Reviews with content warning for Violence - Vampires of El Norte

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

84 reviews

jillaay_h's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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adancewithbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Thank you to Solaris and Netgalley for the review coy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

Vampires of El Norte is an interesting romance novel, that is mostly interesting because of the backdrop of historical Mexico at war with the United States and the addition of vampires.

We meet Nena and Nestor as kids. Nena is the ranchors daughter while Nestor is son to indentured workers. In search of the hidden treasure, they are attacked by a monster. Something that they can't quite name. Thinking that Nena is dead, he runs away. When they find each other years later, not only their old feelings resurface but also the monsters.

I found it really interesting to see the historical setting in Mexico. The rancher life, the social hierarchy and the way the woman are treated, learning about vaquero. A lot of it we kind of know but it is different to see it in text like this. How Nena's fathers word is law and how she was treated by her mother after Nestor saved her. How dare she be in danger and be saved by a vaquero which meant she was alone with him. The author manages to add in a real atmosphere of that time period, added in with a bit of terror because of the vampires.

The vampires itself aren't on the page that much. I found the idea of them interesting. No face. And the bond at the end. There was no humanizing of them and I think that is also something we need within the vampire fiction. There was some dehumanzing of the united states, but hey, they kind of deserved that.

As for our characters, Nena was a bit of a wild child but after her attack she became the perfect ranchors daughter. But she wants so much more. Not a marriage for convenience but to become a true asset to the ranch, to people. She is the type of person that would care about those working beneath her if her parents had allowed that more. There wasn't much room for that though.

Nestor on the other hand remained a wild child. He has become a succesful freeelance vaquero. He does what he wants, for the most part. But he is working towards a goal. Saving money to buy his own ranch. They compliment each other nicely.

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samanthaleereads's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cheye13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I think expectations are absolutely key to enjoying this story. It is a dramatic historical romance with some speculative horror atmosphere. I found this to be a beautiful and nearly perfect story. The setting is so skillfully portrayed that it's seemlessly immersive. The emotions of the leads are nearly tangible. Within a single chapter, my heart ached for these two as if I knew them. And while there is technically a typical romance third-act conflict, it was so well executed, I nearly didn't notice it. An absolutely beautiful story.

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crystalisreading's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was great. As good as that GORGEOUS cover. I'm a baby about horror, but I didn't find it really scary, just very atmospheric. Excellent audio narration. Creative vampires. Great treatment of violent colonizers and examination of unfair labor practices, done so smoothly it was a part of the the story, not a distraction. Has me thinking about the Mexican-American war now. A book to enjoy but also digest later. Recommended.

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v_neptune's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

extremely strong start, but from the middle onward it was narratively kind of weak. still enjoyed it though

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lefthandlou's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.0

I really liked the setting of this story and the lyricism of much of the writing. Other than that, this is just a (bad) love story packaged as a horror story. The titular vampires actually appear very little, and most of the book is just a lot of internal monologuing by the characters, which got really boring really quickly. I feel like more and more books are falling into the “extensively narrate the character’s thoughts” trap, and I’m cranky about it. I also don’t like being bamboozled: this was marketed as a horror book, but it is not. It is 100% a romance with vampire curtains. Could have been a good book, but alas. If romance masquerading as fantasy is called romantasy, what is this? Hormance? Ugh. I was so excited to read this, too. Will still probably give her other book a try.

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