Saturn turns the day to devil light, a meliorating, monstrous satellite. Shaded, we can speak in scimitars, miter adder cuspids into darts. Let’s venture into The Hills of Estrella Roja, by Ashley Robin Franklin.
Synopsis:
In this delightfully creepy and unapologetically queer horror romp of a graphic novel, sometimes dreams do come true. Nightmares are technically dreams, after all….
When college freshman Kat Fields receives a mysterious email urging her to visit a relatively unknown Texas town with a history of witchcraft, strange sightings, and “devil lights”—glowing red stars that appear above the town’s hills every night—she ditches her plans for spring break and takes a solo road trip to Estrella Roja to investigate for her podcast, Paranormal Texas, catchphrase: “Y’all stay spooky!”
Meanwhile, Marisol “Mari” Castillo, is also headed for Estrella Roja to attend the funeral for her abuela whom she hasn’t seen since childhood, when her mom cut ties with the family and left town. Feeling lost and bored, she decides to help Kat after a chance meeting at the local diner—and, okay, it doesn’t hurt that Kat is super cute.
As the two girls grow closer not only to each other, but to uncovering the dark legacy that the town was built on, they discover that something hungry lurks beneath the strange stars and that in the hills of Estrella Roja, some secrets should stay buried.
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
The Hills of Estrella Roja is about two girls, Kat and Marisol. Kat runs a podcast where she talks about the paranormal, and is headed to the remote town of Estrella Roja to investigate the mysterious red “devil lights” that appear over hills at night and don’t show up on photographs. Mari is also headed to Estrella Roja, to attend the funeral of her grandmother. The two of them meet and decide to team up to investigate the town’s secrets. In the process, they nearly unleash a horde of demons; but luckily, it turns out Mari’s family are witches called Lechuza who can bind the demons back to their pit. Also, Kat and Mari end up as girlfriends, so that works out well.
This book had some things to recommend it. I liked the chemistry between Kat and Mari, and the progress of their investigation into the town’s mysteries. I also liked the reveal at the end of Mari’s often-overlooked sister Ana’s role in events. On the other hand, though, the plot was kind of frustrating in that it was based entirely on Mari’s family giving vague, ominous warnings about the land around the pit without explaining the reason, which naturally only fueled the girls’ curiosity (all of them: Mari, Kat, and even Ana it turns out). Now, them wanting to keep Kat out of the loop, I can understand, as they’re worried she’s an outsider come to dig up their secrets; but Mari is part of the family – this is stuff she really needs to know. And yes, the story gives her mother and cousin Isabel specific reasons why they don’t talk with Mari; what about all the others? Particularly after the first time they spotted Mari poking around the pit – that should’ve been a big clue that their strategy of cryptic bullshit wasn’t working and they needed to tell her about the demons before she, you know, was tricked into letting them out.
Also a pet peeve of mine: all of the video evidence Kat takes of the supernatural stuff gets destroyed, thus leaving her with no proof. The thing is, that isn’t even necessary in this case, because after learning everything, Kat decides she won’t do a podcast episode on Estrella Roja in order to respect Mari’s family’s privacy. That decision would feel a lot more meaningful if Kat actually had evidence which she then chose not to use; but no, all the evidence of the supernatural she gathered has to be ruined, because that is a cliche of the genre and it must be adhered to regardless of whether it makes sense in the context of the story being told.
Well, The Hills of Estrella Roja wasn’t bad. The characters were all very good, and I did enjoy reading it. It just could have been a lot better if not for those few frustrating flaws.
Final Rating: 3/5
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