Advanced Reader’s Copies (I ended up with an egalley and the audiobook) that were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is from Macmillan Audio and the egalley is from Macmillan- Tor/Forge and Tor Nightfire.

Moreno-Garcia describes this as a neo-noir about Mexico and vampires -with a genetically modified dog. CERTAIN DARK THINGS has been out of print for years and has been a book that has been very hard to find so I was super excited to see that this was FINALLY getting a re-release.

Told in multiple points of view, CERTAIN DARK THINGS is about a teenage street kid who happens to cross paths with a mysterious woman and her genetically modified dog. He soon finds out that she is a vampire - and in Mexico City they are rare given how much the city has hunted them down. But this isn't your typical vampire story. Moreno-Garcia took it a step further... vampires in this world are another species with subsects. There are different types of vampires - with different skills and feeding needs/desires/ways.

As Domingo gets pulled deeper into Atl's problems an unlikely friendship and alliance is formed. But Atl is being hunted by other humans and vampires and things quickly get violent as readers are left on the edge of their seat waiting to find out if they can make it out of the city alive.

This is an odd novel - and I mean that as a compliment. It's not the vampire story I was expecting, and I'm so glad that it took a different spin on something that has been told countless times before. I was hooked fairly quickly and was anxious to know how it would all pan out. CERTAIN DARK THINGS is violent and gritty, but overall it was a very entertaining read.

Aida Reluzco does a great job with the audiobook narration as well.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia combines noir detective style, vampire action, and Aztec legends in her upcoming reissue, Certain Dark Things. The supernatural mythology is compelling and her characters, human and otherwise, are unique. I’ve read eleventy million vampire books, and I hope Moreno-Garcia writes more in this world. Soon!

Moreno-Garcia also explores a bit of race-class narrative in her characters’ dystopian Mexico City setting. Part of this comes from her main male character, Domingo. He’s a teenage garbage picker with no family support and some checkered gang-adjacent history. The realities of life on the street are pretty stark.

Still, Domingo also reads graphic novels about vampires in his little subterranean safe spot. He likes the classics. But there’s also newer content available because someone outed vampires back in the 1970s. Most regions or countries have their own vampire clans, and Moreno-Garcia details all of them in a glossary. (Why don’t publishers put these in the front?) Despite the species’ prevalence around the world, Mexico City outlawed vampires a while ago.

So when Domingo sees one on the subway, of course, he follows her. She’s young, beautiful, and has a huge Doberman with “enhancements.” Domingo learns her name is Atl, and that her clan is descended from the Aztec people. Like many of Moreno-Garcia’s vampires, she’s also a shapeshifter. Plus, she’s on the run from a nasty clan of drug-dealing vampires.

My conclusions
This is an engaging romp for a semi-dystopian book. Moreno-Garcia describes the dark and dank aspects of Mexico City in detail. She also delves into the Aztec aspects of Atl’s clan, in combination with the general vampire mythology.

But I wish Certain Dark Things had more emphasis on the psychological aspects of living in that world. Getting deeper into the mindset of her main characters Domingo and Atl would benefit the story. She’s from a privileged family and he’s the exact opposite. But Moreno-Garcia never explores that. Instead, she opts for a tepid romance, which left me cold.

The main plot—Atl escaping the more “evil” vampires—this has zing. The villains are vile, and the creatures Atl contacts for help add some layers of mystery. I definitely cheered her and Domingo on as they fought for their lives. Although Certain Dark Things is categorized as Young Adult, it reads as somewhat more mature.

I recommend this mostly light and easy vampire story because of its unique connections to indigenous people and interesting dystopia. But the romance is just so-so.

Acknowledgments
Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review.

Move over, Bram Stoker. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is offering up some fresh blood with her take on vampires in the resurrection of Certain Dark Things.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a dark and enchanting story that makes you question all the vampires you’ve seen in stories before. The story takes place in Mexico City, where the knowledge of the existence of vampires has made it far from anything we would recognize now. Domingo, a teenage street kid, scrapes by and keeps himself alive by collecting random junk and later selling it. On one of his trips around town, he encounters a beautiful young vampire named Atl and her dog Cualli. Atl befriends him and enlists his assistance to help her escape the city as she is on the run from both human gangs and the nefarious Necros (a particular subgroup of vampires that can control humans and whose blood is poisonous to other vampires).

The world-building in Certain Dark Things is amazing. Moreno-Garcia went with the perspective that there is no wrong legend around the world, each one just describes a different type of vampire. Drawing this inspiration from around the world made it feel fresh compared to stories based only on the stereotypical European vampires. Despite there being multiple quiet moments, I never felt bored with the pacing or lost interest. I also enjoyed how the author emphasized that these vampires are not some breed of super sexy evolved humans (like some books are apt to do). Some of them are undoubtedly attractive, but it’s just camouflage to disguise the true animal predator underneath. Let me be clear: none of the vampires in Certain Dark Things were ever human, and they have no desire to be human. To them, humans are servants at best and most of the time nothing more than food.

If you’ve ever felt burnt out reading cookie-cutter stories about vampires, then Certain Dark Things is the book to get you out of that slump. This is definitely a story where I think it would be beneficial to have the audiobook on hand, if only to know the correct pronunciation of certain names and words (Nahuatl, Huitzilopochtli, tonalli, and Tlahuipochtin are just a couple of the words I was unfamiliar with in this book). Although this is listed as a stand-alone right now, I’d love to see Moreno-Garcia do another book in this universe to explore some of the other vampire subspecies that weren’t featured as heavily.

A couple of trigger warnings to keep in mind for this book: there is blood (as one might expect from a vampire novel), violence, death, and mentions of murder.

I kind of love the range Silvia Moreno-Garcia has? I'm not sure the ending of Mexican Gothic worked for me, though I loved the world it built, and The Beautiful Ones was quieter and less fantasy-heavy than I expected it to be (which are both in its favor, ultimately), but wow this one's a stunner. Who knew a vampire neo-noir in an alternate Mexico City where vampires gangs are squabbling over territory was just what I needed?

There's some great worldbuilding here, and the shift in perspectives between chapters helps keep up the pace and kept me saying "just one more chapter..." as I tried to keep getting back to my actual work for the day. Basically, I'm here for whatever she wants to right next, and I need to keep digging even further into her back catalog.

Certain Dark Things is the tale of a garbage reseller who meets a beautiful vampire on the run in Mexico City, and risks being eaten to befriend her. This read more like a short story but was an enjoyable and fast-paced read.

I love a good vampire novel, but this just wasn't for me. I think this is a case of the author's works just not being what I look for in a fantasy novel. I had some major gripes with the story such as the writing style and the plot set-up, and some minor ones as well. The writing style didn't feel like a well-executed story, it felt more like a stream of thoughts. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, it makes the writing rather choppy and hard to read. This was made worse by the fact that there were short sentences one after another. Regarding the set-up for the story, I felt like it just jumped right in there with really no preamble. And, as for me being picky, I found it hard to get past the character's name as Domingo just sounds like a game to me.

You can take what I am saying with a grain of salt as I did ultimately end up not finishing this. Thank you nonetheless to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to give it my best shot.

“Sometimes you have to sin in order to earn your way to paradise.”

Atl is on the run from a clan of vampires that has destroyed her entire family. She meets Domingo, a young trash picker. Despite her privacy and reluctance, Domingo wants to help her. He knows what it’s like to be alone.

Meanwhile, Ana is in charge of a gruesome murder—a vampire attack. She joins forces with a crime group, Deep Crimson, in order to fight what she thought she was safe from in the city.

I really enjoyed Certain Dark Things! The world Moreno-Garcia created for just a 280 page book is so vast and I really hope she writes more in this universe. I liked the mixing of paranormal and crime noir, and it was interesting to read a book where vampires are a normal thing and there’s laws regarding them.

Thank you to Net Galley, Tor Nightfire, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this review copy! Certain Dark Things releases on September 7th.

I've wanted to read this book forever because I loved Mexican Gothic, but it's been out of print for a while. I'm so thankful that Tor/Macmillan Forge is releasing it in a new edition. "Certain Dark Things" was dark, bloody, and fresh. It subverted vampire fiction tropes and was unlike anything I've read from the subgenre. I also love the social commentary and observations about prejudice that Moreno-Garcia incorporates into the text.

Certain Dark Things is full of things I already knew I loved:

Vampire stories? Check. (I’m such a sucker for them all. Pun belatedly intended.)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ability to transfer her fabulous, gritty writing from genre to genre? Check.

