-An example of magical realism in the story is when La Llorona orders Odilia to take the man's corpse to Mexico. She promises to protect the girls on their next journey and help Odilia find her way, giving her an earring. La Llorona explains that, "A most powerful amulet. It was given to me by my mother on my fifteenth birthday at the altar of Tenochtitlan, when I became a woman. It has magical properties, gifts from the gods. But you can only use it five times, once for every ring on its axis." The magical event is the appearance of La Llorona and the earrings she offers to Odilia. (page 54)

-When the sisters and grandmother go to the santuario and begin to pray for magical assistance so they can return home, their words are directed to the Virgencita. "At the top of the hill, a youthful Tonantzin, the Goddess of Sustenance, the girl who had saved us from the nagual, lifted her arms to welcome us, her beloved daughters. And when I looked around, I saw that a flurry of magnificent mariposas swarmed around us as we stood waiting on the summit of the hill, awed by the surreal beauty that surrounded us." The magical event occurs when Tonantzin appears and assists the sisters in returning safely (page 272)

-The sisters are on a mission to return a man's deceased body to his family and find their father, all in El Sacrificio, Mexico.

-Odilia and her sisters: Odilia is the oldest sister and her journey is the backbone of the story as Odysseus and his crew that must make a long journey and defeat several evil creatures before they can return home.

-La Llorona: Her parallel in The Odyssey is Athena, who is often seen in The Odyssey helping Odysseus and his men. However, instead of intervening directly, she usually stays in the background and offers him advice and encouragement, just as La Llorona assists the cinco hermanitas throughout their journey.

-Cecilia: The witch goddess Circe, after welcoming Odysseus and his crew into her home, drugs the men and turns them into pigs. Just like when Cecilia feeds the drugged cakes to the sisters.

And the way the god Hermes helps Odysseus by giving him the Moly plant is just like La Llorona using jojotle juice to wake up Odilia and her sisters.

-Chupacabras: Chencho, a one-eyed goatherd who transforms into the chupacabra at night, paralleling the Cyclops that Odysseus and his men must defeat. Odysseus stabs Polyphemus in the eye with a wooden staff and thus escapes from the Cyclops' cave with his men, just as Odilia blinds the chupacabra to save her sisters.

-Lechuzas: The lechuzas fulfill the role of The Sirens. Like the creatures in The Odyssey that lured men to death with their wicked tongues, the lechuzas are able to speak and allude to pending death.

-Nagual: A sorcerer with the ability to transform into an animal. The whirlpool-shaped concoction the nagual creates to cook the Garza girls is reminiscent of Charybdis, the whirlpool found near the monster Scylla in the narrow channel that Odysseus and his men must navigate. Just as the walls of the nagual's cave are filled with the bones of a thousand children, the force of Charybdis' swirling currents is said to have caused countless ships to wreck.

-Magical creatures that come from myths and legends that are part of Latin American culture, more specifically Mexican.

-Quinceañera, a celebration of a girl's 15th birthday.

-Butterflies, follow the girls, symbolic of their ancestors keeping them company on their journey and the collective metamorphosis that the sisters experience.

-It connects characters from ancient myths and legends to modern-day experiences.