Thomas's Reviews > The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos

Interesting and powerful nonfiction book about Anexos, or informal treatment centers for substance use disorders and mental illness in Mexico City. I liked how Angela Garcia showed how the individual-level injustices that occur in Anexos (e.g., violence, sexism) are connected to broader systemic-level injustices (e.g., corrupt politicians, lack of social infrastructure to care for people who are ill, U.S. foreign policy). Garcia includes raw testaments from people who’ve resided in Anexos as well as their family members. She also intersperses some of her own life history throughout the book, which I appreciated so that we know some of her positionality. I resonated with her honesty about how her difficult childhood and how her marriage with a man ended, and it was intriguing to hear a little bit about her new romantic relationship with a woman.

The writing was intelligent and engaging though I thought the flow between passages could have been better at times. Still, I give this book four stars because of the novelty of covering Anexos and the author’s clear commitment to fighting social injustice how she can.