Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

15 reviews

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really liked the premise of this novel (literal movie magic!) but I found the execution so dull. Most of the characters' motivations are just straight up fed to you in exposition and neither of the point of view characters is especially compelling. None of the attempted emotional beats with them land at all because they don't feel like people with real lives and goals. The '90s Mexico setting was cool and there were a few good scares but overall not that great.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Murder, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Car accident, Death, and Grief

Minor: Infidelity, Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Suicide, and Vomit

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny, Cancer, and Racism

Minor: Animal death

displacedcactus's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

As usual, Silvia Moreno-Garcia does an amazing job of conjuring a sense of time and place, while populating her story with characters who are kind of annoying. This time around, we've got two childhood friends well into their 30s, both struggling with their careers, who find themselves caught up in a plot involving magic, an unfinished possibly cursed horror film, and conflict between several factions who all have their own idea of how the magical film should be put to use. All of this against the backdrop of 1993 Mexico City.

Moreno-Garcia weaves in classic horror films, film dubbing, Mexican cinema culture, and Nazi occultism (and how Nazism intersected with racism in Mexico). You'll probably learn a lot of interesting facts along the way.

This book has bisexual and disability rep, and one of the characters is Lebanese-Mexican. It's surprisingly diverse for a book with a relatively small cast of named characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Cursing and Racism

Minor: Animal death

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall I really liked this book- I
felt like the character development was much improved from the books that I’ve read of hers in the past. I’d highly recommended it to anyone who can handle supernatural horror. A lot of if also felt very historical fiction heavy, with all the elements of old Mexican horror movies inserted throughout, and I really enjoyed that about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Ableism, Bullying, Car accident, Colonisation, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Biphobia, Addiction, and Cancer

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Stalking, Suicide, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Animal death, Genocide, Vomit, and War

bookishparadox's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Grief, Ableism, Sexism, and Alcohol

Minor: Classism, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Animal death, War, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury