Valenzuela shines as never before when it comes to relying on a gang of borderline characters with Julio César Cienfuegos at the head to dissect, chapter by chapter, the miseries of the individual and of the dominant social reality that he dislikes so much. El lado amargo brings together a selection of stories, some unpublished and others pre-published in the magazine Tos, many of which recover the colour with which they were originally conceived.