Reservoir Bitches: Bloody, Bold, and Brilliant!

Posted On August 10, 2025

Hi Readers! Every August I read a few books for Women in Translation month. Most often, it’s books translated from Japanese. But, every once in a while, I read books translated from around the world, because that’s the whole point of Women in Translation month! This month I picked up Reservoir Bitches written by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary. Reading this book of short stories was an intense experience.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~~

A debut linked story collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny fiction from Mexico.

Life’s a bitch. That’s why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth.

In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life as they fight, sew, skirt, 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.

~~TRIGGER WARNING~~

Gendered violence, femicide, sexual assault, reproductive trauma, self-managed abortion, drug use, organized crime, hitwomen, sex work, transphobia, police brutality, systemic exploitation, poverty, state violence, psychological trauma, suicide, self-harm, forced migration, deportation, and PTSD.

~~THOUGHTS~~

When we live a sheltered life, we take so much for granted. But, reading books across borders really helps to understand the truth about different cultures, economic backgrounds, ages and occupations. The theme of this book is clear from page one: Violence on Women. Each story, inter-linked, is a story about indifference towards hate, cruelty, violence to women’s lives and deaths, particularly in Mexico. The language is unpolished, straight shooting, gruelling and will leave you in a state of shocked silence. The crimes; murder, rape, mutilation, torture, are written without holding anything back. The writing is almost as horrid as the actual state of the crimes. It’s not for the faint hearted.

Poverty takes away so much from a person that it forces women to theft, wherein they could be murdered. It forces women to become a tool to protect a drug lord’s daughter, wherein they could be tortured or raped or murdered. It forces women to sell their bodies, wherein they could be raped or murdered. It forces women to take the bus at midnight because that’s all they could afford, wherein they get gangraped, bruised, broken and murdered. It forces women to do anything just so they could earn their livelihood, but one wrong man, and it’s their life that becomes the loss.

“Mothers searching for their daughters. Cities covered with pink crosses. Cities covered with posters of missing women. Deserts of bone. Lakes that swallow women whole. Dead women emerging from the rivers, from the sewers, from the sands of the desert. Corpses dumped in the garbage, in black trash bags. Food for the dogs. Disposable women. Decapitated women. Strangled women. Dismembered women. Raped women.“

And yet! In all these stories, you will only find resilience in all these strong, brilliant, opinionated, independent women. Their voices are still made up of humour despite the injustices. Their days are still made up of hope despite the depression. Their lives are still worth it despite every struggle. Without this balance of extreme violence and candid strength, women wouldn’t survive, and that’s the perfect way in which the book is written.

I have rated Reservoir Bitches written by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary at 3.5/5 stars!

Until next time,