Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

81 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

garrettcz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

No spoilers:

I struggled with this book. I really liked the occult and mysticism elements. I really liked the history tie-ins and details. I liked some of the details about the film industry. 

I really disliked the characters. It felt like the author was going out of her way to make them unlikable and really awful to each other. 

I felt the story spent way too much time on really boring, mundane things and far too little time on the cool things like mysticism, occultism, and the horror elements. The story would sometimes dip into horror but the scenes felt way too fast so the atmosphere didn’t build up enough to where I really felt anything from them. I couldn’t get immersed in the spooky/horror scenes to really care and I didn’t care about the characters enough to really be engaged by the action scenes, so there never really felt like there was enough tension. 

Spoilers:

*********************************



I REALLY hated the romance ending thing. I saw it coming and was really hoping this wouldn’t happen. These characters felt like they really disliked each other and if romantic chemistry could be approximated with temperature theirs would be somewhere in the ballpark of absolute zero. Yuck. 

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

narsere's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

3.0

Unfortunately not SMG’s best work. The plot is very unique and intriguing. The book definitely picks up in the latter half, but the writing is off for much of it. It really seems like it could’ve used some additional editing and/or like it was something written in the very early days of her career. I really had to push myself to keep going with it because I KNOW how good SMG’s writing can be and what kind of payoff one can expect. I’m glad I ultimately wasn’t disappointed, but it took a lot of effort I’m not used to when it comes to her work.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, and Murder

achay91's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing and Racism

Minor: Drug use and Murder

dconlon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Car accident and Murder

Minor: Addiction

tamara_joy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Murder and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

meika_one's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This one took me a few weeks to get into.  I had to remind myself that the content of conspiracy theories can be a slow burn.  I found the characters to be unlikeable in the first few chapters as well, but they let me in eventually.  There were some deep themes about connection and loss woven into the plot, and it didn't disappoint with the magick/Nazi/Templars plot once it got going.  The second half of the book pulled me along easily to the end (and made a difficult morning at work after 3 hours of sleep (oops)).  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.0

This was a great read. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration; it was super engaging and the story, while a bit slow to take off, built and built and built until everything came to a head in a bold climax with a very satisfying conclusion. 

I always say I’m not a horror fan, but I think I’m constantly getting proved wrong. This book wasn’t even that scary! I loved Mexican Gothic (which in my opinion was much more disturbing than this one) so I knew I had to give Silver Nitrate a shot. While I’m no film buff, I still really enjoyed the connections and details to the industry.

I loved Monserrat and Tristan. I loved their banter and closeness that only knowing someone your whole life can bring. I also adored heroes that were 38 and felt like real adult humans that made real adult human decisions. I also appreciated how flawed the characters were. 

As a note, there is a decent amount of discussions of Nazis and Nazism as they pertain to post-WWII in Latin America, and in particular the ideas of “Aryan superiority” and eugenics. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Antisemitism

Minor: Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

hendrixpants's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder