In this mind-bending debut novel from Marcos Hernandez, androids are trained to interact with humans using expired Sims, the virtual avatars of defunct people. The story kicks-off with Corvus Okada, an introvert gamer hailed as a hero after saving the world by singlehandedly destroying the alien spacecraft that hovered over the city of Bodalís. There’s just one problem: it never happened. Corvus does learn, fast, that not everyone who believes it happened thinks he’s a hero. Some think the invader ship came to save the world. Some think Corvus destroyed their chance for salvation. That he ruined the second coming of Christ. And they mean to repay him in kind.

Merging science fiction with elements of a psychological thriller, The Hysteria of Bodalís is narrated in the first person and is imbued with apathy, loneliness and absurdity. While there are no Latino elements in the book, the author's target readers included the Hispanic community in the USA and readers in Mexico and wanted to hint at this culture in the book's cover design. With this in mind, our cover cooks’ recipe mixed the eccentricity of a queer retro typeface with a punchy electric red and green palette that suits the psychological science fiction tone in the story. The one-eyed figure, sporting an iris filled with digital noise, embodies the idea of a physical body that becomes something abstract - or virtual in this case.