Life’s a bitch. That’s why you’ve got to rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth. A linked story collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny fiction from Mexico
In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, 13 Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life as they fight, sew, cheat, cry and lie their way through their tangled circumstances. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to survive, telling their stories in bold, unapologetic voices.
At once social critique and black comedy, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers.
About the Author
Dahlia de la Cerda is a Mexican writer and activistAbout the Translator
Julia Sanches has translated close to 30 books into English from Spanish, Portuguese and CatalanAbout the Translator
Heather Cleary is an award-winning translator of poetry and prose, based in Mexico CityA blisteringly urgent collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. Extremely funny but deadly serious, it absolutely bangs from the first page to the last
— The 2025 judges on Reservoir Bitches
Reservoir Bitches is a blisteringly urgent collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. It absolutely bangs from the first page to the last. It’s extremely funny but deadly serious and we loved the energy and flair of the dual translators’ approach. It packs an enormous political and linguistic punch but is also subtle, revelatory and moving about the ways in which these women hustle, innovate, survive or don’t, in a world of labyrinthine dangers. This book weaves the riotous testimony of the living and the dead to create an expletive-rich feminist blast of Mexican literature.
Barry Pierce, Big Issue
‘Praise must be heaped upon the translators, Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary, who borrow from London street slang to approximate De La Verda’s Mexican street slang, effectively allowing this translation to flow and sing in English. Reservoir Bitches doesn’t shy from portraying Mexico’s gritty underbelly but, much like her fellow countrywoman Fernanda Melchor, De La Verda’s stories scrutinise Mexican society with great humour. It is a remarkably good debut collection.’
Britta Stromeyer, Necessary Fiction
‘With sharp social criticism and sardonic humor, de la Cerda balances brutality with compelling portrayals of characters whom readers may otherwise be tempted to condemn. While the author’s casual language and profanity may distract some readers, her alluring style creates space for her complex themes to unfold, solidifying Reservoir Bitches as a work of narrative art and a powerful testament to diverse experiences and stories that deserve to be heard.’
Caroline Tracey, Los Angeles Review of Books
‘Where the book can fail to paint complete portraits of its characters, however, Sanches and Cleary’s translation manages impressively to enrich them. In Spanish, some readers critiqued de la Cerda’s narrators for speaking in a caricature of Sinaloan regional style. But the translators’ rendering of the characters’ brassy and slang-filled voices is pitch-perfect: they find English phrases and words that reflect the Spanish attitude and profanity, but they never sacrifice sentence structure to do so; they translate the characters’ modes of speaking, rather than treating their speech as a collection of idioms.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘[de la Cerda’s] tactics succeed in creating the enchanting feeling that one is sitting across from each narrator, being told their stories as a close confidante […] The author’s demand that we bear witness to the senseless murders, in all their gruesomeness, of these bright young women is sobering and commendable.’
