Reviews

I firmly believe Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a chameleon. Not only does she dabble in many different genres, she can mold her writing style to the demands of the genres easily. You won't find repetitions in her writing style of one book to another. MEXICAN GOTHIC is atmospheric. THE BEAUTIFUL ONES is lyrical and romantic. UNTAMED SHORE is taut with tension. VELVET WAS THE NIGHT is a slow-burn with a banging finale. The more I read her books, the more I'm in awe of her talent. She dares to venture into new, untapped genres and shows prowess there as if she'd been writing in that genre for years. Like the aforementioned books I've read, VELVET WAS THE NIGHT proved her talent too.

VELVET WAS THE NIGHT is a historical noir set in the 1970s Mexico during the regime of Luis Echeverría. The story revolves around two people from different walks of life. One of them is a 21 year old thug, El Elvis. The other is a 30 year old office secretary, Maite Jaramillo. The plot centers on Elvis and Maite, separately, looking for Maite's neighbor, Leonora. Maite wants to find Leonora, so that Leonora can take her cat back (whom Maite has been minding while Leonora is on a vacation) and get paid for cat-sitting. Meanwhile, Elvis wants to find her because Leonora got some important photos that can expose the crimes of president Echeverría as well as the entire Mexican government being in cahoots with the CIA and being the masterminds of the attack during the Corpus Christi Day march on June 10, 1971. While they're at it, we come to know Maite and Elvis personally, two people from vastly different backgrounds but having much in common. They're two lonely, bitter, miserable-in-their-jobs music aficionados who would go to any length to not be lonely and bitter and miserable. They find solace in music, romantic comic books (Maite), and word-of-the-day practices (Elvis).

Many readers found Maite unlikeable but not me. She's not like other noir heroines aka not a femme fatale. She's a plain Jane, a Debbie downer, and an office secretary. She's cynical, self-deprecative, petty, bitter, sexually frustrated, and above all, lonely. She judges and casts snide remarks at prettier women because the world sees her as an ugly woman and therefore, treats her badly. You can't blame her for her misery. It's easy to judge people, like Maite judges others. But if you've been in her shoes, stuck at a dead-end life where nobody loves her and cares about her, not even her mother and her sister, will definitely make you bitter, unhappy, petty, cynical, and self-deprecative. In the end, Maite doesn't change in this area. What does change in her story is that she stops idolizing the beautiful, suave people in her life and realizing they're worse at their cores than she is. She doesn't stop being bitter, petty, miserable, judgmental, and jealous because her life doesn't change much for the better. She's still stuck in her dead-end job and still lonely in her life. But she at least stops fawning over handsome men who turn out to be selfish, cowardly assholes who'd turn their eyes on other men physically assaulting her and pissing at the violence. She has a flat arc and flat arc protagonists are often mistaken for flat characters. Maite is unlikeable with her kleptomania and internalized misogyny. But she's an interesting character who defies the genre expectations of the female protagonists and becomes a very realistic character who can be anyone in our real life.

On the other hand, Elvis is also bitter and lonely. But unlike Maite who channels her frustration at pretty people with rich lives, he channels them at his opponents. They're his punching bags. He gets to curse out loud and punch people and shoot at them, unlike Maite. Not saying that's a healthier option, but it creates less bitter internal monologues unlike Maite. His frustration is more at real life in general. How the rich and the privileged get to live better lives, longer lives, perfect lives. Meanwhile, Elvis, being a runaway delinquent from rural Mexico, has to make his ends meet by beating up people and being beaten back, stalking, breaking into someone's apartments, and spying on everything and everyone. He's basically his boss's dog. Like Maite, he too doesn't face much change in life at the end. But like Maite, he too stops idolizing his boss, who seems perfect to him on the outside but is a rotten piece of shit who doesn't hesitate to beat women for his end goals. Elvis stops looking up to him and copying him and obeying him. He ends up with no riches and no privileges. But he ends up with a better conscience than his boss could say.

Thank you, NetGalley and Quercus Books, Jo Fletcher Books, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.