THEY THOUGHT THEY BURIED US

A sophomore is about to find out what happens when a dream school is really a nightmare.

Yuiza Rivera-Vásquez (she/her and they/them) is accepted to a prestigious, predominantly white, girls’ boarding school, Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy, which is located upstate, hours from their home in the Bronx. She would rather stay home and make horror movies with her friends, but Mami is insisting she go and pursue a bigger future. After arriving on campus, it doesn’t take long for Yuiza and her mom to notice the statues of Christopher Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and Robert E. Lee, not to mention the school motto, “Manifest your destiny,” and the students of color doing service jobs for work-study. At night, wrapped in a Puerto Rican flag their mother gifted them, Yuiza starts to have dreams that point to the school’s long, sordid past. At times, the story is framed like a movie script (complete with alternate endings) from one of Yuiza’s beloved horror films. Against a mildly supernatural backdrop, Ramos demonstrates and comments on the worst elements of white supremacy, past and present. The claustrophobic setting is well executed, the social commentary around historical injustices is compelling, and the well-drawn characters include strong Puerto Rican representation. The messaging isn’t always seamlessly incorporated into the story, however, and experienced genre readers may delight in—or feel less than surprised by—the horror tropes that the final act leans heavily into.

Strongly atmospheric but wavering in its execution.