Reviews with content warning for Blood - Silver Nitrate

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

59 reviews

javafenn's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I would actually give this book a 3.5 but rated it a 4 here because the 3.5 is my fault. I ad a lot of health issues this past year that caused me to take a very long time to read this. That said, I really enjoyed this book! I loved the magic and horror of it all. The description of Tristán’s dead girlfriend in his apartment was terrifying! The occultism and Ewer’s obsession with pure lineage was believable too! It felt like Moreno-Garcia did a lot of research for it. I also absolutely loved how the book ended! Momo was fighting the ghost of Ewer’s the whole book but it really felt like that ghost was herself. She was fighting what she thought was the worst of herself. Very relatable!

Content Warnings

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

It was an interesting plot with a novel premise. The characters were likable enough, but I wish their backstories were explored further.
I feel that it tried to broach too many themes for such a short book and as a result it didn't have enough time to show-not-tell.

Content Warnings

paloverdepages's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I instantly have a soft spot for this book. The author has definitely found her audience with me; I love film history and magic, and I'm not familiar with the movie making scene of 1993 Mexico or the details of the Nazi's esoteric practices. There's lots of jargon, but not knowing it all doesn't interrupt the reading experience at all. It does start a bit slow, but once it gets going it doesn't let up. It really kept me guessing the whole way through and I was happy to be along for the ride. However, there's already so much going on in this book that we really didn't need the romance. It felt disappointing and forced.

I can suspend my disbelief at them running into and befriending their favorite forgotten director, but I did have a bit of an issue with

how much information he explicitly laid out for them (for the reader's benefit?).

My editor brain kicked on for some word choices and minor plot things. The intersection of Mexican film history and Nazi occultism and conspiracies is a pretty niche topic, but I think that some of the

pages upon pages of them meeting are too heavy on Urueta talking about this stuff. And some of the dialogue between the three of them seems a bit too explanatory (again, for the reader's benefit?)

. I did like the smaller scenes

of Montserrat researching

that broke up these instances.

Another thing that bothered me was how many times it was mentioned that Montserrat was wearing graphic t-shirt with a different movie poster on it? And more importantly, how some storylines seemed to be dropped or forgotten about. I don't think

the plot with Montserrat's sister having cancer was woven in as well as it could have been, or any information about her mother

, and I was super intrigued by Tristán's past and I wish we got a little bit more of that. It took a while to reveal anything substantial about him, and I wanted to hear more about

maybe his upbringing in a Lebanese family in Mexico, or his bisexuality in the film scene of the 90s (and Montserrat is bi too! Cool how normal it's treated, but I want DETAILS!)

. His character has depth that's only pointed at. It might be asking for too much given the type of story this is, but I wanted more from the character's backstories.

I also wanted a bit more from the setting. I LOVED the mentions of how the scene was becoming more Americanized, and I would have been interested to hear more about that through maybe some interactions that Montserrat or Tristán had with other people.

The overall plot is good, it just doesn't quite come together thematically. It touches on lots of interesting aspects without exploring any of them to their full potential. I think maybe this book needed another good once-over, but I've definitely enjoyed it to want to look into the rest of the author's work and maybe do some research of my own on what inspired her.

Content Warnings

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

imyril's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

An homage to pulp horror as two down on their luck friends on the periphery of the film industry get entangled in a decades old spell to resurrect a Nazi sorcerer. Some lovely FX shots (Alma’s light webs are fab), but the script and pacing feel uneven.

If film, fiction and magic all thrive on audience belief, Silver Nitrate never quite managed to enspell me. I can see what it was aiming for, I just didn’t enjoy it nowhere near as much as I hoped.

Content Warnings

hjb_128's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

falchionm's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

Content Warnings

tamara_joy's review

Go to review page

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

meika_one's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

More...