Thermal Sensation (Sensación térmica)

Some people fall into the trap with a smile on their faces.  

Lucía is a young girl who takes advantage of a literature scholarship at CUNY to escape from her native Mexico and her dysfunctional family. Despite the cold, the rats infesting her small East Village apartment, and the consequential insomnia, Lucía can finally have a taste of freedom. She spends her days with her roommate, Alma, and her new best friend, Juliana, a Colombian girl who shines with joy and charisma.

From the moment Lucía and Juliana meet, they become inseparable. However, when Juliana starts a relationship with a college professor two decades her senior, Lucía watches as her friend’s spark starts to dull, and sees reflected in her behavior the miserable and violent relationship that her own parents once had. Frustrated by the situation and paralyzed by the fear of losing her friend, Lucía chooses to remain silent and offer a shoulder to cry on.

Furthermore, when her father, Álvaro, has an accident, Lucía must choose between returning to Mexico to take care of an abuser, or prioritizing her current life. Finally, Lucía decides to leave, while Juliana is left alone in New York with the man who will eventually kill her.

Through two different timelines —the present Juliana has to suffer, and the past Lucía can’t seem to escape—, Thermal Sensation explores the violence that disguises itself as romance and only explodes behind closed doors. Lucía will face her past and her present, learning to establish boundaries and speak up to ensure a better future.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: In her book Thermal Sensation, Mayte López manages to talk naturally about toxic relationships and the anguish we carry inside. With a contemporary language full of colloquialisms, and a visual and rhythmic writing, López’s prose captures the reader’s attention, getting more than one smile and a few tears out of them. Her emotional story, and her well-written complex characters remind us of projects such as the acclaimed TV series Fleabag.

Thermal Sensation, the author’s second novel, is generating a great media impact and a highly positive response from readers.

This vivid portrait of domestic violence was one of the finalists of the 44th Tigre Juan Awards, after being selected among over 600 hundred literary works.

What the critics have said:

“With brutal everyday language, Mayte López writes a little masterpiece. Sensación térmica turns up the heat of the tragedy of domestic violence.” Michelle Roche Rodríguez

“An impactful piece of work that shows the wicked means that drive the relationships between wrathful men and the women that love them.” La Vanguardia

“A gut-wrenching book.” Radio Primavera Sound

“Risky in her writing, free and strong as a dance […] full of rhythm and cleverness. But maybe not as risky in the misery that’s love, in this mystery that’s smart and capable women who love bad men, something’s that’s just incomprehensible, it’s incomprehensible, although rancheras have tried to make sense of it, or maybe they’ve petrified it?” Eva Cruz (La Hora Extra – Cadena SER)

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.

LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish.