How does Melchor create a feeling of suspense within the reading audience in the novel's first brief chapter?

Melchor employs an impressive array of sensory details within the novel's brief opening chapter. Though it is clear from the beginning of the chapter that the group featured at its center is made up of four quite young boys, Melchor instills the scene with an eerie sense of danger and menace with her skillful word choice and cadence. Even the youngest of the boys is portrayed as being ready to attack at any moment, "the elastic of his slingshot pulled taut in his hands, the rock snug in the leather pad, primed to strike anything that got in his way at the very first sign of an ambush" (8).