Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Certain Dark Things

This was definitely outside my comfort zone as far as genre is concerned, and I genuinely liked it. This is a vampire crime noir. Imagine a gritty urban crime story based in Mexico City, with battling vampire drug cartels. Atl is a vampire and is on the run for her life. She is the daughter of one of the largest cartel families in South America, and another cartel vampire family is after her. Meanwhile, the cops/government are not fond of vampires and trying to extinguish them, considering them a threat. Atl takes up with a street kid, Domingo, who is overly curious, sometimes annoying and now they are in it together on the run.

This is a brutal and bloody story. It is so well written. I really enjoyed it. Noir is not usually something I reach for, but I can never resist a vampire story. Definitely recommend if you like crime stories or vampires.

Content Warnings

phoebemurtagh's review

Go to review page

3.5

3.5: a good, well-written, atmospheric read. The only reason I don't rate it higher is that it didn't really... hook me? I liked it, wanted to keep reading it the whole time, looked forward to seeing what happened, and now I have finished it and find myself pretty content. Not amazed, not pining, not disappointed. The book was good and now is read. Would recommend.

Content Warnings

bookbunnie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

Read this if you’re interested in the histories and abilities of multiple vampire subspecies, love a sweet and simple lovestruck character, and enjoy the classic dynamic of detectives, cops and criminals all being equivalently crooked.

Don’t read this if you want the elegant prose of ethereal vampire angst, need a lot of character development to be satisfied, or want a villain with substance.

This book explores the characters’ different relationships to solitude in part by examining their living conditions and in part by their actions taken to preserve, avoid, or accept their loneliness.

It was a simple and easy read, gritty but not unpalatable.

Content Warnings

emmdashed's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

Sylvia Moreno-Garcia paints a realized and captivating world in Certain Dark Things. All of the lore she created, this whole sprawling world of different vampires with all their physical and cultural differences were fascinating. However, this does create the issue of the book feeling a little too exposition heavy especially in the beginning. Kind of a Catch-22 she created: we need to know this world, but given that the book is so short creating the individual characters and story may have taken a bit of a back burner to explaining all the lore. At least it was well thought out, interesting lore that kept me reading.

The main POV characters themselves were fine. I didn't dislike them, but I didn't really fall in love with them either. Least favorite was Nick because he feels like a character we've seen too many times before: brutish and hot-headed, horny, rich boy. Atl and Domingo were alright, I liked them well enough, though I wasn't always sure I bought Domingo's blithe nature and immediate, absolute loyalty when there seemed little reason other than attraction. Ana and Rodrigo were interesting to me. Rodrigo really hit that banality of evil, 'I'm so tired I'll do awful things just to get out a little faster' vibe. Ana also had that scrappy cleverness that made me root for her even when she started doing some some morally gray stuff.

(Honestly she got done dirty by this book. Justice for Ana)

Favorite character by a long shot was Bernadino. Love that Old Honor Bound by Tradition Vampire shit, and he was just fun to read about ?? Also I just was really intrigued by Revenant vampire ideas.

The plot was also just Fine, not bad, but not incredible. Writing was very good, solid description of scenes and action without going too overboard. I could visualize everything, and enjoyed the words.

I really hope Moreno-Garcia revisits this world in the future. A lot of concepts were touched on that I would love to see more explored. More different vampires, more about the seedy underworld in and out of Mexico City, and more of those near future aspects like the weird illnesses, and the genetically modified animals. Maybe a story in the past too, Bernardino and Atl's mother's lives before this story would be super interesting.

Overall a solid book if you're okay with a lot of exposition and worldbuilding. I didn't connect with all of it the story but that's probably more personal preference than any real fault with the writing. Like I said hopefully she comes back to this world again!!!

Content Warnings

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-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

3.75

I wanted to like this book much more than I did. There were a lot of things I loved about it but I just found it didn't grab my attention the way I wanted it to.

Content Warnings

womanwill's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

hanz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

More...