A review by displacedcactus
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
As usual, Silvia Moreno-Garcia does an amazing job of conjuring a sense of time and place, while populating her story with characters who are kind of annoying. This time around, we've got two childhood friends well into their 30s, both struggling with their careers, who find themselves caught up in a plot involving magic, an unfinished possibly cursed horror film, and conflict between several factions who all have their own idea of how the magical film should be put to use. All of this against the backdrop of 1993 Mexico City.

Moreno-Garcia weaves in classic horror films, film dubbing, Mexican cinema culture, and Nazi occultism (and how Nazism intersected with racism in Mexico). You'll probably learn a lot of interesting facts along the way.

This book has bisexual and disability rep, and one of the characters is Lebanese-Mexican. It's surprisingly diverse for a book with a relatively small cast of named characters.
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