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There's no point explaining that the birds aren't what they seem, though anyone could realize if they looked into their eyes, straight into those fixed, crazed eyes begging to be set free.

This is a collection of two halves: the first half is excellent with some of the best stories I've read from Enriquez, including the title story which is sheer brilliance. But the latter selection feel B list: they're not bad but the writing feels a bit more pedestrian and the tales themselves fall into a type that we expect from this writer and other women from Latin America who are using Gothic and horror tropes to convey political and social commentary.

What makes the first set of stories so exciting for me is the way they pack an emotional punch alongside the expected imagination. Rape, femicide, drug use, street violence, migration all appear in various guises alongside ghostly and monstrous presences, marginalised voices and communities.

There's a particularly interesting metamorphic strand which uses Latin American rather than classical myths in some of the stories, displacing what usually pass for origin tales. And there's a dark humour at work such as in 'Metamorphosis' where a woman decries the way no-one has told her how her post-menopausal body will become alien to her.

For me, the truly excellent stories more than made up for the lacklustre fillers - and there are some stunners here.

Many thanks to Granta for an ARC via NetGalley