***Special thanks to Innsmouth Free Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review***

This is a book that I think I will get more out of as I get older. It is a BEAUTIFULLY translated novel about a sea-captain and his repressed homosexual desires with a backdrop of gothic elements and one of the most famous "monsters" of all time; Dracula.

It was hard for me to read some of the captain's innermost thoughts. A lot of his desires struck me as borderline predatory and made me feel uncomfortable, but it is important to understand that he is a deeply repressed man in a society that is cruel and oftentimes violent towards anyone who is even assumed to be a homosexual.

This is a book that I would like to re-read in the future, especially at a different point in my life. This book is very beautiful, but I feel like one needs to work with it in order to get its full message across.

This book was just brilliant! I love horror, but I love it even more when the story is disturbing and this is just that. I loved how the main character was grappling to terms with his sexuality. I loved how it dealt with internalized homophobia as some kind of "horror" as well as the contrast to the actual horror.

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Hello! My full review has been posted on Goodreads. You can read my review through this link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3609834160?book_show_action=false

For the first time in English, The Route of Ice & Salt presents the story of Dracula through the eyes of a minor character in the original story: the captain of the ship that brought him to England.

While originally published in 1998, the novella is still told in a very classic style for a nautical story. Our story begins with the captain of the Demeter as he takes on crates of earth for his newest shipment. The job is fairly straightforward, if dull for our protagonist, and for the first part of the novella, the lack of urgency is felt in how he indulges in sexual fantasies. He never performs them with others, but nevertheless lets his mind wander. That is until signs begin to erupt that something is not right on the Demeter, and my favourite trope in nautical stories appears at the beginning of part 2: the tone shift from sensual enjoyment to serious terror. It’s like a bucket of ice drops on you and you are hooked into the story even more because of it.

The desperation and terror are palpable in the pages and I believe any one who enjoys classic or cult horror will devour The Route of Ice & Salt.

Of final note, I believe the Introduction and Afterward from Silivia Moreno-Garcia and Poppy Z Brite, respectively, are crucial to how readers will interpret the novella. I can see many readers being turned off by the creeping sensuality of the first part and not appreciating this novella for what it is: a new point of view from an older voice long left unheard in english-speaking publishing. However, the Introduction and Afterward act as amazing guides and hopefully more readers will appreciate José Luis Zárate (and David Bowles efforts in translating Zárate’s story). I most certainly did.

Content Warnings: Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Sexual Horror, and Mutilation.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Artist inspires Artist and media inspires media. The Route of Ice and Salt ( La ruta del hielo y la sal) was originally published in 1998 by a Mexican comic publisher Grupo Editorial VID, it didn't take root and but it became cult classic. It's now in English for the first time through Silvia Moreno-Garcia's efforts.

This novella reimagines Dracula’s voyage to England on The Demeter. The Route of Ice and Salt gives the nameless Captain a voice as gay man in this time period. This book is really about hunger, the captain 's hunger for love and physical touch, his sexual fantasies regarding his crewmen and Dracula's hunger where each crewmember is attacked one after an other. The captain realizes that he has a feeling besides hunger for his men, love and he will fight for them. This novella is about the captain 's emotional trauma he experienced as a young man, his internalized homophobia and accepting himself. . Zárate does this by writing poetically , i had to re read sentences more than once because they were beautiful but also because i had to keep track if the captain remembered a memory or if was present time. It felt like a fever dream at times, a beautiful one but still fever dream. The Route of Ice and Salt is horror, poetry and philosophical. The latine SFF community knows of it's existence and I'm happy English readership can experience this emotional weird queer gothic story

This is the first English translation of this novella that was originally published in Mexico in 1998. This novella is unique in several ways for science fiction produced in Mexico at that time, its focus is on Dracula and it is a queer novella. The story follows the voyage of the Demeter in 1897 as is travels from Varna to Whitby, England. In Varna, it has loaded cargo in the form of heavy wooden crates apparently filled with soil. The voyage begins smoothly enough but strange things begin to happen as crew members begin to disappear. The story is told from point of view of the Captain and weaves memories of his experiences as a young man with Mikhail in with what is happening aboard the ship. The story is both an intimate look at the life of a man who cannot be who he wants to be, while facing unnatural events that force him to face up to a terrible incident in his past. There are multiple layers to the story and the beautiful prose makes this a fascinating read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Innsmouth Free Press for giving me an ebook copy to review. All opinions stated are my own.

