We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
(7) Snow Line
We're not going to lie: It helps that this book is a featherweight, weighing in at only 124 pages. Things get confusing in the town of Comala, and when you're battling questions like "Who's speaking right now?" "What time are we in?" and "Is this person alive or dead?" it certainly helps that the exit (for you, if not for poor Juan Preciado) is near.
But even though this book may be tough, it's never dry. There's all the sex, violence, and gore that you could want from an account of the Wild (Mexican) West. This book gets philosophically deep and stylistically experimental, but it never comes across as stuffy or tweedy. Even though Pedro Páramo is a literature professor's dream, it's also a profanity-laced horrorshow.