A noir alternate history set in Mexico City (in which different species of vampires, of course, play a role)? Check.

The book is actually a reissue, originally published in 2016 and since out of print. I’m so, so glad that Tor Nightfire is bringing it back.

Certain Dark Things is about Atl, a twenty-something Tlāhuihpochtli, a type of matrilineal vampire who can shape shift. After the murder of her family, Atl has fled to Mexico City and is desperate to escape the notice of those who are hunting her. The other main character is Domingo, a garbage picker who catches Atl’s eye and becomes her “Renfield,” her human servant.

As Atl and Domingo work their way through a list of people (and vampires) who may be able to help Atl get to safety, they’re pursued by Nick, a Necro vampire, and his own Renfield, Rodrigo, who is doing one last job before he retires. Nick is desperate to capture Atl, who humiliated him, and Rodrigo is charged with keeping Nick safe and helping him to find their nemesis.

It’s a fun, action-packed story that gradually peels back the layers on this new world of vampires, filled with different species, new rules (they can’t make humans into vampires), and an interesting story about how vampires integrated into the world after their discovery in the 1970s.

Moreno-Garcia has an amazing touch with world building and with crafting troubled, problematic characters who nevertheless earn the reader’s feelings of loyalty. Domingo’s naivete pairs beautifully with Atl’s world-weary guilt, and the sense of dread that increases every time we get a glimpse of Nick and Rodrigo as they slaughter their way toward their prey is just delicious. (This would, by the way, make a great adaptation!) Whether you’re new to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing or have enjoyed her books before, Certain Dark Things is a perfect addition to her list of phenomenal books.

I'm not really a fan of famous authors getting their backlist re-published because that work almost never lives up to what they're producing now. This book is no different. It's fine--I love vampires--but compared to her other work it simply didn't do it for me.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a compelling voice that kept me turning pages. I can't believe this gem of a book didn't have its glory before but I'm glad it's surged. There is a lot of action, a slow burn romance with a strong female character that's empowering. The story felt fresh, and the reimagined Mexico City felt super alive.
A must-read for vampire lovers.

In Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia paints a lush supernatural world of vampires in Mexico City. She is able to build a believable setting with it's own politics and have each character with their own agenda. While this isn't my favorite Moreno-Garcia novel I am impressed as always at how much she is so skillfully able to pack into her stories. Her vampires are unique because she is able to blend global mythologies into her narrative in a way that makes sense, as well as what feels like an accurate depiction of how countries would react to the knowledge of creatures like vampires. I wish we got more time with Ana and really saw her world a bit more, and wish we got less romance towards the end as it wasn't very believable to me; But I do see how it all fits into the noir genre perfectly. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves vampires, film noir, or vibey settings.

While this isn't my favorite novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, I still enjoyed this very much. It is a book that will stick with me. This is action-packed from start to finish, and kept me hooked until the very end. I love her take on vampire lore and the topics and issues addressed.

Title - Certain Dark Things

Things to know:
-Release date: Sept 7, 2021
-272 pages
-Horror
-Multiple viewpoints
-Noir
-Quick read
-Vampires
-Moody
-Gory

Synopsis:

From Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, comes Certain Dark Things, a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.
Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. 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. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her. Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. As the trail of corpses stretches behind her, local cops and crime bosses both start closing in. Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?

Review: 4 Stars

Okay, I loved this from the get go! Within the first chapter I was picturing the story in black and white with the exception of the vivid colors. Such as colors from a television screen in a square, colors you may see after getting a hard blow to the head, etc. Vivid colors. Like cutscenes from the game LA Noire. I felt like in some scenes I could hear the 50’s background music. I loved everything about this book. It's so different from anything that I’ve ever read so I can’t really compare it to anything.

Fun fact this book was supposed to be released in 2016, but after the publisher downsized the book was dropped. They went out of print. Some copies were roaming around and the author thought that this book would end up a cult book. But luckily this year we are getting to see it released, and I am so glad that it was!

Certain Dark Things is not just another vampire story. There are many species/races of vampires who are so very unique in every way.

