Reviews tagging 'Death'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

77 reviews

blacksphinx's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

I wish I could explain why this is a perfect 4 to me. It strongly appealed to my personal taste but I felt it was missing some ingredient that would blow it all up and make me obsessed with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Cultural appropriation

peppypenguin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

An engaging adventure with horror, magic and mystery. The concept of film as ritual and magic is, to me, unique. I enjoyed the care the author took to explain how the magic system works through the characters and progression of the story - it could have easily gone sideways and devolved into a nonsensical mess but it felt like going through a tutorial, so by the third act we have an idea of what is happening. I loved the main characters even when I didn’t. I felt they were well developed, and at the end of the day the story is also about their friendship and love for each other. It adds some cheesiness to the plot but that wasn’t an issue for me. Overall it’s a fun read that picks up the pace as it goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

gdulecki's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

Unfortunately I did not care about this book at all!! I usually love SMG’s books, but this one did not do it for me and I certainly would have dnf’d if I wasn’t reading it for one of the prompts on my StoryGraph challenge. Also that ending was stupid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Colonisation

drymice's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, and Car accident

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, and Alcohol

freso's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Drug abuse

nazi

occultism

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Silvia Moreno-Garcia does not disappoint. Silver Nitrate had me on the edge of my seat and is terrifying in all the right ways.

Monserrat and Tristán have been friends since they were kids, and though Monserrat has been in love with Tristán all these years, he is oblivious to her feelings. The boys' club running the film industry in Mexico City in the 90s leaves no place for Monserrat, even though she's an extremely talented sound editor. As an aging actor, Tristán is also starting to feel left out of the industry, too. So when he finds out that his new neighbor is a cult horror director who wants to work with himself and Monserrat, Tristán wants to jump in without any hesitation. However, Monserrat is a little more cautious. The director, Abel,  wants the two of them to help him finish a film that he never got the chance to complete, but that film has left everyone who has touched it with bad fortune. The person Abel originally worked with on the film was a Nazi who believed creating this film would bring them magical powers. Abel believes finishing the film will lift the curse and bring fortune and fame, as well as magic, to the trio, but once they start working on it, strange things start to happen that leave Monserrat and Tristán wondering just what they got themselves into.

This novel focuses on how obsession with the occult can drive people to go to the extreme. It also explored the art of film, especially horror movies, and how all of the pieces come together to create a sort of magic--and in this story, the magic happened to be real. After being powerless her whole life, both in her career and in her own body, Monserrat has to decide what to do with the very real power she gets ahold of. She has to choose whether power is the most important thing to her. 

Similarly to one of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's other novels, Mexican Gothic, this was a very atmospheric read. Silver Nitrate explores ritual and how the past can still permeate the present. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Cursing, and Vomit

shaun_dh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Silvia Moreno-Garcia can write a vibe, that’s for sure! This is a slow burn horror that took a little too long for me to get into. I found the plot to be a bit murky, but the vibes are immaculate. This is a great starting place if folks are wanting to do their toe into the horror genre

My biggest qualm with Moreno-Garcia’s writing is

her hurried romances. In both the books I’ve read of hers, she rushes a romance into the last four pages. Either flesh it out a bit more or leave it out entirely…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Colonisation

cbugsy'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

moscat's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Movie magick. Loved this. The seedy Gialli vibes, the creeping magic, the unraveling mystery, the period touches. My fave SMG.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

rodile's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a fun read! The main characters are Mexican disaster bisexuals, and their interactions are well-written. I enjoyed the portrayal of grief and its interplay with magic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Car accident

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Biphobia