Hollow Beasts


 
 
 PRAISE FOR ALISA LYNN VALDÉS
 The Dirty Girls Social Club
 “The feel of a night out with the girls . . . charming . . . undeniably fun.”
 —Miami Herald
 “This lively debut novel . . . reads like the Hispanic version of Waiting to Exhale.”
 —New York
 “As a guilty pleasure it ranks somewhere between Valrhona chocolate and Jimmy Choo shoes—I simply could not put it down.”
 —Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt
 “The summer’s must-have beach book.”
 —Latina
 “A fresh spin on the best-of-friends novel that’s funny, touching, and exhilarating. A winner!”
 —New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie
 “The Latina community has a rich new voice, and Valdés-Rodriguez is it.”
 —Jeffrey Kluger, coauthor of Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
 “Dirty Girls sets out to prove Latina can mean anything—Black, white, rich, poor, Spanish speaking, not Spanish speaking.”
 —Miami Herald
 
 “Valdés-Rodriguez has written an incredible first novel, told in six distinct voices and points of view.”
 —Library Journal
 “In the end, it’s the complex, finely drawn characters who make the book work.”
 —Rocky Mountain News
 “A heartfelt, fast-moving, and often funny page-turner.”
 —Booklist
 “This season’s most scrumptious book . . . a summer must.”
 —Advocate
 “Those who liked The Joy Luck Club or The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood will enjoy The Dirty Girls Social Club . . . It is heartfelt, fast moving, and often funny.”
 —Oklahoman
 “An affecting debut that takes a long, hard, and funny look at life in the US for Latina women . . . an upscale telenovela with well-drawn, charmingly flawed characters from an author who explodes some myths.”
 —Kirkus Reviews
 “Marked by fast-paced dialogue and a pop-culture sensibility, this engaging novel, each section of which is written from a different woman’s perspective, carries an unmistakable message.”
 —Book
 “The writing is strong, fluid, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.”
 —Pioneer Press
 
 “Valdés-Rodriguez’s compelling characters are enhanced by their racial identities but 
 ALSO BY ALISA LYNN VALDÉS The Feminist and the Cowboy The Three Kings The Husband Habit Dirty Girls on Top The Dirty Girls Social Club Playing with Boys Make Him Look Good Haters 
 
 
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
 Text copyright © 2023 by Alisa Lynn Valdés
 All rights reserved.
 No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
 Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
 www.apub.com
 Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
 ISBN-13: 9781662507175 (hardcover)
 ISBN-13: 9781662507168 (paperback)
 ISBN-13: 9781662507182 (digital)
 Cover design by Ploy Siripant
 Cover image: © Matilda Delves / ArcAngel; © CreativeHQ / Shutterstock; © Kilroy79 / Shutterstock; © 
 
 
 CONTENTS
 
 PROLOGUE
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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PROLOGUE Natalia had no paper and no pen. No pencil. Nothing, really. Just her rasping breath and her asthma. Just this hole in the ground where the men kept her. She and the other two. Paola, the taller one with the high cheekbones, who kept talking about how her dad was going to rescue them all. And Celia, who was short and chubby and spoke with an accent and who hugged Natalia and told her everything was going to be