American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828

Just looking at the first line, the setting is a place that’s threatening to tip over into the unnatural. The uncanny atmosphere is eerily present, like something terrible you can’t look away from, and in fact, want to read more of. Here’s how the description achieves this: The juxtaposition of a tourist-like welcome and the death imagery that follows Very physical descriptions of “unearthed bones” and “a city thrumming” Things are given agency that shouldn’t have agency: the city, dead children Intentions and desires are disconnected from people like bodies without a soul With carefully chosen language and imagery, the blurb transports us to a Buenos Aires that’s teeming with the dead. It’s what ties the short stories together. We don’t need to know about individual characters or plot lines because the setting is described so intentionally, it makes us feel uncomfortable with our own curiosity for this dark place: what ungodly thing is happening in this city? And when you make your readers feel something, you know your Amazon readers will hit “Buy now.”