- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 278
- ISBN
- 9781951971571
- Price
- $20
- Publication Date
- October 6, 2026
Bruja’s Nest
Brenda LaTorre
The Love Witch meets Monstrilio in Bruja’s Nest, where a young woman’s abuse history and ambition erupt into body horror, class war, and monstrous motherhood.
Raised amidst poverty, alcoholism, and sexual abuse, Yolanda is determined to seize control of her future. When she starts work as an indentured servant on the Fernández De la Rosa estate, she realizes she can secure a place as the lady of the house: with a spell from the local bruja, she can trick their naive son into getting her pregnant.
But the fertility ritual—piercing her flesh, tucking a rooster’s heart inside herself—begets more than she expected. Yolanda’s body swells and seethes with infection, her few allies dwindle, and she delivers a massive egg under the watchful eye of Santa Muerte, the Mexican folk saint of death. The hacienda where she’s been promised a permanent home is full of blasphemies, secrets, and bodies, and the family she’s tied herself to is loyal only to wealth and power.
But Yolanda will do anything to protect her child, who deserves the love and safety she never had. Even if everyone insists he’s a monster.
Praise for Bruja’s Nest
“Bruja’s Nest is a potent and startling literary incantation that invokes the most powerfully complex elements of magic, motherhood, and unflinchingly grotesque body horror. This is an uncompromising and deeply affecting work exquisitely scrawled in blood, fury, and pain.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
“Bruja’s Nest is 100% twisty fun! It’s Succession with gristle, the [chicken] heart of darkness, and Shirley Jackson if only she could have watched telenovelas. There’s bizarro bravado on every page. ¡Felicidades, Brenda LaTorre! Sequel!” —Nancy Holder, NYT bestselling author and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
“Tense, boldly written, and fiercely addictive, Brenda LaTorre’s debut novel Bruja’s Nest is part class war telenovela, part shocking body horror, and every bit as wicked and biting as its conniving and irrepressible heroine. I am a major fan.” —Robert Levy, author of The Glittering World and No One Dies from Love
“Bruja’s Nest spins the gripping twisted tale of Yolanda, who is banished to servitude in a remote Mexican town, but forges her own rogue route to independence. At first hoping to marry money like her telenovela heroine, the fiercely determined Yolanda navigates a wealthy family of backbiting vipers, then stumbles into the notorious ‘nest’ of the local bruja. ‘Life won’t hand you power just like that,’ Yolanda comes to realize, ‘you have to snatch it from destiny’s hands. Especially if you’re a woman.’ Entertaining and enlightening, this novel re-imagines mythic ideals of motherhood, marriage, money, and magic. Brenda LaTorre is a bold new voice in horror fiction and Bruja’s Nest marks her mesmerizing debut.” —Elizabeth Searle, author of The Drama Room and Girl Held in Home: Novel
“Bruja’s Nest is more than a horror tale. It’s a chilling statement about the human condition. Here, we have a woman who trades her soul for the life she craves. And Santa Muerte responds as only she can—with gifts soaked in blood and consequence. Bruja’s Nest is an intoxicating tale that feeds off the darkest human emotions: lust, envy, and greed. Proceed at your own risk!” —John Florio, author of Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley
“Gripping from the very start, Bruja’s Nest is an unflinching tale of desperation and womanhood. The body horror is seared into my brain. I loved it.” —Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, author of The Mean Ones and What Feeds Below
