A review by mentat_stem
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

adventurous dark mysterious

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

4.75

A sound engineer (Montserrat) and her childhood friend (Tristán) get caught up in shenanigans surrounding a cursed film in mid 90’s Mexico.

I love Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing. She has the science fiction writer’s grasp of just how much your characters can infodump to propel vs weigh down the story.  In the case of Silver Nitrate we get a ton of inside baseball on the craft of movie production in the last decade before the transition to digital started. Montserrat fills us in on sound editing while Tristán gives us the actor’s viewpoint. These are older characters (early 40’s) interacting mostly with characters significantly older.

The mystery of the unfinished film and the backstory of the main characters are established well in the first 70% or so of the book. Almost everything up to that point could be mimetic. No definitive need for supernatural explanations. The world of the protagonists feels lived in even though some of the antagonists are significantly less developed. The sounds and smells of December in Mexico stay with you.

At the point where magic can no longer be questioned, the rules have been established and the ultimate battle against evil sprints to the finish line.

Fighting an undead Nazi sorcerer

would be outright silly in less capable hands. It becomes the best bits of Lovecraft, with all the problematic bits exposed and examined with a clear head. This definitely gets shelved with The Weird.

I love the ups and downs of the friendship between Montserrat and Tristán over the course of the book. Rarely is a platonic MF relationship both so intense and nuanced.

Highly recommended, especially to horror movie geeks and anyone who likes a bit of the occult in their fiction.