Cynthia Pelayo

And then I think I briefly mentioned this in the Book Riot podcast, but it's, I'm loving it so hard that for the season, um, the, uh, oh my gosh, I'm blanking on the name of the anthology.

What Followed Us Home, I think? And it's edited by Cynthia Pelayo, but, like, if there is a horror Latina author that you like, they are probably on this list.

Mm.

It's Anne Davila Cardinal, Zoraida Cordova, who you wouldn't necessarily think of as a horror author, but also, like, Leopoldo Gout.

So.

Give the people those titles one more time.

Yeah, so the first one is Hear the Dead by Anne Davila Cardinal, and then the second is What Followed Us Home, edited by Cynthia Pelayo.

So, so good.

There is a romance element.

And then second, a book that I talked about on our fall preview, which is Something Followed Us Home, which is an anthology of Latina horror that's edited by Cynthia Pelayo, who doesn't-

Hmm

... get enough, um, shine, I don't think.

Oh, no, Cynthia, did I lose you?

I think I lost Cynthia Pelayo because I was droning on so long.

Cynthia, come back.

Oh no.

A new anthology called Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latine Horror is bringing together chilling, thought-provoking, scary stories from more than a dozen Latin American authors.

The spooky collection explores everything from the supernatural, to real-life massacres, to fears involving AI, and it's edited by Chicago's own Cynthia Pelayo, an award-winning horror novelist and poet.

In this episode of the pod, we'll talk with her about bringing this group of 17 writers together and why Latine horror is a genre to keep your eyes on.

We dove right into talking about the collection of stories, and I was curious about something I had read.

I love detective fiction, and Leopoldo Gout from, uh, who lives in New York City, wrote this fascinating meta-detective story called Luz Éter.

Ooh, love that.

So, uh, Cynthia Pelayo is a Chicago horror novelist and poet.

She's editor of this new book we've been talking about.

We are blending folklore with the ultimate devastating loss of global innocence

This brings us to Cynthia Pelayo's It Came from Neverland.

This premise absolutely grabbed me by the throat.

It is a horror retelling of Peter Pan, but Pelayo sets it against the backdrop of World War I.

That is what Schwebelin is capturing, the heavy suffocating disquiet of empty spaces.

It beautifully and terrifyingly ties together everything Cynthia Pelayo set out to prove with this curation.

A haunted house is never just a house.

Yeah, it really isn't.

No, it's not.

The scariest thought is that it's being haunted by you right now.

Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Cynthia Pelayo's incredible curation.

Keep your lights on, watch the empty spaces between your rooms, and we will see you next time.