Silvia Moreno-Garcia pulls zero punches, bares all the fangs, and goes for every throat in the room with Certain Dark Things . Afterward, Atl’s family got into the drug trade, but according to Atl, a new set of colonizers have taken over. But then there’s the ending of the book – or, more accurately, the lack of one – and it’s such a disappointing fizzle that I just can’t bring myself to have the same enthusiasm for the book that the rest of it deserves. The moment they meet Domingo knows that Atl is something special, and the two of them form a bond despite their differences.

Headlines link vampires to the drug war, but Atl’s hunger for blood is tied to her survival, not to addiction. This book has rock-solid world-building, very compelling characters, and a wonderfully addicting storyline filled with action and violence.The book’s climax is perfectly okay, but I genuinely assumed there was more to come, as it felt really of a piece with the other set pieces, but no – that’s the end of the book, complete with a coup de grâce that feels so brief as to almost be an afterthought (and not worth the buildup that we’ve been given, especially since the reveal is shot a few pages earlier). A book like this can have tons of action and cool vampire powers, but what matters to me is the characters, and I loved the relationship that this book builds between Atl and Domingo. As well as this she explains how different countries dealt with the realisation of Vampires, and how exactly they came to be expelled from Mexico City. I eagerly await her next release * Scorpio Book Dreams * The perfect blend of fantasy, horror and noir, with vivid characters and set in a Mexico City that became a character in and of itself . But as with all rules, there are times

From Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic , comes Certain Dark Things, a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.Please note, we're talking the dangerous, brutal kind of vampires, not the sparkling, romantic ones. As, in the world of Certain Dark Things, there are different strains of vampires, each with different powers and cultures and such.

He finds her beautiful, so when she asks him to be her “friend”, he willingly provides a small blood donation (and hopes to take it further). I love books that make me feel I'm in another world -- and books that help me to better understand this one. Titling a book is hard, of course, but Moreno-Garcia has certainly turned out some more evocative titles like Gods of Jade and Shadow or Mexican Gothic or The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. CERTAIN DARK THINGS takes vampires, turns them into different types of vampires, then introduces some vampire genealogy, and lastly, plops it all down into Mexico City where vampires aren't even allowed.He had his comic books and graphic novels to keep him company, but most of the time, when he was bored, he would watch people as they walked around the subway lines. He meets Atl with an almost immediate encounter as he sees her and her dog, Cualli, on the same train and she asks him to come home with her. It was just like with the regular passengers; Domingo melted into the tiles, the grime, the shadows. Atl’s and Domingo’s backstories were trickled out to the reader, although I wish she had gone a little deeper into the characterizations.

Describe the ways in which Mexico City is presented as if it were a character, from the ancient Zócalo where the Aztecs gathered to the modern nightlife of the Zona Rosa. Moreno-Garcia uses folklore/mythology reference to give us the understanding of why each vampire race is different than the rest, and has an epic glossary at the back with a more detailed description of each type of Vampire and the historical reference’s she drew from for them. She has many dangerous people looking for her and Domingo insists on helping; even though he is clueless to the ins-and-outs of the vampire world. I’ve read many vampire novels this past year (as detailed in my previous post, “What I’ve learned from reading vampire novels” while many vampire novels put their own twist on the genre, Certain Dark things was one of the novels that stood out to me. However, as the only officer on the force with experience killing vampires, she can’t help but get dragged into a case involving two vampires loose in the “vampire-free” city.

Domingo is willing to put it all on the line to help Atl, but will his loyalty, optimism, and street kid smarts be enough to keep her safe in a world where so many powerful people want her dead? I got bored with the sameness of it after a while, but this book reminded me of what I love about the genre. She also takes common genres and tropes but then infuses them with Mexican culture, history, and mythology.