BookView Review

De la Rocha’s audacious sequel returns to the survivors of the Grim Cojuelo massacre, now unlikely celebrities on The Real Scholars of Excelsior Academy. Three years after the bloodshed, Melissa, Alex, Mónika, and Mario are attempting to rebuild their lives under the relentless scrutiny of television cameras. But when long-missing Lucía Salgado rejoins the cast and a masked killer resurfaces, old wounds reopen, and the pursuit of ratings becomes dangerously entangled with revenge.

De la Rocha brings considerable wit and inventiveness to the premise, skewering an entertainment industry that treats emotional suffering as marketable spectacle. Ruthlessly ambitious Harper makes a formidable antagonist, orchestrating rivalries and exploiting vulnerabilities with chilling indifference. The returning characters remain compellingly flawed, particularly Alex, whose fierce loyalty and manipulative instincts complicate his pursuit of Melissa’s forgiveness. The Dominican setting adds cultural richness, while carnival folklore lends the escalating violence an unsettling symbolic dimension. Inventive shifts between conventional prose, confessionals, broadcast footage, and online commentary cleverly expose the gulf between lived experience and manufactured narratives. The sprawling ensemble and theatrical excess occasionally strain the pacing, but the novel’s dark humour and sharp social observations maintain their appeal.

A provocative, blood-soaked spectacle brimming with psychological tension, wickedly inventive twists, and biting social commentary.

***