Certain Dark Things

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Still, while the title may be generic, Certain Dark Things at least had a cover that got my attention (there’s a dog! Overall I’d say this is a middle of the pack book of Moreno-Garcia’s, where I’d love the see more of this world, if not necessarily with the same characters.

She has to learn where to place her trust, and though the voice of her sister is telling her that a human is not someone she can trust, Atl see’s something in Domingo that she understands. Tiene una habilidad especial para rescatar clichés o temas manidos y convertirlos en algo suyo propio y único. But he’s also trying to conquer Atl because he’s overwhelmed by her beauty, the tan skin that links her to her indigenous origins, and he can’t stand that she’s rejected him.For people who only know me for Mexican Gothic, I should warn you all my books tend to straddle different genres and have a very different feel for one another.

What similarities did you notice between attempts to eradicate vampires in the book and attempts to eradicate a pandemic in real life? The biggest divergence from her other other works I’ve read is that Certain Dark Things is set in modern day, with the rest taking place during different eras in Mexican history. This was a fresh and elegantly blood-soaked reboot of the vampire tale, and I did not want to put it down. The moment they meet Domingo knows that Atl is something special, and the two of them form a bond despite their differences. 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.I found it truly fascinating to see these different types of vampires all living and interacting in the same world.

Maybe I just like Moreno-Garcia’s newer books more than her backlist because while this vampire novel of hers was perfectly alright, I didn’t find anything special about it whatsoever. I can see some similarities between Atl and Domingo that’s both sweet and tragic here, that would related to (a lesser extreme) between those of Lost Souls. It’s a weird world, mind you – vampire gangs are battling all around the country (though Mexico City has expelled all the vampires), for one thing – but Domingo is doing okay…until he meets the eyes of a beautiful young woman, who invites him home and asks to drink some of his blood.But ultimately, the end of the book is such a fizzle that I felt more frustrated and disappointed than anything else. It was just like with the regular passengers; Domingo melted into the tiles, the grime, the shadows.

In Certain Dark Things , different types of vampires inspired by various world mythologies are depicted as competing subspecies.

The world building is very basic and by that I don’t just mean the actual physical world our characters inhabit. The interesting aspect of this vampire novel is that it doesn’t offer the same old tired tropes we know from all those European vampire stories we know. The subway car stopped and Domingo fidgeted, wondering where she was headed, trying to build an imaginary biography for her and failing, distracted by her nearness. Set in Mexico City, the novel imagines an alternate present in which the discovery of vampires' existence in the 1970s has fundamentally reshaped the world of the 21st Century. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's gritty novel is steeped in the history of Mexico City and vampire lore and yet manages to deftly re-invent the bloodsucker .