Bruno Blog

I have to admit that the tickling you get when watching a horror film, just when you know something is about to happen that will force you to scream, is that little something that keeps you hooked to the screen. The same happens with a book, although it is somehow more difficult to create that atmosphere that images can give you, unless the writer is a master in the subject. Well, I am proud to say that Malenka Ramos is such a master. She proved it with her LO QUE HABITA DENTRO, which gave her the distinction of being the Spanish Stephen King, and now, with EL QUE SUSURRA she manages to have the reader under an avalanche of thrills from beginning to end. I assure you there were moments where I preferred reading the novel accompanied because I was too afraid to do so by myself as the tiniest noise startled me. I got into this novel like I have seldom experienced. Those who love this genre are going to love this, as long as they have a pillow nearby to make hold of it.

A little town, Point Spirit, with a sawmill, is going to experience a series of changes that will forever change their lives. A death at three o clock in the morning, an old hall clock that stops at that precise time at the Morelli sisters’ house. The night turns darker and Mrs Owens heard a knock on her door. The sheriff was looking at a light by the sawmill, he could not manage to sleep that night. And in a recently rented cabin, Jim Allen, the writer, slept like a baby, and that’s why he didn’t see the shadowy figure that went by his window. Penny had died precisely at three o’clock in the morning, when it all started.

I can’t tell you anything because I would spoil a great deal of the book, but you can deny that this tiny summary draws your attention into the novel. An addictive read for the summer that I am sure will have you holding your breath and eager to know more about this asturian writer that deserves a chance to grow bigger and expand her talents. There aren’t many women writers that focus on this genre in our country, and I think they deserve all our support, because it is not easy to make it in a generally masculine field. So, female readers and female publishers of the world, let’s come together and give the chance to a female writer who masters a thrill like nobody else and who will reach an immense audience if we push for her, starting now.

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.

This past month, a case on the Marist Brothers of Sants has been unveiled, against teachers that abused their students at some point. I think it’s so incredible that cases like this still exist, that when I read the new book by Malenka Ramos, QUIMERA. LAS EDADES BÁRBARAS, I couldn’t help but link it to this news, because maybe in our minds, or at least in mine, I always thought of cases like this one as something from the past. Like in Anton’s case, the main character in QUIMERA, who in the 40s, when punishments, isolation cells and even abusing children was normal in boarding schools and orphanages, like the one in San Torbe, where he lives, and where he promised himself to go back when he was a grown man, and tear down the brick walls that had caused him so much pain, and build QUIMERA: a home for all, no matter the condition, sexuality or inclinations. Forty years later Antón writes a letter to each one of the colleagues he lived with, to try to bring them back to QUIMERA so they wouldn’t forget the good times they spent there, because those also existed, and to keep the promise they made when they were kids.

Drama with some erotic hints that shows us how LOVE is above all, and repression isn’t always able to soothe our most free and revolutionary side. You have to be brave, that’s true, but we have to know how to face every moment in life and try to see the positive part in each one of them, as hidden as it may seem. These young men and women have terrible memories of their time in the orphanage, but at the same time, experiences that go deeper than love or friendship. This union makes them strong, because friendship is so valuable that, when properly managed, it can be a great power to destroy even those bad memories that seem to be tattooed on their hearts. Will Antón be able to bring them all together? Will we find out what it is that happened in San Torbe and changed their life forever?

A great novel, a prequel of the trilogy VENGANZA, which Malenka published quite successfully. The readers that are already Quimeric will understand a lot of things that were left unsolved in VENGANZA, and the ones that are not, will want to read the trilogy after reading this one, which is classified as erotic, but has such a strong plot, that it’s the perfect cocktail for strong emotions and brave readers.