Reviewish: Certain Dark Things

I am extremely excited to talk about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's second novel, Certain Dark Things, which released today (October 25th). Ultimately, I'm giving this one five stars; I loved it. But, I want to talk about it, so you can decide that you want to take a chance on loving it too.

Let me start with a history lesson; in Moreno-Garcia's collection of short stories, Love & Other Poisons, there is a story called "A Puddle of Blood" - it's available to read online (just click on the title), if you're interested. In fact, it might help convince you that this novel is worth a few hours of your time. Adding a little more prestige to its mantle, this short story is also found in Evolve 2: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead and Imaginarium 2012: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. But I strongly suggest picking up Moreno-Garcia's collection directly - it is a trove of great storytelling. Of course, I have more history - none of it personal - with the author, which I discussed in my reviews of Love & Other Poisons and her debut novel Signal to Noise. The internet has opened crazy new horizons for readers and writers alike, and I'm so glad that this is one I continue to explore. And so, with the stage set, let me tell you a little about Certain Dark Things.

Mexico City. Vampires unlike any you've known. Cops and gangs. And a little bit of utterly realistic - in its unhealthiness, its naivety, and its sincerity -  love.

Certain Dark Things follows the events that unfold when Nick Godoy, a Necros vampire and spoiled heir of his family's dynasty, chases Atl into Mexico City, a vampire-free zone, and she meets Domingo, a street kid who helps her. Other primary players are Ana, a cop who would be a good cop if she weren't enmeshed in a system so corrupt that corruption is the only way anything gets done; Rodrigo, a 'Renfield' to the Godoy family, sent along with Nick to babysit the spoiled brat; and Bernardino, a Revenant vampire.

The story is told from several points of view, though my mind folded the storytelling down into three essential perspectives (if you're much more detail oriented, this might make you crazy): Domingo-Atl, Ana, and Rodrigo-Nick. Each has their own interpersonal stories warping and weaving together, bringing these three forces together and to a head at the story's end, but these are the primary forces driving and moving the plot through its paces.

And its pace is good! The story is built up with purpose, so that as the plot unwinds one thing follows and flows into the next.

The world building is solid, the reinvention of vampires is convincing, and the characters are dirty and flawed. While Moreno-Garcia's strengths unfold beautifully in terms of her world building and vampires, her characters have become a consistent point of interest and engagement for me. Domingo is naive and allows himself to romanticize vampires, even though he's familiar enough with the monstrous parts of them. Atl is stubborn, spoiled by her own admission, and unwilling to be vulnerable--and when she is, she becomes angry and defensive over it. Nick is rash, cocky; though I cannot say I ever felt much sympathy or empathy for Nick, I am very aware of people like him. And Ana - who, for some reason, makes me think of Hannah McCabe (from Frankie Y. Bailey's mysteries) - is someone who might have been a good person, a heroic figure, if she weren't so mired in a world that has no space for that sort of thing. These are flawed people, but they read like real people. Their multi-dimensionality is built in seamlessly. They are flawed in ways that often make them unlikable, but those flaws are utterly believable, and for people who recognize the good and the bad in themselves and others, this author's work is a breath of fresh air. We are given characters more like ourselves, and it makes being human a bit easier to swallow.

All in all, Certain Dark Things earns every star I'm giving it and it is possible it deserves bonus stars; strong characterization, solid world building, a well-paced and engaging plot-line are topped off with the revamping of the vampire (you can't blame me, I can't be the ONLY person to have made that pun) through a lens that isn't all European lore. As if that weren't enough, these vampires remain monsters, despite their unmasking - unlike other takes in urban fantasy that try to integrate monsters into society as members (which I have also enjoyed). In a way, with the tangled legalities, the threats of human and monster violence, and the gang/clan conflicts, Certain Dark Things is exactly the kind of story I wanted out of certain vampire-based table top games, but never quite achieved.

On top of this, Certain Dark Things is another "satisfying ending" notch for Moreno-Garcia's belt. I struggle with endings, as a reader and a writer, and I have seen big names flop so hard at the end of a book that I can't imagine how they bounce back. With both Signal to Noise and Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia has crafted satisfying conclusions to stories that could have gone badly in so many different ways.

5/5 stars!

Transparency: I received this book through the publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, via NetGalley. I do not receive any affiliate bonuses from links to books (or other products) on this blog.

Reviewish: Signal to Noise

I loved Silvia Moreno-Garcia's debut novel, Signal to Noise. There, I said it.

I've seen other reviews and so many of them say it so much better than I can hope to, but I'll give this a try.

My experience as a reader far exceeded my expectations--not that I had low expectations! I just don't usually go into a book with my hopes up, that way they don't get dashed, and that way I can provide something closer to an "honest" review that isn't tainted by those expectations (the way people ruin movies for themselves by expecting those movies to be their vision of what the book ought to have been on the big screen).

I went in with an open mind, unsure what to expect. Wait, that's a lie. I expected ONE thing: good, solid prose. I've read Moreno-Garcia's short story collection Love & Other Poisons and that's what persuaded me to seek out getting my hands on a copy of Signal to Noise. She delivered.

