Josh Rivera
Josh Rivera (he/him) is a writer and journalist from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, currently based in Washington, DC. As a Senior Editor at USA TODAY, he covers travel, culture, and identity, with work also appearing in The Wall Street Journal, The Detroit Free Press, Univision and more. A graduate of Yale’s Writers’ Workshop, his fiction often explores intergenerational grief, magical realism, and the supernatural. His YA debut “How To Kill A Chupacabras” is publishing June of 2027. You can follow him on Threads and Substack @Josh1Rivera.
How To Kill A Chupacabras
A young journalism student hunts Puerto Rico’s most infamous monster for a million-dollar prize, only to discover the chupacabras is real—and may hold the key to saving his dying father.
Find the chupacabras. Prove it exists. Win a million dollars.
For aspiring journalist Lucas, it should be the story of a lifetime.
When a string of gruesome livestock killings rattles the mountains of Puerto Rico, rumors spread that the island’s most infamous monster is back. Then an eccentric billionaire offers a million-dollar reward for proof—and suddenly Lucas has more than a headline to chase. With his father seriously ill and the medical bills piling up, that money could change everything.
Armed with a reporter’s instincts, a mountain of rumors, and his best friend Perla and new friend Emy, Lucas sets out to uncover what’s really stalking the countryside of Orocovis.
Then he finds it.
The chupacabras is real. But it’s nothing like the monster everyone believes it to be.
Now Lucas has the biggest story of his young career—and an impossible choice. Exposing the truth could save his family. But it could also put something extraordinary in the crosshairs of everyone willing to hunt, capture, or exploit it.
Lucas has always believed the truth deserves to be told.
But what if finding the truth means becoming the person who has to protect it?
Publication
Tiny Ghost Press
Release date: June 2027
