House of Bone and Rain

On the last day of high school in Puerto Rico, Gabe and his four closest friends learn that Bimbo's mother, María, has been shot twice in the face outside Lazer Club in Old San Juan, where she worked the door and dealt drugs for her brother Pedro. Gabe, the novel's narrator, belongs to a tight-knit brotherhood with Bimbo (whose real name is Andrés), Xavier, Tavo, and Paul, all of whom bonded as fellow outsiders after repeating fourth grade together. Gabe lost his own father to electrocution during a hurricane when he was ten, and María took him in during that grief. At the wake, Bimbo opens his mother's closed casket, pulls out a gun, and declares he will kill the people responsible. One by one, the friends place their hands on the gun resting on María's chest, silently pledging themselves to his cause.

After the burial, Bimbo disappears for weeks. He resurfaces having spent time in jail, where he met a Dominican man named José Luis who arranged for a Dominican woman named Altagracia to move in with Bimbo in a sham marriage-for-citizenship deal. In a chapter from Altagracia's perspective, readers learn she fled the Dominican Republic as a teenager after her brother stabbed their abusive father to death. She possesses spiritual gifts inherited from her grandmother Doña Ana, including the ability to sense darkness inside people. Her brother Rafa has placed her with Bimbo as a spy, instructing her to report on everything Bimbo does.

Bimbo rallies the group to follow a new doorman at Lazer Club, hoping to learn who ordered María's killing. They tail the man to a parking garage, where Bimbo interrogates him with escalating violence. The man reveals he works for Papalote, the feared drug kingpin of La Perla, a notorious neighborhood in Old San Juan. He names a bouncer called Tito as someone who might know more. Bimbo beats the man to death, arguing a living witness connected to Papalote would get them all killed.

Before they can regroup, Xavier is murdered in front of his house, his throat slashed and his eyes removed. The surviving friends gather on the walls of El Morro, a colonial fortress overlooking La Perla. Bimbo distributes beaded necklaces dedicated to Elegguá, a deity from the Yoruba religious tradition believed to open paths and offer protection, and declares they will use the approaching Hurricane María as cover to hunt down the killers. Paul refuses to participate and walks away.

Gabe confides in his girlfriend Natalia, an ambitious nursing student applying to programs in the United States. She begs him to stop, warning that vengeance against Papalote will get him killed, but Gabe silently resolves to continue.

Gabe discovers a veve, a Haitian Vodou ritual symbol associated with Barón Samedi, the spirit of death, painted on his front door. Inside, he finds his mother unconscious, pistol-whipped by a man who came looking for Gabe. The same symbol appears on Xavier's and Paul's doors. As Hurricane María arrives, Bimbo and Gabe confront Tito, the massive bouncer from Lazer Club, at his home. After a brutal fight, Bimbo shoots Tito in the knee and interrogates him. Tito provides two names: Raúl and El Brujo, Papalote's primary hitmen in La Perla. He also reveals that María had been expanding her drug operation into Papalote's territory, which got her killed. Bimbo executes Tito and performs a ritual Altagracia taught him, cutting out Tito's tongue to prevent the dead man's ghost from haunting them. They take a bag of guns from the house and wait out the hurricane.

Hurricane María devastates Puerto Rico, destroying the electrical grid and killing thousands. A dark supernatural presence accompanies the storm: Monstrous births occur across the island, unexplained deaths multiply, and shadowy figures appear. In the Dominican Republic, Altagracia's grandmother is consumed by one such entity during the storm.

In the powerless aftermath, Paul, frightened by the veve on his own door, rejoins the group. They seek out Henry, an unhoused former boat captain with a heroin addiction who disposes of bodies at the reef for Papalote. Henry confirms where Raúl and El Brujo live and reveals that Papalote's former security detail has been dismissed, leaving Papalote in his home with only a woman and possibly a child. During the drive, Bimbo confesses that his uncle Pedro is actually dead, murdered months earlier, and that María had taken over Pedro's drug operation. Bimbo admits he lied about his uncle being alive.

At the beach in La Perla, Gabe knocks Raúl unconscious. Under interrogation at Bimbo's apartment, Raúl confesses he drove the car while El Brujo shot María. He also reveals the reef's secret: Decades ago, Papalote's grandfather discovered aquatic humanoid creatures beyond the reef and struck a deal to feed them bodies in exchange for protection of his drug operations. Over generations, the creatures and La Perla's residents interbred. The group notices gill-like slits on Raúl's neck and abnormally pointed teeth. Bimbo slits Raúl's throat. In the tense aftermath, Paul confronts Gabe at gunpoint, but Bimbo defuses the standoff. Paul declares he is done and leaves a second time. Altagracia extracts a dark entity from Raúl's mouth in a ritual to prevent his spirit from haunting them.

The group returns to La Perla to kill El Brujo, who proves to be a terrifying supernatural being: He teleports, floats, casts no shadow, and emits a devastating sonic attack. He overpowers them easily until Paul, who secretly followed the group, appears and shoots El Brujo in the head. Bimbo mutilates the corpse, cutting out the tongue, gouging out both eyes, and stabbing the face while sobbing María's name.

Natalia and Henry have collaborated to clear the way for the final strike, calling Papalote's bar with false information that sends his men away from La Perla. The group enters Papalote's unguarded house and opens fire. Bimbo empties his gun into Papalote's face. Papalote's companion, Aklira, a fish-human hybrid with scales, gills, and entirely black eyes, communicates telepathically and transmits visions of the creatures' history: a vast underwater city destroyed by humans, their scattering across the Caribbean, and their exploitation by Papalote's family. The group carries Papalote's body to the reef, where towering fish creatures emerge, accept the corpse, and acknowledge Aklira as the new authority.

The next day, as the group walks down the street, a white car drives by and opens fire. Tavo is killed. Back in Bimbo's apartment, they discover Altagracia texted her brother Rafa to alert him when the group was leaving. Altagracia reveals the full conspiracy: Rafa orchestrated the sham marriage to place her as a spy, planning to let Bimbo eliminate Papalote and then murder Bimbo to seize La Perla. Rafa killed Xavier and painted the veves to accelerate the group's actions. Bimbo forces Altagracia to lure Rafa to the apartment. When Rafa arrives with two associates, Bimbo shoots Rafa and one man while Paul stabs the third. Rafa's wild shot kills Altagracia. Bimbo orders Gabe and Paul to leave at gunpoint, taking responsibility for the bodies. He later arranges for Tavo's body to be delivered to the reef creatures with instructions to treat it with respect, and he texts Gabe that he is taking over Papalote's operation.

Gabe reflects on everything they have lost: Xavier, Tavo, and María. Natalia has stopped responding to his messages and departed for her nursing program at the University of Texas at Austin. Two weeks later, Gabe buys a plane ticket to Austin. On the flight, he briefly glimpses the ghosts of Tavo and Xavier before they vanish. He manages a small smile through his tears, recalling his grandmother's words that all stories are ghost stories, as he flies toward an uncertain future.