Meche is a protagonist you might love or you might hate, but it seems more reasonable to feel a little bit of both for her. She's a complex girl/woman and that is handled masterfully as the story navigates between the late 1980s flashbacks and the 2009 "current" narrative in the text. As is every other character. The only 'flat' figures are background characters who are more part of the scenery than real characters, and even those are often given a touch of color to make them real and present. The back and forth in time works so well to build up the story that's being told; far better than if it had been told in sequential order.

The book walks a very interesting line between young adult and teen fiction (I make a distinction because "adult" has implications, even accompanied by young, that I wouldn't include in fiction I might be showing to a 13 year old) without dumbing anything down or amping up the 'adult' part. It's a great balance.

I look forward to reading more work by Silvia, that's for sure. Especially if one of those works is "about vampires and drug dealers and it’s set in Mexico City, starring a street kid who meets an Aztec vampire on the run."

Plus, this book made me feel a little less weird about how I feel compelled to touch things in thrift stores and other secondhand shops, looking for those sparks from the items' pasts.

As a note, for transparency, and to comply with FTC guidelines: I received a copy of Signal to Noise through NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Reviewish: Love & Other Poisons - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I don't know why I waited so long to read work by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Honestly and truly. There wasn't any particular reason I put it off - I've know about her through Lovecraftian community associations for a while. I've followed/associated with her on Facebook since the Ladies & Squids conversation in a FB group spawned the clarion call for ladies writing in weird fiction to get a spotlight shone on them.

In fact, I'm exceedingly excited about the project that came out of that discussion: She Walks In Shadows - An all-woman Lovecraft anthology - the first, even. (I couldn't decide which link to use, so I thought I'd use the four most prominent/important links that will provide information on the project.)

Since then, I've dragged my feet in seeking out and devouring new fiction. My Reviewish posts represent a long-running backlog of reading - though not the only reading I'm doing (never mind the academia stuff) - that really got me excited about authors who were new-to-me. Silvia gets added to this list.

Sometimes I feel ashamed in going for offers of free books for reviews, but it's really the only way I can 'afford' to explore new authors. I'm a college student with 3 very flimsy and irregular part time jobs. My food budget for 1-2 weeks is what most people spend on a cheap dinner out. So, when Silvia posted that she was willing to give out a copy of her short story collection Love & Other Poisons in exchange for a review, I was more than happy to oblige.

I didn't know what to expect, but I was looking forward to the discovery of it all. I was not disappointed.

I will start by saying that the book itself - I read the electronic format - is well done. The cover art is lovely, and I only found a couple of places where there may or may not have been minor typos (they were so minor that I only remember they existed, not where they were. I should go back and make notes and forward those back to the author/publisher in case they want to fix them).

I read the collection on the bus and was so enthralled with it that a complete stranger tapped me on the shoulder to ask what I was reading. This has never happened to me before. It's true, though, I was enthralled.

Right out of the gate, the stories don't fall into too-familiar archetypes. They don't all follow the expectations we get for short stories from our mountains of literature or creative writing courses. What do they do? They weave a moment of time, a series of events, into a mural that stands out and stands up against the mundanity in which they exist. (Though I'd argue that some of the worlds the author presents through these stories are anything but mundane, even if you are steeped in fantastical literature.)

One theme that spoke strongly to me and I thus saw repeated was that of escaping with a "magical" companion. Don't read 'magical' literally - though you could. (That's a part of the allure of the collection on the whole - the promise and lure that something could be taken as so much more than it is, or that you can take at face value.)

My favorites:
"Man in Blue Overcoat"
"Shedding  Her Own Skin"
"Distant Deeps or Skies"
"A Puddle of Blood"

These four stories interestingly contain an equal balance of staying and leaving, and being tempted away from one's regular life.  But it's not quite temptation; in at least a couple cases, it is an opportunity for escape.

I wonder if Theresa ever accepts the offer of the nahual.

Honorable Mentions:
"Kaleidoscope" - the theme here is other lives. This story resounded with me as this is a scenario I've conjured in my mind in relation to particular people in my life. If it's nothing you've experienced, you might not connect the same way to the story.
"Enchantment" - oddly enough, this is the story I was reading when the stranger on the bus interrupted me. It's about self-narratives and the people around us who might choose to play the roles we've assigned them, and what happens when we ruin our own stories by pushing too hard, lingering too long in a moment.
"A Handful of Earth" - can't knock a callback to Dracula and what happens to his 'brides' when he's gone away.  It's a look into the evolution of a vampire, and what that story might look like from the inside.

I could go on and on about almost every story in the collection. There's nothing bad for me to say about any of them. Some I obviously liked more than others, but I didn't dislike any of them. I didn't find any of them particularly "weak" and none of them felt like filler. Though my experience is admittedly sparse when it comes to single-author short story collections, this one stands as a very solid example. It is likely to be the standard against which I judge other single-author collections going forward.

Many of these stories crafted worlds I wanted to explore beyond their boundaries. That is the beauty of a well wrought short piece; being able to tell a story in the context of a whole other world that makes sense, and to make it feel as though there is a whole wide, fleshed-out world behind it. It leaves you wanting more but not unsatisfied. Silvia Moreno-Garcia nails it.

I'm looking forward to picking up more of her work.