Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Argentina) – Published 2024

Nieva is an exciting new Argentinian writer of speculative fiction. This, his debut novel, has been described as ‘gaucho-punk’, but is so unparalleled that it requires its own genre. Some narratives defy being described in a review summary; such is this.

Here’s an attempt..
The year is 2272, and the planet’s polar ice caps have thawed, literally requiring newly drawn maps, and that is how the book begins, with a map of what used to be South America. The planet is now home to regions such as the Pampas Caribbean and the Antarctic Caribbean. Mutant species roam the land. Businesses make a fortune by betting on the spread of various infectious diseases. Meanwhile, in a small town in Argentina, there lives a human-mosquito hybrid named Dengue Boy..

Dengue Boy is bullied at school, and the actions of the worst of those bullies, El Dulce, prompt Dengue Boy into a transformation, an aggressive one, yet not the one his single struggling mother had feared.

That’s enough.. no need for anything more in the way of a summary. The idea of which is to enthuse potential readers, and not roam into spoiler territory. Aspirant readers should have decided by now.

Throughout the maddest of moments, and there are plenty of them, certain things stand out; the most affluent profiting from human suffering, the devastation of the planet, and economic inequality. Amidst all the insanity there’s principled anger at the core of the story, and an underlying sadness.

The novel began life as a short story, for which it won the O Henry Award for Neiva in 2022. I enjoyed this a lot, but will offer a criticism; there is a time after the explosive beginning, just before half way through, when the sense of insane lunacy lessens, which leads me to think that the most impactful length of this memorable book might have been between the two formats, short story and full novel.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5