I really found myself relating to Atl, minus you know the whole vampire thing! She was a rough and tough girl who took no shit from anyone. On the outside she is so comfortable in her own skin, but on the inside she isn’t as sure as she puts on. I know this feeling 100%! Plus her whole aesthetic is a vibe for sure and I am here for it!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I was not let down! The only reason I rate this a 4/5 star and not a 5 star is because I felt like there was way more build up than there was action and conclusion. I felt like the ending was somewhat rushed. Thank you Silvia Moreno Garcia for reviving this book and sharing it with us all!

In a market saturated with romantic sexy vampires this was a breath of fresh air. More reminiscent of 90s vampire horror like Black Ambrosia and Sonja Blue, but written by a master of genre hopping who once again creates such a real and vivid world I swear I could be there, in this alternative Mexico City (in a world where Vampire races came out of hiding in the 60s/70s). And once again her unexpected characters reeled me in and had me rooting for them. Domingo, a teen on the cusp of manhood, a street kid who collects garbage, and an Atl, an Aztec Vampire in her early 20s, who's family has been murdered in a drug war. So unique and so interesting, the plot is pretty fast paced, with her on the run from a vampire drug cartel and trying to hide out from both police and vampires, it actually had a bit of an 80s cyber punk vibe along with those noir vibes I associate with Moreno-Garcia. It was great.

If you liked Mexican Gothic or Velvet Was the Night, don't let the horror/vampire vibes scare you away...this is a great book with a page-turning plot and great character development in the unlike friendship (potential romance) of our two leads, and in the always interesting supporting cast she presents us with: Nick, Ana, Rodrigo, Kika, and my favorite Bernardino (along with Atl's cyber punk doberman Cualli) who was everything I ever wanted in a stereotypical old world, black and white films era vampire. Yes there's action and intrigue, but its also very poignant with a lot of heart (on that note those looking for a scary vampire horror novel this might not be your jam).

3.5 stars
TW: drugs, blood, mutilation, murder

As a story about vampires in Mexico and their nefarious doings, this is sure to pique a lot of interest. It definitely piqued mine. The story was rich yet gritty, like expensive dark chocolate. But just like dark chocolate, it’s widely loved and hated. I really enjoyed this book, don’t get me wrong, however crime plotlines aren’t really my cup of tea. I personally found it difficult to get into, but I’m certain that this will be a well loved book when it’s released and I’d highly recommend checking it out if you ARE into crime plotlines.

Full disclosure: I requested this book because I read Mexican Gothic and enjoyed it and also because THIS COVER IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

What an interesting sort of noir type crime story with some unique and absolutely fascinating vampires. I will say that this book is a slow burn - similar to that of Mexican Gothic if you read it, but without the suspense. It took me a bit to find my groove with the story because the different types of vamps were just mentioned, with no explanation of what they were (at least not initially), what made them different and with names that didn't lend much in the way of using context clues to figure out. As the story progressed, we did get that fleshed out,

I really started enjoying this one around the 15% mark as the plot became clear and I formed an attachment to our character Domingo. In addition to loving Domingo, I especially loved the Aztec and Mexican folklore regarding vampires which really makes this standalone stand out when put against other vampire novels.

Certain Dark Things is a multi-pov story in which we follow several characters and how different events lead them to intersect with each other. This takes place in Mexico, where they have extremely strict rules regarding vampires...so strict that the vamps have all settled elsewhere. So when vamp-on-the-run Atl needs somewhere to hide, Mexico seemed a good idea as a place to hole up. This is where she meets young Domingo and the two strike up a shaky friendship with one another. Domingo is homeless and starved for companionship and becomes enamored of Atl when he meets her. We also have Nick, who is a vampire that is pursuing Atl and finally, Ana, the detective who finds herself caught up in the midst of the very things she came to Mexico to escape from - vampires.

This was really surprised me as I started off thinking I would not enjoy it, but all of a sudden, it had me in its grasp and turned out to be a great read that will definitely be finding its way into my collection when I'm able to purchase this particular cover.

I really, really wanted to like this one but it just fell short for me. I loved the concept of vampire gangs in a dark urban fantasy, but I felt like nothing really happened in this book. The first half of the book just felt like it was marking time. I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing really did.

I also felt like the characters were very flat. The most interesting characters throughout were side characters that we spent very little time with. I found myself not really caring about the two main protagonists, instead I just kinda found them both annoying. And I really wasn’t much of a fan of the romance that developed between them. Their relationship just felt so forced to me.