TW: Homophobia, internalised homophobia, graphic descriptions of gore moments (I don't think it is traditional gore though), sexual repression.

Where do I even begin?

As someone whose familiarity with vampires starts and ends with Twilight saga and pop-culture references, I wasn't too sure how I would understand this book from a horror perspective. I am also kind of weary of translated books, because personally, they may read as very flat most of the time.

However, I was eager to dive into this story purely because I am not familiar with how LGBTQIA+ works look like around the world as was interested to find out. Also from my understanding, "The Route of Ice and Salt" is a cult classic and I definitely understand why.

The majority of this book takes place on a ship, The Demeter, whose gay captain is tasked with bringing Dracula to England. There is a ton of repressed sexual dreams and fantasies in the first half of this book while disturbing at times, it genuinely helps with breaking the dense story-telling told.

The second half is far more interesting and it there that this story shines. We see a more traditional horror. It was definitely this section that sold the book for me. We see a captain and crew, who are terrified of the unknown but have no way of tangibly over a fear that doesn't seem to exist.

themes of love, loyalty and sacrifice mingle wonderfully well within the horror of this tale, especially because the novella jumps frequently between dreams, fantasies. the past and present.

I cannot emphasise how much I enjoyed the last two parts of this novella. David Bowles translations really shined during the ship logs and shorter chapters.

My highlights were the prologue, which definitely helped set the scene and author intentions for this piece. While the accompanying essay at the end by Poppy Z. Bright helped in tying together the thoughts for this novella.

This is not a campy read and I loved that.

I find novellas hard to review but in short: this is a disturbing and compelling story about the captain of the ship that unknowingly brings Count Dracula to England. Plagued by how he feels about his sexuality, his men and his past as well as a far more tangible threat on board, what ensues is a very unsettling story that not only examines the homoeroticism within the vampire genre but also tells a spooky story that pleasantly veers more towards ghostly than vampiric.

It took a bit for this to really grab me because the beginning is so wordy; I couldn’t tell whether this was a translation issue or in the original text but the language felt less like it was trying to be fitting for an 1800s setting and more like it was trying to sound flowery and meaningful. It isn’t as overwhelming once you get past 40%. The Captain is haunted by his previous lover’s murder as well as a desire for the men working below him and these desires are presented in the text as warped, monstrous and incredibly disturbing. I thought the presentation of how the Captain comes to view his sexuality versus Dracula’s true monstrosity was the most powerful aspect of the book.

The ending is superb and really unsettling once again in terms of imagery. The description of vampires in this is more ghostly and monstrous than most people I think are used to and it was a refreshing, unique take on them that I enjoyed. The climax of the book not only pulls off a final scary confrontation, but also cements a more academic approach to how vampires in literature have presented ideas about homosexuality for decades and the Captain’s realisations that his love is not corruption was very moving.

The language was unexpectedly poetic and a bit dry (that maybe due to it being a translated works). I don't know why but when I heard it was journey of the Demeter in Dracula but with a gay captain I thaught it would be more campy horror less poignant literary work about sexuality and use of vampirism as a literary metaphor for homosexuality. It was incredibly erotic, which I was oddly unprepared for.
The writing is a bit meandering and the style is similar to a stream of consciousness (being in the form of a personal diary). I found it confusing and difficult to follow at times, often getting lost in the narrator's tangets.
The captain's perpetual sexual fantasies in the first half of the novella got a bit repetitive. While I understand the purpose of including them it went on and on. His sexual dreams were bizarre and confusing and a bit gross (like when he had sex with a fleshy version of the ship). Not necessarily a bad thing, just not for me.
The captain's struggles with his sexuality and fears about it being revealed and finally coming to avvept that his feelings dont make him a monster and aren't inherently sinful was moving to read.
The actual horror elements like the sailors showing signs of being attacked by vampire, and them dying one by one I found very compelling and suspenseful. In the latter half of the story where the horror came more into focus was far more enjoyable to read.
Personally the best parts were the essays about Zarate and the influence of the novella, vampirism in fiction and as a metaphor of homosexuality. The inclusion of the various authors analysis gave real insights into the novella, the themes and inspiration behind it.

A stunning retelling that is both poetic and heartbreaking. Juxtaposing internal and external fears of otherness with vampire lore makes for a story unlike any other. It builds well on existing lore while also working perfectly well on its own. This is the sort of story that you’ll want to reread to catch every detail again. I’m in love with it.