An interesting mystery set in the world of Mexico City cinema and dark magic. The aura of despair and brooding hangs over Silver Nitrate - this is a book about deeply unhappy people who want what they don't have and will do almost anything to get it. People like that are always dangerous. You never want them in your life, you never make bargains with them, you never let them see your secret desires. Or suddenly, you're drawn in as well - and getting out will be very hard indeed. ( )

I really enjoyed Signal to Noise and Mexican Gothic but The Beautiful Ones was a dud for me and so is this. The characters are unlikeable and the plot is laughable, sort of like Normal People does Indiana Jones where the villain is Kane from Poltergeist II.

The pacing is so slow until the last few chapters that the agony seemed never ending, while the level of irrelevant detail seemed to be in a fight to the death with the clunky narrative. I never once believed that Montserrat was a sound editor - that she'd read a book about sound editing to throw around a few technical terms, like the author, sure. Mainly, however, she was just the geeky yet spunky girl friend to the pretty boy put out to pasture, and obviously - regrettably - they were going to end up together. And on a side note, I kept pronouncing the McGuffin neighbour's name as Urethra.

One bonus point for the mention of the Mexican voice actor who dubbed KITT on Knight Rider, otherwise FAIL. ( )

This book found its way on to so many 'best SF of 2023' lists that I bought it and read over Christmas as what I hoped would be a lively change from other more serious genres. I found it derivative (the curse of Nazi occultists anyone?) unoriginal and desperately plodding. The attempts at characterisation are laughable, the knowledge of film sub-Wikipediaesque. I kept looking at my Kindle, desperate to find myself further through the book than I was. Very disappointing. ( )

Desperately trying to catch up on books I've read in 2023, before it turns 2024. Don't think I'll make it. Full review (hopefully) to come later. ( )

This is the third novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia I have read. All three have been pretty good but not quite great. Ultimately I think they could use some tighter writing but the larger issue is that the tropes of the genre she's trying to overturn ultimately aren't overturned. I like her stuff and I'm glad she's writing. I also wish she were spending an extra month of the detailed movie or mushroom research on grappling with plot inconsistencies and the endings. The ending of this one is very dissatisfying and unearned. And importantly it could have been improved significantly.

I will note that I think Silver Nitrate was the scariest of the three I've read and the most fully in horror instead of gothic.

Monserrat and Tristan are old friends who love horror movies. By chance they come across a washed up director whose final film was lost to history and may have been cursed.

Spoilers ahead, for those who want a "too scary didn't read" or an example of why the ending doesn't work:

The trio of Monserrat, Tristan and Abel are able to recover and re-record the verbal spell that was part of the lost film's dialogue.

Quickly all three experience positive experiences and good luck.

Then Abel mysteriously and gruesomely dies.

Monserrat and Tristan investigate, to Tristan's chagrin. Monserrat begins losing time as she uncovers more about the Nazi Ewers's occult ideas. They even visit a relative of the film's original funder, who is clearly implied to be her reincarnated, or kept magically youthful, or similar. It's such a trope and such an obvious one that Monserrat as a horror fan should have known it.

Ultimately we learn that the magic is real and Ewers is slowly possessing Monserrat. She and Tristan must fight back. Despite having zero magical knowledge they are easily able to go toe to toe with Ewers, who it turns out is a quite accomplished sorcerer.

And they do fight him, and it's kind of lackluster from a plot point of view (though well written). It's another trope. And I guess they're now going to fall in love, again, a trope, nothing interesting done with it.

Another note I have is that the race and class elements in this book are additive - it is Nazi occultism after all - until the last quarter or so when I guess it turns out that Nazi occult magic is real? The novel doesn't really grapple with this. There's a much more interesting alternative ending where Ewers was 5 percent right and 95 percent wrong, or his beliefs about Aryans and Maya should are re interpreted, or they're all totally shot down through the hubris of a Nazi thinking he's better than everyone else and hoisted by his own petard. But these things don't really happen. They could have and the ending could've been so much more compelling.

And also, I'm sorry, I don't want to read a postcolonial novel that is so effectively postcolonial for 250 pages and then just accepts that the Nazi occultism is mostly real.

It's sad because I had a similar reaction to the postcolonial elements of Mexican Gothic which again could've been fixed up a little to be truly wonderful and compelling.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much. It's an effective enough horror novel. My annoyance is that she's trying to do more and getting close but missing. ( )