Bruno Blog

Who hasn’t felt fear at some point? Fear is an emotion, and we can feel it due to many things. I’ve always thought that fear is something negative, but there are experts that say that it isn’t, that fear is a basic and primary emotion, because it is found in every culture. However, it’s an unpleasant one, because it makes us feel bad, although there are many people who enjoy being scared, may it be watching a movie, going up on the highest attractions or taking up challenges that scare you to death before doing them.

I have to be honest, and the new novel by Malenka Ramos, who’s switched genres completely, puts you on edge. I’ve been scared while reading it and it has surprised me in such a good way that I believe people addicted to thriller novels can’t miss out on this new novel that has been published with the title LO QUE HABITA DENTRO, in Plan B. I’ve loved the punching line used to sell the book: EITHER YOU DEAL WITH THE MONSTER, OR THE MONSTER DEALS WITH YOU.

A CHILDREN’S GAME THEY’LL PAY FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIVES

October 1987, San Petri (Bay of the Death).

At Witches’ night, a group of kids enter the old house Camelle, an abandoned place full of terrible legends. But the house holds a dark secret and a well from which it hangs a light bulb that shouldn’t have been working.

One, two and three, I’ll catch you…

Nights become a constant fight in order to survive the visions, the scratches in the wardrobe, the sounds under the bed. Two of the kids go missing and something is chasing them.

I’ve got stones, Enma… Many stones…

All of these kids are now grown-ups, but they’ve never got rid of their visions and the terrible events they lived when they were so young.

The house Camelle is under construction and someone has opened the well…

The messages and the visions of the ghostly kids chase them more strongly than ever.

He’s back… Bunny, the cruel…

And the booktrailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSA-F96xNNo

I believe there aren’t positive nor negative emotions (this is what practical guides usually say). It’s always good to feel any kind of emotion, because they are useful, and we should feel our emotions with freedom, instead of repressing them or trying to control them. The problem with emotions starts when they limit us to do what we want to do, and I assure you that fear paralyzes us. Malenka has done it so well with this novel, that as much as you shake with fear while reading it, you’ll want to keep on doing it, hooked to its pages and to a pillow that you can hug at night. Don’t let fear paralyze you, ever, nor while reading, nor while living. So, for the curious ones, and for any lover addicted to that satisfying fear, don’t miss out on one of the newest thriller authors, who is here to stay.

On Tuesday, a ceremony was made to remember the 20^th year of Miguel Ángel Blanco’s murder by the terrorist group ETA. When I saw the news, I couldn’t help but remember it, and it was very surprising because it was something so shocking at that time, that I still know by heart exactly what happened in those 48 hours. I felt the anger and indignation you have when realizing people are capable of doing something like that and, at the same time, I get goosebumps when I remember people’s reaction. In Barcelona, many of us who went out on the street so they knew that there was a majority of us who solidarized with the family and believed, as I did, that they wouldn’t be able to kill Miguel Ángel Blanco after everything that had happened. But, unfortunately, they did, and I remember driving in my car, I don’t know exactly where, listening to the radio when there were only a few minutes left until the execution. When they confirmed that he had been killed, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I didn’t understand that wickedness that cold blood, and I’ve never had. At that time, 20 years ago, when I was way more visceral than now, I wished the worst for those people that were capable of killing a normal, innocent person because of an ideology. It seems something from a movie, a noir novel, but it was real and it left me a scar. Today, remembering it, I’m still moved at people’s solidarity. There were many of us who didn’t understand nor approved that violence and I think to myself: I wish this had been a novel that I had to read, and not the reality.

In crime novels, crimes are taken for granted. Without a crime nor the police, there isn’t a novel. That’s why today I recommend CALLE DEL CARMEN, 21 (‘Carmen Street, 21’), by Carmen Cuevas, an author discovered through our imprint SBeBooks, which was turned into a paper edition by the small but brave publishing house adaliz ediciones. They’ve just confirmed us that they’re already on its second printing, as the first one has been sold out. I encourage you to read it, especially to readers of this genre, because it will hook you and entertain you, and it has nothing to envy to many well-known authors of the genre.

You’ll find below the plotline and it would be great if it could be one of your summer reads, because you readers are the ones that help us make true the dreams of authors that, like Carmen, deserve a place in the publishing world. I also take the chance to congratulate the work done by adaliz ediciones, because it’s not easy to start a publishing house with good criteria and reprintings. So, lots of luck and encouragement from our end, and we’ll keep helping you build new voices:

There wasn’t a breeze of fresh air; it was going to be another bad day. Inspector Cabarga’s marriage is going through a rough time. He and his family need those holidays, but the unexpected discovery of a corpse in an old fishermen’s neighborhood is going to change everything in a way that he cannot imagine. No one missed that body until the smell of putrefaction started to be annoying and, nonetheless, the police found next to it a good amount of money. Too much money for anyone to just leave behind. Once again, Cabarga will find out that not many things are as they seem, and that what’s possible transcends our own imagination. A thrilling novel where reality shows its hardest and most human side, and where lives intertwine and exceed fiction. The best of the book is in each of its pages, and when you reach the last one, its characters will be forever in you.

