Mexican-Canadian Martha Bátiz has crafted, in her first collection written in English, visceral stories with piercing and evocative qualities. She has filled her recognizable, sisterly/motherly, and imaginative characters with qualities we all hold close to our hearts, but this is powerfully juxtaposed by the uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives. Most often they are women, trapped in violent relationships, facing dangerous political situations, or learning to live with the pain of betrayal. Yet Bátiz’s stories shimmer with the emotional surge of vindication, evoking the rewards women attain after a powerful exploration of their darkest moments. As an emerging writer, Bátiz crafts her stories with qualities reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson, and Cuban author Leonardo Padura: with precision, haunting vision, and the will to survive all odds.