Silver Nitrate

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a delightful surprise. I thought I was to read one story; I ended up reading something I did not expect. While a lack of knowledge about the many obscure or foreign horror films referenced throughout the story may be distracting, it does not deter you from enjoying the novel. Montserrat and Tristán are delightful in their individual stubbornness and the easy familiarity between them that comes with being long-time best friends. And the plethora of details about film and film editing that Montserrat and Urueta spew in various scenes adds its own sense of charm.

Don't get me wrong. Silver Nitrate is very much a horror novel, which I define as a novel that creeps me out enough to either have weird show more or bad dreams or makes me cautious about sticking my foot out of the covers/having my back to the edge of the mattress when trying to sleep. In this case, both occurred. While there may be moments of friendly banter and charm, Ms. Moreno-Garcia achieves the perfect balance between fun and spooky, leaning heavily towards the latter as the novel progresses.

The most surprising thing about Silver Nitrate is not how creepy it is or the charm of Montserrat's adoration of horror films, but rather it is how plausible she presents her story. There is plenty of documentation regarding Hitler's love of the paranormal. You can almost imagine Leni Riefenstahl embuing her movies with magic spells to power the Reich. Plus, the depiction of movies made with silver nitrate film sounds so ethereal as to be almost fictional. Ms. Moreno-Garcia knows how to create a fictional story that reads like fact, which only enhances the spookiness of it.

Silver Nitrate is the perfect story to bridge the gap between summer and fall. While it occurs during the December holidays, its Mexico City setting is warm enough to fool you into thinking it takes place during the summer. It's creepy enough to cause disquietude and gory enough to make any good horror film director proud. Still, I wouldn't consider it a freezer book because the discomfort feels so subtle. (I say this after finishing the novel over a month ago, so I'm sure my recollections are a little forgiving.) Horror fans looking for something to tide them over until spooky season can't go wrong with Silver Nitrate. show less

I know most people felt like the ending fell flat and that Moreno-Garcia did a lot of sidetracking into her (apparent?) special interest for film history. While I only /kind/ of agree with them about the ending, I'm equally autistic for everything she discusses about films, so it didn't bother me.

Let me say that this book is almost like a comfort-book for me now. I legitimately couldn't put it down, and it's a top 15 book for me (as of right now).
It's not at all perfect, and not to everyone's taste, but for me it has some of the best characterization I've ever seen. Two childhood friends who are both queer, one being a feminine health (and looks!) conscious man who is haunted by his addictions and a scruffy resting-bitch-face woman who show more seems to be barely coasting through life, try to unravel the mystery of an almost long-lost film, only to end up with supernatural powers and otherworldly enemies.
While the whole 'supernatural' plot is, in fact, happening, my biggest focus was on how well written these two were. Their interactions were so natural, between the fights and the 'break ups' and the quiet get-back-togethers where you ACHED for them to finally realize that, while messy, they complemented each other so intensely that they couldn't stay away from each other for very long even if they tried. They have pet names for each other, knew their habits and had the sweetest (or not) thoughts about one another even when the other was away from the scene.

This book is barely a romance, as the ending wasn't fleshed out like I dreamed it would be, but to me it's one of the most romance-y books I've read yet, and I usually don't care for romance.

Anyways, I definitely will be re-reading when I want a feel-good story. show less

