"This book is a rare gem. In contrast to today's often overheated and sensationalized accounts of "drug cartels" and "kingpins, " Shaylih Muehlmann instead draws our attention to the too-often overlooked stories of the ordinary people at the margins of the drug economy in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Through fearless ethnographic research, she exposes the real "trenches" of the drug war along the border."—Peter Andreas, author of Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America

“This is an outstanding book . . . deeply moving in parts and simply fascinating in others. It makes clear interventions, but in a language that a general readership would enjoy even as scholars will assign this book in their classes.”—Alexander Dawson, author of First World Dreams: Mexico Since 1989

“This work provides an original and incredibly important contribution to a wide body of literature on the drug war, and particularly the escalation of drug war violence over the past decade.”—Adrienne Pine, author of Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras