Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Silver Nitrate

ok by self-admission this lowkey kinda breaks my "lgbt authors and/or stories only for june" but... the story says both leads are bisexual so it counts in my eyes!
now, other than that... this book was erm... not my style!
i think 2-stars is a tad harsh, but i dont like to give half-star ratings and 3-stars seems too.... nice.
my biggest BIGGEST issue is that the plot is so fantastical. and im not talking about the actual elements. like yeah no duh a story about a cursed movie with runes and witchcraft and shit is gonna be fantasy-based. but like this plot was so.....
first off, blurb is a liar. the blurb does NOT reflect the proper story sorry. like i thought this would be a cute thriller or horror... you know... like the book says. but i would say this has literally zero horror elements. well maybe one or two but like in a 315-page book? nah that doesnt meet the horror genre. this is magical realism and/or fantasy.
also the plot literally is all over the place. most of the time i had no idea what was going on. like at the beginning i could keep up! but then after things felt rushed, explanations felt wishy-washy, and i was waiting for this to be over. honestly the only thing that kept me reading this was montserrat. shes a baddie, an icon, a fellow cripple queen, and the bisexual icon we DESERVE.
another grievance is that the plot took so long to start. like when the mystical elements are introduced >50% in the story.... its a chop im afraid.
ending felt weird, epilogue feels forced, story went from x character being resistant to what was going on to participating in like 50 pages.
idk man i think i might have liked this more if i didnt go in with false expectations. false expectations, mind you, the blurb of the book & its categorisations on storygraph + goodreads provided.
anyways i will say this was not a horror book you cannot convince me of that. its a thriller at best. but because i literally did not care about any character other than montserrat it was not thrilling.
this book was a let down and i can feel it begging to drag me into a slump. did not have fun.

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mari1532's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

#ReadLatineLit hosted by @iamrainbou

I read this audiobook through my local library.

Brief Summary: Montserrat, a brilliant sound engineer, is facing sexism where she is the only female sound editor. In addition to her struggles at work, she is trying to help her sister through her cancer treatments and be emotionally supportive of her childhood best friend, Tristán a charming but out-of-work soap opera star. However, Montserrat attempts to keep her life on track and her feelings for Tristán in check things are taken off the rails when she meets Tristán's mysterious neighbour Abel Urueta.

At first, Montserrat is intrigued by Abel as he is the director of a lost film that was never finished. As she and Tristán get to know Abel they learn that the film is shrouded in mystery because it's cursed. When Abel asks for assistance in removing the curse Tristán and Montserrat think no harm will come from helping him. That is until they start to see ghosts and shadows. Racing against the clock Montserrat and Tristán have to work together to untangle the intricate web of occultism that they've awakened.

Thoughts: First, I want to make it very clear that this book deals with Nazi ideology and cancer treatment. Both of these things permeate the book and at times could be very difficult to hear, so if these are topics you do not enjoy reading, I would not recommend this book.

Second, I did not enjoy the romance aspect of this book. In part because I did not think that Tristán was particularly motivated to be in a relationship, nor did I necessarily like the romantic dynamics between him and Montserrat throughout the book. In the end, it felt a bit like he was settling because he a. didn't want to die alone and/or b. experienced excitation transfer/trauma bonding due to what he and Montserrat experienced. I liked them much better as friends.

Third, the book was a bit slow to build to the climax, but I found the story interesting throughout. Moreno-Garcia's writing is so engrossing that I didn't notice how long it was taking to get to the end of the book. I also found the mystery, occultist angle kept the story riveting.

Finally, I think that Moreno-Garcia dealt with several very difficult topics throughout this book and managed to do so in a way that made Montserrat and Tristán interesting and flawed human beings. Morally grey characters are so hard to get right in a book and I felt that Moreno-Garcia did just that throughout the book. I also learned a great deal about the film industry in general and loved how Montserrat was such a nerd (I mean this with great love) about movies and the film industry.

This is a good book that had me captivated until the end. I would recommend it.

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javafenn's review

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I would actually give this book a 3.5 but rated it a 4 here because the 3.5 is my fault. I ad a lot of health issues this past year that caused me to take a very long time to read this. That said, I really enjoyed this book! I loved the magic and horror of it all. The description of Tristán’s dead girlfriend in his apartment was terrifying! The occultism and Ewer’s obsession with pure lineage was believable too! It felt like Moreno-Garcia did a lot of research for it. I also absolutely loved how the book ended! Momo was fighting the ghost of Ewer’s the whole book but it really felt like that ghost was herself. She was fighting what she thought was the worst of herself. Very relatable!

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paloverdepages's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

3.0

I instantly have a soft spot for this book. The author has definitely found her audience with me; I love film history and magic, and I'm not familiar with the movie making scene of 1993 Mexico or the details of the Nazi's esoteric practices. There's lots of jargon, but not knowing it all doesn't interrupt the reading experience at all. It does start a bit slow, but once it gets going it doesn't let up. It really kept me guessing the whole way through and I was happy to be along for the ride. However, there's already so much going on in this book that we really didn't need the romance. It felt disappointing and forced.

I can suspend my disbelief at them running into and befriending their favorite forgotten director, but I did have a bit of an issue with

how much information he explicitly laid out for them (for the reader's benefit?).

My editor brain kicked on for some word choices and minor plot things. The intersection of Mexican film history and Nazi occultism and conspiracies is a pretty niche topic, but I think that some of the

pages upon pages of them meeting are too heavy on Urueta talking about this stuff. And some of the dialogue between the three of them seems a bit too explanatory (again, for the reader's benefit?)

. I did like the smaller scenes

of Montserrat researching

that broke up these instances.

Another thing that bothered me was how many times it was mentioned that Montserrat was wearing graphic t-shirt with a different movie poster on it? And more importantly, how some storylines seemed to be dropped or forgotten about. I don't think

the plot with Montserrat's sister having cancer was woven in as well as it could have been, or any information about her mother

, and I was super intrigued by Tristán's past and I wish we got a little bit more of that. It took a while to reveal anything substantial about him, and I wanted to hear more about

maybe his upbringing in a Lebanese family in Mexico, or his bisexuality in the film scene of the 90s (and Montserrat is bi too! Cool how normal it's treated, but I want DETAILS!)

. His character has depth that's only pointed at. It might be asking for too much given the type of story this is, but I wanted more from the character's backstories.

I also wanted a bit more from the setting. I LOVED the mentions of how the scene was becoming more Americanized, and I would have been interested to hear more about that through maybe some interactions that Montserrat or Tristán had with other people.

The overall plot is good, it just doesn't quite come together thematically. It touches on lots of interesting aspects without exploring any of them to their full potential. I think maybe this book needed another good once-over, but I've definitely enjoyed it to want to look into the rest of the author's work and maybe do some research of my own on what inspired her.

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hauntedantiqueshop's review

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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? No

4.0

This book was a love letter to all the weird, slightly off putting girls who grew up loving witches and occultism and had a vast knowledge of obscure movies. Sooo basically me 😋

I would have probably rated it higher had there been no romance aspect but that’s just me.

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