Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

14 reviews

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was absolutely incredible. So well-written and the concepts were unlike any other horror I've ever read which was so refreshing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Drug use, Racism, and Stalking

Minor: Antisemitism, War, and Kidnapping

ktb97's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Beautifully written and lots of fun despite some pretty heavy themes. The characters have depth and you grow with them as you read. Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Blood

Moderate: Car accident, Death, and Racism

Minor: Alcoholism

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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 book was a love letter to all the weird, slightly off putting girls who grew up loving witches and occultism and had a vast knowledge of obscure movies. Sooo basically me 😋

I would have probably rated it higher had there been no romance aspect but that’s just me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Suicide attempt, Murder, Car accident, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Biphobia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Cancer

Minor: Genocide, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

This book does talk about nazis and eugenics, there being a hierarchy of races. The main characters are adamantly against that bullshit but it’s part of the cult’s background.

nashxra's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Antisemitism, and Ableism

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Biphobia

chloesnotscared's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Grief

Minor: Biphobia, Drug use, Cancer, Death, Racism, and Violence

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is SMG at her core and I really liked the concept of the book! The only drawbacks were that it REALLY seemed like the story dragged on for too long at different moments and (like classic SMG) sped up super quickly at the end. I also felt like I didn’t get enough out of the main characters other than sho they are at their surface level. I think this book would greatly benefit from a sequel and building out this world more. 
The writing was spectacular and the fantasy elements kept me entertained. I just wish it was edited a bit better and a whole lot spookier (then maybe I could feel fine with not dive too deep into the characters?). 
However I will say the biggest win is having two messy/annoying bisexuals obsessed with horror (kinda) as the MCs. Huge representation win lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexism, Racism, Murder, Misogyny, Grief, Gore, Death, Body horror, Drug use, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Cancer, Colonisation, Animal death, Addiction, Ableism, Toxic friendship, and Blood

booksybookbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Antisemitism, Bullying, Racism, Suicide, Death, Gore, and Violence

sol_journal'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

4.0

*Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 28 July 2023

4.4 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.

‘Silver Nitrate’ was a book that when I first saw the summary, I was a little iffy on if it was one I’d like. Now, I *loved* a few of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s previous books- ‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’, ‘The Beautiful Ones’, and ‘Velvet Was The Night’. I knew her writing style well to know that I’d most likely *enjoy* her books regardless. I just figured that this new read would be a mood-read kind of book where I’d pick it up when I found myself *craving* a cursed movie title centering Nazi occultism, rough main characters, and stuff of fiction bleeding into two normal people’s reality. When I got approved for this eARC after all, I decided to just jump right in and, man, was it a *phenomenal* read at the end. 

‘Silver Nitrate’ shows the ugly of characters as well as it shows their ability to work together in the face of other’s ugly. Monserrat and Tristán were a duo that I found myself in love with from the start. They had a dynamic that grew and burned into what was the ending scene and I *loved* it SO much. There was just something about their flaws- one’s cowardice and the other’s unhealthy dive into what she finds interesting- being highlighted and then *actually* working through them at some point that grabbed me.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the magic system. I know the premise was in-story built by not so good people, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia creates this interesting system that almost had me like Monserrat in that I wanted to know more! I don’t know how much of real world occultism was used to help base the magic in ‘Silver Nitrate’ though, but the entwining of it *and* the idea of movies being more magic than what meets the eye was enthralling.
I think I’ve got a major book hangover with ‘Silver Nitrate’ though because I want more reads *just* like it. I want to know what happens after the ending and I honestly just need more Monserrat and Tristán! I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can read it all over again (and annotate it this time!)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Death, Antisemitism, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Most of the minor content warnings are brief mentions that are a bit pertinent to the story, but aren’t too in depth. The antisemitism is in the form of nazi talk/mentions of nazi occultism and racism in that aspect- eugenics included.

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