⚡️ I was provided an audio-ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Out on 9/7!)
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I am a HUGE fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the rerelease of Certain Dark Things for a hot minute. I got to listen to an advance copy of the audiobook, and folks, the anticipation was worth it, I loved it.
Very rarely do I feel as immersed in a story as I did with this book. Like to the point where I made a whole playlist for it (below!!), which I haven’t done since my Twilight phase. This book is that good.
This book has all of the elements of urban fantasy and noir that you expect from Moreno-Garcia, and I think that it really bridges a gap between people who are fans of hers from Gods of Jade and Shadow and her more adult novels.
Certain Dark Things
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
🌟: 5 / 5
📚: Mexico City exists as a haven at the heart of a country overrun by drug-fuelled vampire gang rivalries, even for the vampires hiding from those rivalries.
💭: Between Mexican Gothic and Certain Dark Things, Moreno-Garcia has, in my opinion, very quickly risen to the top of the contemporary horror game. Drawing on classic noir tropes with an alternative future-driven twist, she creates a very vibrant version of Mexico City as a safe haven in the center of a country plagued by drugs, disease, and a melting pot of cross-cultural vampire lore. When Domingo spots Atl on the subway, he’s taken by her and decides that he’ll do anything to get her attention, including putting his life on the line for a girl who is more than just a normal girl.
At the heart of the story are two very different characters who ended up at the center of a brutal rivalry between Narcos and warring vampire gangs. Domingo is a good kid in a bad situation, a trash collector who loves horror comics, just trying to stay out of the drama of the gangs that lord over the poor of Mexico City. Atl is a Tlahuihpochtin, a rich kid descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, hiding in plain sight from the violence that took down her whole family. Their relationship is at times so awkward and relies on them steadily building up trust in each other that was just so heartwarming to see.
I just genuinely loved the world that is built in such a short story (coming in at 272 pages). While it’s set in a world a lot like our own, the fantasy elements are woven in so well that it doesn’t take much to suspend disbelief (something that I find really hard to do with a lot of urban fantasy books). The overlaps across a variety of multicultural vampire mythologies is taken into consideration right from the beginning and explained in a way that made my reasonable, science-loving heart so happy (the vampires are a different species in the genus Homo that were integrated into society in the 70s, thus not erasing the existence of the same mythology in the world of the book). The ways that the lore in the book was considered so that it integrated into a modern Mexican setting (with some near-futuristic elements) absolutely wowed me and left me wanting to see more of this world.
The ending of Certain Dark Things is really reminiscent of the other books by Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read. They end in an almost bittersweet way that leaves them so open to imagining what comes next. It’s both frustrating and wonderful to me, but I can definitely see that as something that would be a problem to some readers and worth noting for future reference.
So TL;DR— God, this book is so good. It’s hard to believe that it went out of print, but I’m so glad that it’s resurfaced.