★★★★★

Entering To Our Untamed Core by Sonido Reyes feels like stepping directly into a fighting arena. This high-stakes, brutal gauntlet of a novel demands your full attention from the opening moves.

Reyes pulls no punches. The religious trauma is visceral and unavoidable. Had I not read the content warnings beforehand, I might’ve tapped out in the first few pages. While the prose is highly accessible, the level of violence hits hard and might overwhelm younger readers.

Once you’re in, the world-building is spectacular. Comparisons to The Hunger Games and The Sunbearer Trials are apt, but Reyes has engineered a completely unique battlefield. The story skillfully blends sci-fi and alt-history, using the Afuereños to represent real-world civilizations fractured by Spanish colonization. Reading a sci-fi/fantasy story rooted in Mexican and Central American lore is deeply refreshing, especially with El Centro standing in as the villainous European colonizers.

The battles our characters face start well before El Torneo actually begins. Temo’s struggle to shed his religious programming and the terror of hiding his true identity from a hostile regime hit incredibly close to home. And Reyes ensures their trans-masc protagonist commands the spotlight. Seeing Temo serve as the central love interest for two rivals, Ollin and Socoyote, is a massive victory for queer storytelling. He’s the champion of his own narrative, securing the center stage he deserves.

To Our Untamed Core is a ferocious fight for identity and survival. With its unflinching exploration of religious trauma, spectacular world-building, and a trans-masc protagonist who fiercely commands his own narrative, Reyes walks away with another triumphant win.