By far the best part of the book was the setting and the use of Aztec mythology. I wish there was more of both. All in all, if you like dark urban fantasy stories and don’t mind unlikeable characters, you may enjoy this one. It is a very interesting take on vampires and I loved the setting but I wish there was more action throughout.

Thank you for granting me access to this review copy in exchange for an honest review! This review will be posted on my blog pagesandprose.net on 06Aug21, and also shared on Twitter and copied over to Goodreads the same day.

If you are or ever have been someone who enjoys fantasy or even just YA fiction, you’ve probably went through a vampire-craze phase at some point in your life. While Certain Dark Things is definitely a much grittier and more horror-focused vampire story than, say, Twilight, I think it definitely satisfies any vampire-shaped holes that you may find yourself having in your reading lists.

I had pretty high expectations for this book going in to it, since I enjoyed one of Moreno-Garcia’s other novels, Mexican Gothic, so much. I knew going in to this that it was going to be very different than Mexican Gothic, but I was still hoping for a similarly atmosphere-drenched story. While I found myself to be disappointed that Certain Dark Things was not nearly as atmospheric as Mexican Gothic, it was still a fairly enjoyable read. This is a rather short novel, coming in at just around 300 pages, but I was rather impressed with how quick the pacing was and how Moreno-Garcia was able to pack quite a bit of world-building in such a small amount of pages. Now, this story is based in Mexico City, so she had the already-established real world to work off of, but I’m more talking about the world-building centered around the vampires specifically. There isn’t just one type of vampire in this book, but instead ten different types, at least three of them making a significant appearance in our actual story. Each vampire type is based around vampire lore from different regions of the world, and Moreno-Garcia does a wonderful job creating a rich sense of history and general background information for the vampire clans of this story without making it feel like a lot of info-dumping.

While I think the world-building was well developed and executed, I found myself disappointed in the structure of the plot itself. Certain Dark Things follows Domingo as he gets wrapped up with Atl and her trouble in the vampire-lead crime rings of Mexico City and surrounding areas. The story was entertaining, but I think it is too ambitious of a story for only 300-ish pages. We immediately get dropped in to what feels like the middle of Atl’s story, and even though we eventually get a decent explanation to what happened leading up to where we join in, I think that I would’ve been so much more invested if we actually got to follow Atl from the very beginning. Not only that, but I found myself to flounder quite a bit as I struggled to really get my footing in this story. We also swap perspectives quite a bit, not only between Atl and Domingo, but we also get to read from the perspective of someone in a rival crime circle as well as a police officer. This added more layers to the story that were very enjoyable, but again, I wanted more time with both of these characters. Moreno-Garcia did do a good job giving them a sense of identity with the time that we were given with these characters, but there were still moments and developments that felt rushed.

Speaking of characters, while I think that both the side characters mentioned previously as well as our main characters Atl and Domingo felt fairly solid, I struggled with the relationship between Domingo and Atl. I felt that there was a severe lack of chemistry, and the sudden change in direction between them just didn’t feel natural at all. Again, I think that this really just stems from the lack of opportunities to really dig in and flesh out the synergy between these characters that such a short book gives.

Even though Certain Dark Things had me strongly desiring an extra 100 pages to give us the actual beginning of the story as well as better character dynamics, I still found this book entertaining. Moreno-Garcia definitely gave me the gore and horror-focused vampires that I was looking for in this book. If you like creepy vampires and seedy cartels, then I think that you’ll enjoy Certain Dark Things.

This review is SO painful for me to write because Silvia Moreno-Garcia only writes stand alone novels, to my knowledge, and I want so, SO badly for this to be a series. Moreno-Garcia creates an incredible world pulling on folklore about vampires from across the world and from page one you are invested in the story of Atl, a vampire barely in her twenties who has had everything stripped away from her. A complicated mixture of teen and monster she makes all the same mistakes we would have made in our youth. She meets Domingo, a kind boy with nothing who makes his living as a trash collector. One night their lives collide and the rest of the book details how two people, two creatures with almost nothing in common, could mean everything to one another in a short period of time. I wish I could read this book for the first time a hundred times over. I cannot adequately express how much I loved this book. Just when you thought you'd read all the vampire takes, Moreno-Garcia gives us a beautiful noir thats part Bladerunner, part Blade and all magic.