I bought this book after reading the first short story, "From Inside." There is an ominous feel to the way the main character has things happen around them. Agency feels limited. The tone is slumberous. And there is a surreal and dream-like quality to the exposition. The details are poetic and make you feel like you're in a misty jungle, and nothing is fully explained. I liked that. Unfortunately, the story ended before much happened, and the same ideas aren't explored in later stories. "Departure" was my other favorite. But past that, I can't much recommend this collection.I was hoping this was going to be similar to the short stories of Garcia Marquez or Borges. But they're not. They're subpar imitations of them. Here's why:(1) In this collection, first person point of view is overused. (Only two are third person, and one is mostly second person.) Why use first person if you aren't going to spend time with the character or reveal some deep psychology? That doesn't happen here because the stories are short, and the style is surreal. So, you're left with a narrative that doesn't immerse you in or even give you a perspective. Worse, the constant use of first person makes all the stories seem connected, when really they don't seem to be. This makes things confusing, in the bad way of lacking understanding, and not in the good way of mystery. If I'm reading first person, I want to care about the characters or learn something deep about them (or myself). The author gives me no reason to care, and there is little memorable about the stories.(2) The stories here sometimes have twist endings (e.g. "Témpano"). Or people shift into animal forms or hallucinate ("The Priestess on the Mountain"). But the symbols and allegories here aren't obvious. So, again, you're just wondering what the point is. And once you see the style--short sentences, seeking characters for no explained reason, having hallucinations, having Kafkaesque and mystical and pointless encounters with strangers--the stories become a parody of themselves. You could easily write a story like this.All in all, the style is promising. But there isn't much substance. The collection feels like finding a dream journal of a stranger; nothing makes sense, and you don't know the dreamer, and you don't care much about them either. I respect the attempt, but the execution was lacking.