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ushashib 's review for:
Velvet Was the Night
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Velvet Was the Night is my third book by Moreno-Garcia. I did not like her wildly popular Mexican Gothic and was not greatly impressed by The Daughter of Dr. Moreau either. Needless to say, I went in without much expectations (only because it was a book club pick). But to my pleasant surprise, I quite liked this one.
Velvet Was the Night is set in a tumultuous period in Mexican history, the Dirty War of the 1970s. This story follows a Maite, a single secretary obsessed with romance comics, whose neighbor Leonora goes missing. Maite has spent her life at a distance from the student political activities but Leonora turns out to be involved in the said politics and Maite goes in search for her because she was left with Leonora’s cat before her fateful disappearance. On the other hand we see Elvis, a thug in the govt organization Hawks that’s used to intimidate and control student activism. Elvis, with a penchant for music, is put to the duty of locating Leonora. Thus the mystery ensues and different characters cross paths until the final action-packed showdown.
Moreno-Garcia has a flare in her prose and ambiance creation, which I couldn’t deny even when I thoroughly disliked her plots. That flare is intact here. What’s better is that this time the plot is fictional and yet dipped in history. This book will transport the reader to the 1970s Mexico City and give them a taste of the society and politics. I could feel the atmospheric fear of oppression of that time, but it was not overbearing. I liked the choice of having Maite as one of the two protagonists. Although she got embroiled in the mystery, she was a common person with no involvement or interest in the political activities around her. Her, put in contrast with Elvis who is bang in the middle of the action or the elusive Leonora, really worked in the story.
This is a well-paced and well-written thriller, that also taught me something about world history. I’d call that a win.
Velvet Was the Night is set in a tumultuous period in Mexican history, the Dirty War of the 1970s. This story follows a Maite, a single secretary obsessed with romance comics, whose neighbor Leonora goes missing. Maite has spent her life at a distance from the student political activities but Leonora turns out to be involved in the said politics and Maite goes in search for her because she was left with Leonora’s cat before her fateful disappearance. On the other hand we see Elvis, a thug in the govt organization Hawks that’s used to intimidate and control student activism. Elvis, with a penchant for music, is put to the duty of locating Leonora. Thus the mystery ensues and different characters cross paths until the final action-packed showdown.
Moreno-Garcia has a flare in her prose and ambiance creation, which I couldn’t deny even when I thoroughly disliked her plots. That flare is intact here. What’s better is that this time the plot is fictional and yet dipped in history. This book will transport the reader to the 1970s Mexico City and give them a taste of the society and politics. I could feel the atmospheric fear of oppression of that time, but it was not overbearing. I liked the choice of having Maite as one of the two protagonists. Although she got embroiled in the mystery, she was a common person with no involvement or interest in the political activities around her. Her, put in contrast with Elvis who is bang in the middle of the action or the elusive Leonora, really worked in the story.
This is a well-paced and well-written thriller, that also taught me something about world history. I’d call that a win.