Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Title: Silver Nitrate
Series: n/a
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Source/Format: NetGalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy; Historical Fiction; Mystery
Publisher/Publication Date: Del Rey; July 18, 2023

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed. Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a favorite author over here on my end of Our Thoughts Precisely. I’ve read a handful of her books: Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, Velvet Was the Night, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and The Return of the Sorceress. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to nab an eARC of her latest novel from NetGalley. I couldn’t read it right away, because there were other ARCs that were ahead of it. However, once it was June, it was the first one on my list.

Silver Nitrate promised to be thrilling and dark, and full of curses and magic. What I got was an incredibly immersive story that was exactly the right amount of horror, fantasy, and historical fiction. Set in Mexico City in the 90s, it had a focus on films and occultism. There were pop culture references, but there was a particular emphasis on the work of a fictional director named Abel Urueta and one of his movies. However, the aforementioned film wasn’t just any. It was incomplete, and it came with its own particularly troubled infamy—and a dangerous mystery that spanned decades.

I liked how Moreno-Garcia approached this aspect of the story: the historical details and how they influenced the fantasy ones. The occultism was an important part of the overall magic, but that was combined with commentary about prejudice and the cherry-picking—the twisting and claiming—of knowledge and traditions from other people. Creating an ensemble of bone-chilling antagonists that were menacing shadows across much of the story, producing some of the eeriest moments of Silver Nitrate.

This book also had wonderfully complicated characters, but that’s something that—after reading now six novels—I know this author does well (and it’s something I look forward to). The POVs consisted of Tristán, a soap opera star who sought an opportunity to revive his career, and Montserrat, a sound editor frustrated with the film industry. There were decades of history between the two, spanning back to their childhood. They knew each other and their respective habits. Their relationship—though complicated and not without its hiccups—felt organic and real, and it was something I truly loved about this book.

At the end of the day, Silver Nitrate is another exceptional novel from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Among the ones I’ve read, it’s one of my top-favorites to date.

 

About the author....

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of several novels, including Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. She has also edited a number of anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination.

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Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Del Rey) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you! 

Music Monday (248): FKA Twigs featuring Daniel Caesar

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: Over the weekend, I revisited FKA Twigs' 2022 mixtap, Caprisongs. It's been a minute since I last listened to it in full, and, oh man, I forgot how good it was! And I really wanted to share another one of my favorite songs for today's Music Monday. Give a listen to Careless featuring Daniel Caesar!

What are you listening to this week?

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Title: The Color of Magic
Series: Discworld #1
Author: Terry Pratchett
Source/Format: Purchased; Mass Market Paperback
More Details: Fantasy; Comedy
Publisher/Publication Date: First Published December 1, 1983

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Imagine, if you will . . . a flat world sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. In truth, the Discworld is not so different from our own. Yet, at the same time, very different . . . but not so much.

In this, the maiden voyage through Terry Pratchett's divinely and recognizably twisted alternate dimension, the well-meaning but remarkably inept wizard Rincewind encounters something hitherto unknown in the Discworld: a tourist! Twoflower has arrived, Luggage by his side, to take in the sights and, unfortunately, has cast his lot with a most inappropriate tour guide—a decision that could result in Twoflower's becoming not only Discworld's first visitor from elsewhere . . . but quite possibly, portentously, its very last. And, of course, he's brought Luggage along, which has a mind of its own. And teeth.

I have not read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series in order. My first—and only—two forays into it was a pair of the Tiffany Aching books (Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight). But, for a while now, I’ve wanted to go all the way back to beginning, to read for myself how the series actually began.

The Color of Magic was humorous in all the right ways! It poked fun at a lot of classic fantasy tropes—like wizards, magic, dragons, and heroes—by showing them in the most absurd light. No matter how dangerous the situation, the narrative always provided ironic twists with the most convoluted (and often times hilarious) solutions.

And that was coupled with the other big aspect I enjoyed about The Color of Magic: its characters. Rincewind, Twoflower, and the Luggage (and yes, there were puns everywhere) worked well as a trio for this adventure.

To date, this series has one of my all-time favorite settings: Great A’Tuin, the giant turtle flying through space with four elephants on its back, who hold up the flat (disk shaped) world. And I don’t think I fully appreciated the setting as much I did with this book. Maybe it was the story, or how certain ridiculous areas were still adequate obstacles and a source of tension. I don’t know, but I was having a great time.

And that is the crux of it. I had so much fun reading this book, and I know that I’ll end up checking out more Discworld stories.

 

Music Monday (247): Wednesday Campanella

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: This week, I wanted to mention another of my favorite Wednesday Campanella songs. This one is called Yeti.

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (237) & Book Beginnings: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Imagine, if you will . . . a flat world sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. In truth, the Discworld is not so different from our own. Yet, at the same time, very different . . . but not so much.

In this, the maiden voyage through Terry Pratchett's divinely and recognizably twisted alternate dimension, the well-meaning but remarkably inept wizard Rincewind encounters something hitherto unknown in the Discworld: a tourist! Twoflower has arrived, Luggage by his side, to take in the sights and, unfortunately, has cast his lot with a most inappropriate tour guide—a decision that could result in Twoflower's becoming not only Discworld's first visitor from elsewhere . . . but quite possibly, portentously, its very last. And, of course, he's brought Luggage along, which has a mind of its own. And teeth.

Beginning: "In a distant and secondhand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part... See... Great A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge ancient shell pocked with meteor craters."

56: "The Luggage backed off slowly."

Comments: I have finally gone back and read the beginning of the Discworld series. This book was delightful and very funny. What are you reading this week?