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A review by sdsmith80
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
<strong>A twisted tale of magic!</strong>
I went into this novel a bit hesitant due to my kind of meh feelings about Mexican Gothic. I'm not a fan of Gothic horror, and wasn't sure if that style crossed over into her other books. I'm happy to say that it doesn't. This book was well paced, interesting, and held my attention.
I loved the character of Tristán, he greatly reminded me of my best friend back home, before he fell apart. The portrayal of their relationship felt so familiar and made me long for what I used to have. I really enjoyed his cockiness, and Montserrat's more mellow, intellectual personality played off of it so well.
The book also deals with two of my very favorite subjects; cults, and movies. Anyone who knows me knows just how worked up I get about film especially, to the point that I even married a special effects artist. The cult in this book felt grounded in some of the older groups that I know of, and the history of Mexican cinema was fascinating.
In the beginning, I kind of saw some elements of The Craft, with inexperienced people messing around with forces that they don't understand. That feeling quickly faded as the story came into its own, becoming a twisted and unique tale of magic. I was fully immersed and although some bits were easy to predict, much of the story unfolded in ways I couldn't predict.
I'm looking forward to checking out more of this author's books in the future.
I went into this novel a bit hesitant due to my kind of meh feelings about Mexican Gothic. I'm not a fan of Gothic horror, and wasn't sure if that style crossed over into her other books. I'm happy to say that it doesn't. This book was well paced, interesting, and held my attention.
I loved the character of Tristán, he greatly reminded me of my best friend back home, before he fell apart. The portrayal of their relationship felt so familiar and made me long for what I used to have. I really enjoyed his cockiness, and Montserrat's more mellow, intellectual personality played off of it so well.
The book also deals with two of my very favorite subjects; cults, and movies. Anyone who knows me knows just how worked up I get about film especially, to the point that I even married a special effects artist. The cult in this book felt grounded in some of the older groups that I know of, and the history of Mexican cinema was fascinating.
In the beginning, I kind of saw some elements of The Craft, with inexperienced people messing around with forces that they don't understand. That feeling quickly faded as the story came into its own, becoming a twisted and unique tale of magic. I was fully immersed and although some bits were easy to predict, much of the story unfolded in ways I couldn't predict.
I'm looking forward to checking out more of this author's books in the future.