I actually owed this post a while ago. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia has been out for a little while now. I had the advanced copy, however, it took me ages to finish this book.
I loved the mental games and gross horror of Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic. That made me excited for this one and the premise and cover looked awesome.
Not all books are created equal.
If it weren't for my faith in a stellar ending from Moreno-Garcia based off of Mexican Gothic, I probably would have DNF'd. Multiple times the book actually put me to sleep.
I don't think this was written for me. I can handle some vague references to Mexican culture, but these references were so niche that I was bored for the first two-thirds of the book. The discussions about sound editing, Mexican-produced horror movies and references to famous people had me lost. I don't even know if some of the celebrities mentioned off-hand were real or made up because of how niche the references throughout were.
I did not find the characters lovable. I'm not sure I was supposed to. Monserrat was kind of dull and Tristán was annoying. Abel was interesting, but that didn't last long.
Once the action finally picked up near the end, the book got interesting. However, I don't understand the magic system and don't understand how the characters just went with it without asking more questions.
It was a lovely mostly happy ending for the main characters and wrapped up neatly. I guess I liked that bit.
I will give major props to how descriptive the storytelling was. I could picture everything vividly.
It just truly wasn't written for me and wasn't as spooky good as Mexican Gothic.
Stars: 2/5
Busy Girls Rating: 2/5
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced copy. And thanks to Random House Publishing Group for the goodies below:
KB
Comments