BookView Review

Torres De la Rocha’s prequel to Mortal Vengeance fuses dark academia, Dominican folklore, and psychological horror into a brutal portrait of institutional cruelty. The halls of Excelsior Academy gleam with marble and stained glass, but beneath the polished façade lies something far darker. Discipline is worshiped, individuality is punished, and silence is the only currency that keeps anyone safe. Seventeen-year-old Julián Díaz struggles beneath Catholic guilt, family sacrifice, and relentless humiliation from the teachers meant to guide him. But when visions of the Grim Cojuelo begin haunting him, Julián realizes the monster stalking Excelsior may not be born of folklore alone. It may be something the school itself created.

Torres De la Rocha transforms institutional cruelty into psychological horror with unsettling precision: he builds Excelsior Academy like a cathedral of repression, where authority figures weaponize guilt, humiliation, and religion. The novel’s greatest strength is Julián himself—a painfully believable protagonist whose slow emotional collapse feels inevitable. Dominican folklore is woven naturally into the narrative, turning the Grim Cojuelo into both a supernatural threat and a symbol of inherited shame, rage, and social violence. Fans of dark academia, psychological horror, and folklore-driven thrillers will find a brutal, emotionally charged descent into the making of a monster.

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