“Silver Nitrate,” Silvia Moreno-Garcia's ninth novel, is a horror mystery set in the decaying film industry of 1990s Mexico City about two good friends (Tristán and Montserrat — friends since childhood with unresolved attraction between them) whose attempt to break a decades-old curse that unleashes something even more terrifying. When Tristán and Montserrat happens upon a fictional filmmaker named Abel Urueta who abandoned his opus Behind the Yellow Wall back in the Film Noir era, they are fascinated. The shoot seemed cursed, and the unfinished movie became the stuff of cinematic legend. Compelled by the mystique of "Movie Magic" Tristán and Montserrat help Urueta reverse the curse, and the plan yields decidedly supernatural, show more if terribly unintended, results.
The book begins a little slowly but once our protagonists meet Urueta the pacing picks up quite significantly. Tristán and Montserrat are both flawed characters you root for. And Silvia Moreno-Garcia expertly weaves film history and occult history into her fiction in a manner that makes this a joy for film buffs and students of esoteric history.
Silver Nitrate blends occultism, horror movie anthologies, Nazism, Aryan race, and mysticism into a fascinating story about the power of film, the allure of magic and the dangers of racism. It also proves the heart is powerful against the powers of darkness as we are surprisingly treated to a will they won't they situation between Tristán and Montserrat that in the end - helps to save the day.
As a film history nerd, this book really was enjoyable and quite immersive and the story is just creepy enough, with a good dose of heart, to keep one engaged. show less

"Magic fixed in time and place with silver." That's how Montserrat, sound editor and protagonist, describes the medium of film. Now evocative as that description is, there are some sinister undertones here: there's a long-dead Nazi occultist who was hellbent on 'casting spells' through the medium of film, and there are his friends intent on practising eugenics and such in the midst of all that, topping it off with some human sacrifice...

Phew! Heavy as it sounds, author Moreno-Garcia skilfully steers the tale in a smooth but satisfyingly tortuous path. Our heroine, said Montserrat and her childhood friend, actor Tristan, are passionate about film and happen to meet an older filmmaker who'd directed a lost movie that he still cares about. show more Their discussions lead the old man to persuade the youngsters to dub the last missing scene from the original film...and boom! The dark magic is released. Unearthly occurences. Creepy forebodings. Impossible-seeming circumstances, murder attempts. Murder.

Woven into all this are Tristan's ex-girlfriend (dead) the Nazi occultist Ewers (dead-or is he?) Alma, collaborator of Ewers (hmm..alive but...?) and so on. Very interesting, I kept thinking; not just all this spookery, but the ordinary parts of the story as well. Montserrat's work as a female sound editor in the Mexico City of 1993 was a new viewpoint for me. Then, and here too I was sighing with satisfaction, the setting of Mexico City itself. What a vibrant, magnetic, swirling hodge-podge of old and new this city must be! I am dying to visit. And reading this made me realize yet again HOW important physical setting is for me- the last intense pleasure I derived from it was a story set in Bangkok.

And lastly the fascination with film itself. Who knew, for someone who can never claim to be a 'film buff' that this topic would prove to be so interesting as a novelistic theme? I was reminded of the enjoyable "Night Film" by Marisha Pessl where the parts I liked most were the ones concerning the lost movies.

With this trifecta of factors coming together in a nice, spooky, spidery tangle, I rated the novel highly. I must admit I was a little hesitant to read Moreno-Garcia because of the hype her Mexican Gothic received. Never mind all that, I can safely say now, I'm going to seek out more by her. Fortunately for me, she's been good and busy and there's a healthy list I can choose from. show less

This book is so effectively written to keep you turning the page—just like the horror movies it's a bit of an ode to, you want to shout "what, no, don't go into that dark hallway, stay away from that abandoned building!" but you can't look away and you hope the characters will all get away with it. For some scenes you hope a friend will be there, so you can cover your eyes and they can tell you when it's over. Silvia Moreno-Garcia just writes excellent books, generally using Mexico and culture clashes and colonialism as a jumping off point and an inspiration. Whether it's horror, fantasy, horror/fantasy, or a suspense thriller, she's just so good at it!

Start with a marginalized female sound editor in Mexico City's male-dominated 1990s film culture. Add her childhood friend, a once-handsome actor, whose career plummeted when he was in a fatal car crash. Actually, he survived and he's still handsome, but he can't seem to get beyond the minor changes to his appearance resulting from the accident. Then throw in a mostly forgotten director of 1960s horror films, who dreams of completing a film begun shortly before his sudden disappearance from the industry. There's also a dead Aryan supremacist, an expert in dark arts, who contributed to that unfinished film and hoped to use it to grant himself literal (as opposed to cinematic) immortality. What you get is a wonderfully twisted story of show more the supernatural, set in Mexico's B-film industry.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia deftly weaves together the different threads of this story set in a world that at first appears to be normal, but grows stranger and stranger as it moves toward the denouement. Readers get time to know the characters in their day-to-day lives before these lives begin to spin out of control under malevolent influences, which makes the novel's events feel real in a way they wouldn't if she'd jumped straight into the paranormal.

