I absolutely loved this book. It's a collection of short stories revolving around the idea of a "Death Machine": a machine that spits out a slip of paper telling you how you're going to die. The word or phrase could be obvious; for instance, "car crash", or it could be a bit more obscure, such as "almond". The best part about this book? Each author could write about the Machine of Death in their own way, so no two stories are the same. They ranged from I-can't-breathe-I'm-laughing-so-hard to thought-provoking to extremely sad, and they were an incredible mix of fantasy and sci-fi stories, with realistic situations and actual facts and past events thrown in. This book also made you think; I can't tell you the number of times I finished a story and spent 30 minutes contemplating death and what humans think of it. Every single story was well-written, and I promise that if you choose to pick up this book, you won't be disappointed. And if you read it, and you love it, check out the second one, This Is How You'll Die. A friend gave me this as a gift and honestly, I'm wondering why they gave it to me. I think it was just because I love books and love to read and I appreciate that. However, these stories while interesting based on a curious concept are rather morbid. I could only read a couple at a time because of the morbid material. Some of the stories were interesting from a scientific perspective and some were entertaining. However, some of the stories were rather dull and came across as incredibly hipster snooty which I found really irritating and not an enjoyable read at all. While I'm sure others have enjoyed this book; this just was not my cup of tea. The concept was interesting, but a lot of the execution was lacking.
What do You think about La Máquina De La Muerte (2012)?
amazing collection of short stories. each one was fascinating and it was hard to put this down
—Deb
The disappointing endings left a hole in heart and left you to die. Only some worth to read.
—betts
This is a really good collection of stories. I look forward to reading the second book.
—Knox
