Bookish Brews Snapshot
Maria the Wanted by V. Castro
While working at a maquiladora to make enough money to cross the border for a better life, one day Maria's boss sells out his employees to a group of vampires. Taking pity on her, one of the vampires turns her into a vampire instead of killing her, forcing her to leave her home and family to start a new life.
💀 Dark Content 💪 Feminist 🧭 Immigrant Experience 🔥 Steamy
- Genre: Paranormal, Speculative Fiction
Book Review
I went into reading Maria the Wanted with no expectations and somehow it still managed to surprise me with it’s beautiful myth making atmosphere and it’s unwavering rejection of colonialism and power. We get to span decades alongside Maria as she turns into a local legend and follow her as she forges the path expected of a vampire, wandering alone for many years before becoming tired of being immortal alone. But V. Castro manages to do all of this while firmly humanizing Maria at every turn. Because vampires are not mystical creatures outside of understanding, they are the way that they are because they were human first.
Maria the Wanted is about a young woman named Maria who works at a maquiladora and while she’s working one day, her boss sells off the employees to a group of vampires. The one who finds her takes pity on her and instead of killing her, turns her into a vampire herself. Maria, instantly knowing that her life is over, runs away from the life she once knew and begins her new life undead, first by taking revenge on those who hurt her and then by taking revenge on those who hurt other women. Eventually finding other vampires to do good and exist with, she learns that power corrupts the same way everywhere, even in the supernatural.
The most unexpected delight of this book is the myth making. Maria’s story is told over such a long period of time that it somehow feels like she becomes legend right before your eyes. It’s almost impossible to believe because every piece of her story is so human, yet the streets begin to whisper her name. And getting to read it from Maria’s perspective created a beautiful exchange between her and the people. They grew to take care of each other: Maria saving women from the powerful men who endanger us and the women giving her blood as a thank you. We get the expected path of a vampire, living out the lonely years of wandering alone with Maria, but the loneliness is flipped on it’s head as Maria pours into her community. Because when you’re giving and caring for others, it’s hard to fully feel alone.
In addition to criticisms of power and abuse, V. Castro doesn’t shy away from criticisms of borders. When Maria is a human, her plan was to work at the maquiladora to make enough money to eventually cross over the border for a better life with her husband. She does not shy away from criticism of border imperialism. Maria works at a maquiladora, which are largely tariff-free and duty-free factories that exist in a sort of limbo between borders. I say limbo because, even though maquiladoras are physically within borders, they are untethered by the labor laws of the land on which they reside, making them rife with what would normally be labor violations. This is the backdrop in which her boss sells the employees to be slaughtered. After surviving, she spends her life watching the rise in xenophobia in the USA throughout multiple presidencies, reflecting about how it affects her on either side of the border.
I also really appreciated how Maria’s initial fight against the people hurting women feels similar to how I think we’re going to save the world: through mutual aid and direct action. And while I think a lot of the work at the scale that we’re able to do it today is largely treating the symptom, it’s work that’s incredibly necessary and lifesaving. As she grows, she takes on different roles, just as we take up different roles in the fight as we grow. As Maria becomes able to tackle more of the root cause, we get to see that the problem is the same all the way up the chain of corruption. This makes it easy to see what the problem is and how to fight it, even though it’s bigger and badder. It’s a sharp reminder that, no matter where you are in the fight, no matter what you’re able to contribute, the plan is always the same:
Reject power, fight for the people, push back against hierarchies.
