Skip to main content

Certain Dark Things - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

5/5

A fresh take on the old classic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia manages to reimagine vampire lore into something completely unique. Take whatever previous notions you have of vampire stories and toss them out the window. She managed to introduce such an interesting take on vampires, ones that take on aspects from their cultures like Alt with ties to Aztec mythology and so on. 

All of these subspecies of vampire builds on the richness of the world Moreno-Garcia created. Alt flees to Mexico City, a closed nation free from any vampire after her family is killed by a rival gang of Necro vampires(a deadly European subspecies of vampires). With only Cualli, her loyal and deadly dog, and a garbage boy named Domingo helping her, she has to flee both the Necros and human gangs who wish her dead. 

Vampire gangs are definitely a new one for me. The characters come to life on the page within the excellent worldbuilding. You just get lost in the story, captivated until the very end. 

The diversity of the setting was rich and fulfilling and with the magical realism threaded in heavily, it's even better. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for an ARC!

*This title was previously published with a different publisher. 

9/7/21

*This review was previously posted on my Google Site.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Honeys - Ryan La Sala

5/5 ⭐ TBR: 8/16/22 Dark academia meets summer camp, and the vibes are immaculate. This LGBTQIA+ inclusive horror will bring the monsters into the daylight and make the reader rethink everything they thought they knew about the horror genre. With the genderfluid Mars and the rest of the Hive, each with their own purpose, this is one community... cult, that you don’t want to mess with. This is such a divine summer read, and I so enjoyed it! Thank you to Scholastic for access to the arc in exchange for an honest review. 7/27/22 *This review was previously posted on my Google Site.

Payback's a Witch - Lana Harper

5/5 ⭐ Filled with a fantastical description, feisty characters, and a devious plan concocted by three spurned witches, this book is hard to put down. I am notorious for being picky when it comes to fantasy and romance stories, so finding one that was a combination of both that I loved was thrilling. Emmy Harlow has finally returned home in order to fulfill a centuries-long tradition in her family. I don't know if it was just me but I could feel the struggles Emmy was facing from page one. Harper managed to make her feel alive and genuine, which I am coming to find appeals to me when reading. Emmy fled her hometown nearly 10 years earlier and the wounds are still hurting. She's a little lost, a little pissed, and a little in love. Her homecoming is something she struggles with throughout most of the main story. The longing for a home but not knowing if it is the place she grew up in, the magical and wonderful Thistle Grove. Or if it is magicless, solitary Chicago to which she fl...

The Family Plot - Megan Collins

  4/5 ⭐ A family brought up learning about everything through the lens of true crime. Murder, mayhem, and death are the Lighthouse family's close companions. I was looking forward to this book since reading the summary. I have a mild interest in true crime and was interested in seeing how this story would incorporate such a widely talked about topic. For some, true crime is overdone and saturates media. And if anything, I think Collins does a fantastic job of acknowledging that fact and takes on true crime in a new and unique fashion. We are immediately introduced to the main setting, Blackburn Island, home to a serial killer who was never caught and the home of the 4 Lighthouse children and their... peculiar parents. I thought that Collins did a good job with the characters introducing them one right after another without it feeling rushed or like we were missing something. If anything it felt as though we learned a lot about the family within just the first few chapters. Without ...