mary and the Candyman. Repeat a nursey rhyme in a darkened room and he – the Pied Piper – will appear to fulfill your request. Pelayo compels us to ask who summoned the Pied Piper and why. Pelayo masterfully blends the police procedural, horror, and modern fairytale genres to produce a narrative that centers on Detective Lauren Medina, a flawed yet compelling protagonist. Like many literary detectives, Lauren has difficulty maintaining relationships with family and friends. As a coffee addict and workaholic, the young detective’s self-destructive tendencies push away the people who love her the most. Yet we sympathize with her on account of her tragic past which includes the disappearance, suicide, and murder of family members. Driven by a bleak past and a duty to protect the innocent, Lauren takes deep interest in a spate of teen deaths that bear the mark of the Pied Piper. While most of the adults treat the legend as harmless child’s play, Lauren not only knows the Pied Piper is real, but that she owes him something and he has come back to collect. Lauren’s life-long fascination with the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales enables her to understand the dark, supernatural forces at work. At one point, Lauren recognizes that the stories the Grimm brothers collected from the German countryside were not that different from the abject poverty, starvation, neglect, and child abuse that plagued people’s real lives. Pelayo emphasizes this by selecting Chicago as the ideal setting for the Pied Piper’s return given its long history of mob massacres, serial killers, and gang shootings. As one character puts it, Chicago is not only a “consistent host to horrible things,” it also “continues to breed horrible things” (252). The bodies of the Pied Piper’s teenage victims mix with the rampant violence of modern-day Chicago creating a world where human-made and supernatural violence are equal sources of horror. |
Pelayo’s mix of genres allows her to blur the distinction between real and fantastical violence in order to highlight the depths of human depravity and the inventive storytelling we create to make sense of it. Readers will welcome Detective Lauren Medina as the latest addition to Latinx literature’s cadre of Latina detectives while recognizing how her pursuit of justice is punctuated by moments of startling self-revelations and gruesome yet well-wrought horror.
Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night. Her poetry collection, Into the Forest and all the Way Through, was nominated for Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards and Children of Chicago won the International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery.
Children of Chicago is a publication by Agora Books.
Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night. Her poetry collection, Into the Forest and all the Way Through, was nominated for Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards and Children of Chicago won the International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery.
Children of Chicago is a publication by Agora Books.
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