Blurb:
| Four friends, three days, two lovers, and one very haunted theme park. On a stormy Halloween weekend, Ray enlists his best friends Joaquin, Sofia, and Isabella to help him make a documentary of Malicia, the abandoned theme park off the coast of the Dominican Republic where his mother and brother died in a mass killing thirteen years ago. But what should be an easy weekend trip quickly turns into something darker because all four friends have come to Malicia for their own Ray has come to Malicia to find out the truth of the massacre that destroyed his family. Isabella has come to make art out of Ray’s tragedy for her own personal gain. Sofia has come to support her friends in one last adventure before she goes to med school. Joaquin already knows the truth of the Malicia Massacre and he has come to betray his crush Ray to the evil that made the park possible. With an impending hurricane and horrors around every corner, they all struggle to face the deadly storm and their own inner demons. But the deadliest evil of all is the ancient malignant presence on the island. |
The story is told through alternating first-person perspectives
between the four main characters; Raymundo, Joaquin, Sofia, and Isabella. The
friends are traveling to spend Halloween weekend in Raymundo’s family’s
abandoned, horror-themed amusement park, Malicia. The park was closed after a
mysterious mass murder took place, claiming the lives of Raymundo’s mother and
brother. The island on which Malicia was built is only accessible by boat, and there’s
a massive hurricane headed right toward them, so good luck trying to escape if
anything goes wrong. You may question the teens’ decision to go to what is very
obviously a cursed murder island during a hurricane, but each of the four have
their own reason for being there. Raymundo wants to try and summon his
brother’s spirit, Isabella wants to film a documentary about the island, and
Joaquin wants to sacrifice Raymundo because the cult he belongs to told him to.
(Don’t worry, that’s revealed early in the story, so it’s hardly a spoiler.)
Sofia is there because her friends are,
and because she very firmly doesn’t believe in the supernatural or scare
easily.
I think the characters were somewhat underdeveloped and one-note,
and the exposition felt awkward at times. But honestly, the characters were
just an excuse to explore the super cool setting. I mean, an abandoned,
horror-themed, cursed, amusement park? Could there be a more perfect location
for a horror story? And Santos clearly put a lot of thought into describing
Malicia in loving detail. There’s an entire map in the beginning of the book
(and I’m a sucker for maps) showing the different areas of the park, like
Serial Springs, Paranormal Place, and Creature Canyon. I also liked the ride
descriptions, which all sounded like tons of fun.
Malicia strongly reminded meof the island setting in Umineko
When They Cry, where the characters are trapped by a typhoon on a
remote island that is slowly overtaken by the supernatural (and everyone there
dies horrible deaths). As both stories progress, the scares move from strange
shadows and murders that could’ve been committed by a human to horror that’s
clearly the work of demonic forces.
I enjoyed how the author not only used Spanish frequently
throughout the book (which I appreciate that the publisher did
not italicize) but words and phrases specific to the Dominican. The friends
name their little group the Quisqueya Club, a word of Taíno origin that refers to the
inhabitants of Hispaniola. Raymundo and Joaquin refer to each other as pana and
tiguere, the friends informally greet each other with “Qué lo que” (what’s
up?), Raymundo calls his parents Mai and Pai, and he admits to himself that
he’s a Jablador (liar). Many of the monsters are also specific to the Dominican
like Los Biembiens
and La Jupia. The four
friends also prepare Dominican food like mangú
and yaniqueques.
Malicia an incrediblya spooky, gory, fun read. Even though it’s a 300+ page book, it felt like a quick read because the chapters are short and the suspense was able to grab my attention, although, admittedly, the story did drag a bit in the middle. The shifting viewpoints throughout the book helped build the suspense as the characters all started to become suspicious of each other. Because it was written for teens, it felt like a PG-13 horror movie with R-rated violence, which, of course, you can get away with in a book. The descriptions of mutilated bodies and rotting flesh are very graphic so this one is definitely not for the squeamish horror fan.