I confess that, ever since I was a little kid, I’ve liked romantic movies and books, even those that were a tiny bit cheesy –I was addicted to romantic relationships that seemed impossible, and that always ended up being possible. Typical stories that reminded me of the classic Romeo and Juliet; love stories between two different social classes, like Pretty Woman, or the typical story about a nerdy girl who isn’t that pretty and falls in love with the bad handsome guy of her class. How many stories like that have we read and seen? We do it over and over again, because we love them and because there are many lovers of love, and these stories keep moving us.

That’s why this week I have the pleasure to recommend a novel that follows this pattern, a modern Romeo & Juliet set in our century and written by a really young author, Paula Amor, whose novel has managed to be #1 in Amazon for several weeks already. Planeta has decided to publish it under the name PEDAZOS DE TI (‘Pieces of you’) and it tells a love story that shouldn’t have been…but that it was. That kind of love that you never forget in life and that we love reading, especially in summer, when everything is amusing and full of possibilities.

Devil and Abbie shouldn’t have met, they weren’t meant for each other, but Devil owned Abbie something that could only be paid with his whole life, so when the opportunity came up, she was more than ready to claim it. Abbie, the perfect little girl with braided hair, responsible, sensible, typical and inoffensive nerd. Who would suspect her? Devil? The bad guy, of leather jacket and trousers, leader of a rock band, addicted to everything destructive, including empty relationships.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to discover this author who has written a modern West Side Story that will hook young readers who, like me, keep enjoying this kind of stories where love always wins. A light read, very summery, by someone whose dream came true when this novel was published. We hope that she can continue to do so, because she’s got magic.

Last week, while reading El Pais, I couldn’t stop thinking about the latest Young Adult novel by Care Santos -the sequel of her book MENTIRA (‘Lies’), winner of the Edebé Prize and a huge bestseller. VERDAD (‘Truth’) deals with how Eric gets out of the juvenile center after four years interned, as he’s been absolved from the murder case of which he was unjustly accused at fourteen. In MENTIRA, you understand Eric and you want him to get out because he’s innocent, and in VERDAD you see how difficult it is to be accepted. Is that situation fair?

Reading the novel, I thought that it isn’t, nonetheless, as I read the news in El Pais about the rapist of La Paz’s neighbourhood (Madrid), I thought differently. This rapist, after raping more than 18 girls and killing two, got out of prison after 21 years behind bars, because psychologists said he was ‘sorry for it’. But he didn’t waste any time to rape and kill again. Maybe it’s an extreme case, but unfortunately it is not isolated. No one should be judged by the same pattern, but it’s difficult to ‘forgive’ someone that kills and rapes -I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel it, although everyone can change and improve for the better, thus everyone should have the right to a second chance. In my opinion, the elevator rapist didn’t deserve it, but Eric does, he’s a young and innocent kid and in the novel, you see how tough reality is when he tries to get back into society. It’s hard for him not to fall back again into delinquency when his surroundings want him to, as it is getting back in track with his studies, finding a job, getting away from his neighbourhood…Xenia helped him overcome some barriers that he thought were unbreakable, but… will love be strong enough to overcome the difficulties now?

Care Santos talks again about a prickly matter that has to be dealt with carefully, and she doesn’t generalize, even if it’s hard. Nonetheless, Eric deserves that chance, and he fights for it. An example to follow, without a doubt, and I wish this novel becomes a reason to reflect upon these kind of matters, both for young readers and grown-ups.

Today is the first day of holidays for the kids. Summer is here. I’ve got such good memories of my childhood summers: together with my siblings, on the beach and on the mountain with my parents and grandparents. We’ve always been a family that has enjoyed doing things together, and as I’ve got unique grandpas and grandmas who have always wanted to spend these times with us, I remember fondly the first two weeks of August in Sant Pol. I still go on holidays there, and I remember eating altogether in a large table from one of those hotels of this fantastic Maresme’s town. We shared the beach, meals, and a terrace in front of the sea, where we spoke, despite being teenagers, with all the grown-ups at the table. We lived fantastic and unique moments, unforgettable to me. When I’m there and I breath the smell of the sea, these fond and happy memories come to me. I’ve got plenty of them, and I keep them safe in my mind.

In the summer, we always went to the cinema or to the Tibidabo’s amusement park. If we went with our grandparents, we had to go by tram and the adventure was even greater. Even though I’ve never liked fairground rides, I must confess that Tibidabo was a nice park with charisma. When I read the latest novel by Sílvia Tarragó, T’HO DONARÉ TOT, published by Columna, I had these small moments of longing, and I also immersed myself in a story I didn’t know anything about -and I’ve loved learning about it. Who invested in this park? How did everything start? We’ve got the history of Tibidabo and its characters: two of the daughters of one of the workers from its urbanization in the first decades of the 20th century. On the background, there is a cosmopolitan and precocious Barcelona and, at the top of the cake, a story filled with love, intrigue and drama.

This is the perfect novel for this summer, for those who want to be addicted to a novel where it’s told the history of one of the oldest amusement parks of the world (not only of Spain or Europe!), along with a great family fiction that will hook you from the first page. For any reader of SUEÑOS A MEDIDA and HABITACIONES CERRADAS, you should read Sílvia Tarragó if you haven’t discovered her yet. Hers is a strong feminine voice that steps on the gas pedal of the bumper car in order to get to a wider audience. They’re captivated by how well she combines history and fiction. Don’t miss it!