THE DEATH of Carlos Monsiváis, one of Mexico’s preeminent cronistas, in 2010 at the age of seventy-two has quite expectedly and justifiably prompted much reflection regarding not only his extensive and signally influential oeuvre but also regarding the genre of the crónica itself. Anadeli Bencomo, one of Mexico and the United States’ leading critical voices in the field, with one book and doz- ens of published articles on the subject to her credit, now offers the crónica scholar and interested reader alike a collec- tion of essays that trace the evolution of the genre in recent years. The pieces collected here, with the exception of the first and last essays, “Paseo por la crónica mexicana” and “Cronistas itinerantes: notas sobre Alma Guillermoprieto, Luis Arturo Ramos y Juan Villoro”, respectively, have all previously appeared elsewhere. Published as a collected volume for the first time only eleven months after the passing of Monsiváis, Bencomo here nuances the arguments she elaborates in her previous work on the crónica, Voces y voceros de la megalópolis: La crónica periodístico-literaria en México (2002). Be- cause of this, it is most instructive to revisit the ideas and conclusions in Voces y voceros de la megalópolis before undertaking a review of Entre héroes, fantasmas y apocalípticos.