“Eartheater is a riveting tale, dark and visceral, that brilliantly explores structural violence against women. It will haunt you long after the last page is turned.”

“On the outskirts of a great Latin American city, a woman communicates with the earth through mouthfuls, which is how she knows about the hidden, terrible violence that accumulates in an abandoned neighborhood. She has a gift that is also a curse, as is often the case. Dolores Reyes’s writing is visceral and urgent, but it also forms part of the most powerful traditions of the fantastical and the detective novel while contemplating gender violence with incredible lucidity.”

“Reyes crafts an alluring, unsettling edge to the plot developments, including the narrator’s first sexual experiences and the city’s pervasive violence, by collapsing the narrator’s age and the passage of time, preserving aspects of her young girlhood and her angst-ridden teenage years as she grows older. Reyes’s coming-of-age portrait stands out for her unflinching look at a teen’s exploration of sex and death.”

“A powerful story whose narrator wields brutally honest observations on the intersections of class, poverty, and gender. Reyes’ debut is a strong addition to the growing body of Latin American crime fiction in the U.S. market. A stirring genre blend of fantasy and crime fiction that combines graceful prose and magic realism.”

“In a voice that is terse, blunt, and biting, the narrator reckons with the impact of her visions on her health and relationships, as she witnesses more and more the ways fear and violence shape the experiences of the women in her community. Compelling and visceral, Reyes’ debut combines mystery and coming-of-age to evoke the stories of the victims of femicide.”

“Argentine writer Dolores Reyes’ supernatural debut is a tender, aching, sexy thing about ghosts and the people left behind trying to reach them. (...) There’s an intimacy, an intensity that Reyes curdles throughout with an enchanter’s touch. The result is a book about women and power and what happens to the women without it.”

“In a style that is as deeply poetic as it is visceral, Cometierra follows in the footsteps of such fundamental authors as Juan Rulfo and Sara Gallardo. It reinvents, shining with its own light and a singular voice, the universe of the outskirts of Buenos Aires.”

“Dolores Reyes’s harsh and sensitive lyricism explodes in your hands, reader. Argentine crime literature, or, should I say, literature in general, has found the heroine we were missing, one that the earth speaks to on the poisoned plain, and one that also has a brilliant prose. With Cometierra, Reyes reigns.”

“A rising star of Argentine lit offers a provocatively offbeat coming-of-age story about a teen girl with the ability to solve crimes by ingesting the dirt on which the newly dead or missing once walked.”

“This brief and original novel is, in its conception, a punch to the chest—and, curiously enough, at the same time it is pure light. ”

“Reyes writes wonderfully in her brief and lyrical book. In her novel that is not “spectacular” but that is nonetheless incredibly important. Reading her reminded me greatly of Elena Garro and Marvel Moreno, of that magical realism written by women that is more hallucinatory than it is magical, and that moreover is committed to inventing different ways of showing the worst of reality: one that can’t be fought with literature but with respect and determination. ”

“One of the best debuts, and one of the most complex and powerful novels in recent times.”

“From the first line, Cometierra plunges its readers into a dark, fascinating universe and poses challenges through its dialogue with this time.”

“If the Subconscious (in writing?) has no contradiction principle, there cannot be any differences between the living and the dead. Cometierra is on that edge, brazen and wild and full of powerful lyricism that succeeds at a major challenge: renewing the voice of the choir with great skill and sensitivity. Dolores Reyes is its corifeo, Cometierra: an endearing novel that has it all.”

“Dolores Reyes crushes the stupor of the local literary scene with Cometierra (Eartheater)—her first novel—constructed with notable narrative honesty and poetic brutality.”

“Cometierra (Eartheater) has the qualities to remain as an example of literature that is authentic, truly authentic, long into the future.”

“Why do we need to read this book? Because there has never been a book like it (as magical, as impossible) about the scourge of femicides. In a poetic and brave book, Dolores Reyes dares to take the scourge of murders of women in Argentina to a stage soaked in the tradition of magical realism. The result is equal parts sweet and dark.”

“A novel that is full of darkness, but also full of poetry, and full of the unstoppable strength required to keep going no matter what. ”

“It’s a book of fiction and not a thesis, so entertaining and well-written that it strengthens its own condemnation and social component, and it opens up our imaginary delinquent mythology, beautiful and vital, irreducible, a wondrous mutant chorus that reminds us that the poor are there, that the murdered are there, the inequalities are there too, and that by merely eating earth—or walking down the street, down certain streets—we can understand, break the silence, ask for justice, and continue living. ”

“The award for best elevator pitch goes to this novel: an Argentinian woman is drawn to eating earth and when she does, she gets visions of missing and murdered people. It becomes part magical realist murder-mystery but more importantly, it’s an exploration of the people who are left behind and forgotten by society.”

“By combining magical realism and the detective genre, Dolores Reyes infuses a mixture of dreamlike and clinical precision into the novel, which keeps her from slipping into the sordid when giving a human face to those who are missing and the people around them. (...) By combining their language, their mistakes, and their impulses, the novelist gives a marvelous account of that vague moment when the violence of the world can keep people from fully entering adulthood. Where games, parties, and love are some of the walls holding back the assaults of an increasingly harsh reality.”

“Written as a dark folk tale, this profound debut novel raises questions of collective grief, reparative writing and the relation between knowledge and justice.”

“This book is so cool (...) Punk noir meets surrealism and ancient folklore for a work unlike any other.”

“Crisp and haunted, Reyes’s prose captures the interior life of a girl as she faces the immense passion and devastation of womanhood. (...) A raw and vital literary debut, Eartheater takes an unwavering and visceral look at systems of power through the perspective of a young woman caught in the crosshairs.”

“One of the most outstanding Latin American short novels of the year.”