The author also plays around with some noir and vampire tropes, most notably with Atl and Domingo, subverting the mortal/vampire romance in some ways, and leaning into it in others. Together, Domingo and Atl must rely on each other if they want to make it out of Mexico city in one piece. Certain Dark Things is the story of Domingo, a street kid who’s been surviving by digging through the trash and doing odd jobs to stay alive. There were gangs roaming the subway lines, gangs of kids about his age, with their tight jeans and baseball caps, rowdy and loud and for the most part dedicated to petty crimes. What similarities did you notice between attempts to eradicate vampires in the book and attempts to eradicate a pandemic in real life?

Certain Dark Things is told from multiple perspectives: Atl, a Tlahuihpotchtli, a race of Vampires that goes back to before the Aztecs. 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). In Certain Dark Things , different types of vampires inspired by various world mythologies are depicted as competing subspecies. It crosses a n interesting line of dark fantasy, horror and even a noir thriller and yet offers something that feels uniquely its own thing while paying homages to the genres it clearly loves.Silvia Moreno-Garcia pulls zero punches, bares all the fangs, and goes for every throat in the room with Certain Dark Things . Though the romance doesn’t play a large part in the plot, I did love how Moreno-Garcia progressed it throughout the story, and felt it was written extremely well. It’s from here the story starts to run at break neck speed, evolvling into Moreno-Garcia’s dubbing of ‘neon noir’. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.

With vampire fiction making a bit of a resurgance and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, justly, gaining in popularity, I believe it was a smart decision. One of my favorite books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and one of my all-time favorite horror books…Certain Dark Things will make you think about vampires in a whole new way. Don't get me wrong, the reason I don't like vampire books isn't because of the campiness or the shimmering in the light, it's because of the blood. It was only a glance, but the way she did it made Domingo feel like he’d been doused with a bucket of ice. She manages to blend together multiple genres to make a dark and sometimes gruesome novel, that any horror fans will be sure to love.Add in stark class divides and a cutthroat criminal underbelly, and Moreno-Garcia’s Mexico City is perfect for noir stories, with or without fangs. Certain Dark Things is exquisitely vicious and brutally beautiful * Ann Aguirre, New York Times bestselling author * Certain Dark Things is dark, inimitable, and so very, very cool. She’s going to need to trust him with not just her secrets, but with her life, if they both are going to get out of Mexico City alive. A tense crime plot wrapped in grim, glittering vampire lore and perfectly delivered with Moreno-Garcia’s unflinching prose, Certain Dark Things is a bloody neon dream of a book.

With dark and delicious elegance, Moreno-Garcia delivers a satisfyingly bloody vampire story with a tantalizing twist. From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore. Her plan doesn't include Domingo, but little by little, she finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. This one looked like a man who worked selling life insurance, a man who opened and closed his briefcase dozens of times during the day, handing out pamphlets and explanations.One of my favorite things about Silvia Moreno-Garcia is probably something that frustrates a number of readers: when you pick up one of her books you’re never sure what you’re gonna get. Set in a beautifully and heartbreakingly rendered Mexico caught up in Narco-Vampire wars, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel lets us fall in love with many perspectives before she breaks our hearts and puts us back together again. What I found super fascinating about this novel and why it jumped out from all the previous vampire novels I read was that it addresses neocolonialism and the drug trade and links the two. Yes, I’m back reviewing ANOTHER Moreno-Garcia book and I’m sure you will all be shocked when I say I loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the e-audio of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.There was a striking quality about her, but her beauty was rather cutting compared to the faces of the models he’d viewed in the ads. Moreno-Garcia takes advantage of Mexico City’s status as a sprawling metropolis with centuries of history and a vibrant street culture. They can also reproduce, Atl’s very young in this novel (I guess somewhere in her 20s) when she makes it to Mexico city. Atl aims to keep Domingo as her living blood bag but quickly realizes she needs Domingo’s street smarts when a brutal murder links the killer to vampires. Later the narrative includes that of Nick, the violent vampire hunting Atl and member of Rodrigo's team that actually hates him (angsty again).