Silver Nitrate makes for perfect summer reading, whether you're on the beach or stuck inside during an untimely bout of bad weather. You can count on an exponential increase in your own reading speed and tension as you make your way through it. As it ends, you'll find yourself in a world on the brink of catastrophe, unsure when the pleasant paths you were wandering became more treacherous. I'm not normally a big reader of horror fiction, but even readers ambivalent about the genre should find this novel compelling.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. show less

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author and editor known for her work in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and historical fiction. Born in Baja California, Mexico, she moved to Canada as a young adult. Moreno-Garcia’s diverse body of work often draws on her Mexican heritage, blending elements of Mexican culture, folklore, and mythology with her narratives.

Moreno-Garcia’s writing is characterized by its richly imagined worlds, complex characters, and intricate plots. She has a talent for weaving elements of the supernatural and the fantastic into her stories in a way that feels both fresh and deeply rooted in folklore.

Dive into her latest thriller, Silver Nitrate, and you’re in for a show more rollercoaster ride that’s part ghost train, part cinematic time machine, whisking you away to 1993 Mexico City—minus the questionable fashion choices. Imagine, if you will, Montserrat, a sound editor with more skills than a Swiss Army knife but somehow still flying under the radar, reflecting Moreno-Garcia’s homage to her own mother’s struggle in the machismo-infested radio world of yesteryears. Then there is Montserrat’s buddy Tristán, who’s essentially the Brad Pitt of soap operas, if Brad had a penchant for the paranormal and a bit less luck.

Together, they stumble into the world of Abel Urueta, a director whose films are so cursed, they make the set of Poltergeist look like a walk in the park. His long lost project, Beyond the Yellow Door, is a cocktail of silver nitrate and dark arts, shaken not stirred, with a splash of Nazi occultism courtesy of Wilhelm Ewers.

Moreno-Garcia doesn’t just throw her characters into this haunted house of a plot; she sets the whole thing against the backdrop of a Mexico City that’s as vibrant and complex as a mole sauce, with a side of socio-political unrest. The novel tickles real-life horrors like fascism and racism with a paranormal feather, because sometimes a ghost story is more than just a ghost story. But don’t expect a documentary; this is more ‘spooky history class meets movie night’. Also, there’s a deep dive into film and occult trivia that didn’t make the cut, because apparently, even haunted tales have a word limit. Pity, as who wouldn’t want to learn more about Nazi occultists chilling under the ice (It’s actually really interesting and scary – see the spoiler section below if your a history buff)?​​​​

Sure, the book might take its sweet time getting off the starting blocks, but once it gets going, there’s no stopping it. The second half zips along faster than a greased Chupacabra, pulling you into a whirlwind of supernatural shenanigans and historical whodunnits.

Silver Nitrate isn’t just a book; it’s a masterclass in how to blend the eerie with the eerily real, making the silver nitrate film and the gritty streets of Mexico City characters in their own right. Moreno-Garcia serves up a story that’s as rich and layered as the city it’s set in, proving once again that she’s not just playing in the horror sandbox—she’s building castles with a moat full of monsters.

In a nutshell, Silver Nitrate is Moreno-Garcia’s love letter to those of us who geek out over horror, history, and the magic of movies. It’s a tale that reminds us why we’re afraid of the dark, all while making us wish we could join Montserrat and Tristán for just one night of haunted hijinks. So, grab your popcorn (and maybe a protective talisman or two) and settle in for a story that’s as entertaining as it is enlightening. show less