The Latina
Book Club welcomes a new reviewer, Julia Abrantes.
She is an avid reader and a
member of the Leadership Team at Las Comadres Book Club.
 |
| Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin's Press/ MacMillian |
by Silvia
Moreno-Garcia
Review by
Julia Abrantes
Welcome to Mexico City… An Oasis In A Sea Of Vampires…
This story takes place in futuristic
Mexico City. The time has come when Vampires are mixed in with locals all
around the world. This book talks about different species of
vampires. Some species glow in the dark, others have distinct hair, in others
the females can sprout wings (not your white fluffy fairy wings, but rather big
blue-black majestic feathers). Some species feed by draining the life
force from their prey, others can only feed from the young. Anyway, I
digress.
I enjoy your typical vampire novel –
and this is anything but typical. Weaving together the stories from three
different points of view – seamlessly. Paranormal, a bit of a love story,
hope, revenge all mushed together. There's the Mexico City cop who is
trying hard to do good in a corrupt system. There's the homeless boy,
Domingo, who meets the protagonist on a subway. There's the dog with
glowing tattoos. There's Axl – the main character – who though vampire,
had some moments that many of us can relate to. And so many more!
There is solid building of the
different types of vampires. You can actually see how the city looks by
her descriptions. Even though I've been to Mexico City, I think that for
those that have not, they will be able to see it all.
Bottom
Line: Great read. Solid writing. No gaps
in the story. Looking at Mexico City in the future, learning how humans
have interacted with vampires, how they mix into society.###
Book Summary: Domingo, a lonely
garbage-collecting street kid, is busy seeking out a living when a jaded
vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood
drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially
tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America,
far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten. Her
plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only
living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds
herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm. And
then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses
and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries. Vampires, humans,
cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and
Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?
For Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Spicy
Blood Margarita recipe, click here.
About the Author: Mexican
by birth, Canadian by inclination. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, Signal to Noise, about music, magic and Mexico
City, was listed as one of the best novels of the year at io9, Buzzfeed and
many other places. It won a Copper Cylinder Award and
was nominated for the British Fantasy, Locus, Sunburst and Aurora awards. Certain Dark Things is her second novel. Silvia is also an editor and has worked on several anthologies. She is also the publisher of Innsmouth Free Press;
and co-edits The Jewish Mexican Literary Review with Lavie Tidhar and the horror
magazine The
Dark with Sean
Wallace. Learn more about Silvia at www.silviamoreno-garcia.com.
READ LATINO!