Book review - Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

4/5 Stars 🌟

Montserrat is a sound engineer and Mexican horror movie buff. When her long time friend Tristán introduces her to legendary Mexican horror director Urueta, she is thrilled. So thrilled, she doesn't think a second when he has a lost horror movie he wants her to finish. Little does she know that the film has a dark past. The brain child of a questionable German, connected to old movie money and a secretive cult. The two friends will get more than they bargained for.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the master of what I call quiet horror. She builds the tension slowly, increasing the creepy to a blazing inferno. I must mention that the first 50 percent of the book very little happens, but the writer uses this time to fully immerse you in classic Mexican horror movies and their production.

She does a brilliant job blending this clear interest in Mexican cinema with a deep dive in old school 40s occultism. Giving you one of those crazy blends you used to only find in old school 80s pulp horror. The insight in an aspect of Mexican culture, I had no previous knowledge off, was amazing! I love learning even whilst reading fiction. The occult aspect on the other hand almost makes this read as a very dark urban fantasy novel. Something I didn't expect going into the book.

The two main characters are well rounded and you understand their motivation perfectly. Their relationship together is what pulled me through the slower first half of the book. Especially Tristán, who's tragic past made me feel for him. Montserrat is a hard nut to crack, but she has so much love and dedication for others.

Those are the best horror books, where horror is used to reveal the true nature of characters. This Silvia Moreno-Garcia does perfectly! I would gladly read a book by her again.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Sadly I didn't enjoy this book and I really struggled to finish it. It is very, very slow and there is so much information that distracted from the actual story. Another reason for my not enjoying this book may be the fact that I read another new book earlier this year with a kind of similar premise and I enjoyed that book much more. As always, thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book. Sorry my feelings about it aren't more positive.

I feel bad for not liking this book. I didn't care about the characters, they weren't likeable, and I felt I knew what was going to happen right from the start.

A haunting tale by the author of Mexican Gothic!

This was very eerie and kept me hooked until the end. I'm so glad I discovered this author. This read like if the conjuring tapes were investigated by a man and involved a film surrounding a cult. It was so creepy and I loved the main character. The writing was gorgeous and had my so hooked into the story I couldn't get enough. It was creepy and gory and such an unforgettable book!

I highly recommend it!

I've read a number of this author's books and while they may not always grab me, they're consistently well-written - this one was a harder sell, as I'm not a massive fan of horror, but to be honest it's pretty mild as horror books go (I imagine, since I don't really know what's out there in that genre).

Our protagonist is Montserrat, working as a sound editor in 1990s Mexico City and struggling with the boys club nature of the industry in which she works. She's slowly getting squeezed out of her current job, even though she's both talented and dedicated, and when her friend tells her that he's just met an idol of hers (Abel Urueta, a former director of cult horror movies), it's a welcome distraction. Spending more time with her friend and with Urueta, Montserrat finds herself in the middle of a deepening mystery, centred on a story Urueta tells her about an occultist he'd worked with who had tried to use silver nitrate filmstock for a powerful ritual.

I'd describe this book as more creepy (at times) than horror, since there wasn't really anything beyond my very low tolerance level for that kind of thing. The main characters are solid, there's plenty of atmospheric details to the world-building and the plot kept ticking over nicely. On the other hand, it left me a bit unsatisfied towards the end and it's definitely not a book I'll return to, for both of which reasons it's 4* rather than 5*. As usual, there will doubtless be people where this book is a perfect fit but while I usually enjoy this author's work, I've yet to find one that really clicks 100% with me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

I always enjoy Silvia’s work, they are always so unique. And this was about two bisexuals trying to unravel a curse, irgh it was so good.

I haven’t read a horror book in a while, and it’s usually a Stephen King when I do, so this was new for me. But I loved it. It was spooky, funny, heart wrenching and everything in between.

I was rooting for them the whole way through and it even got a bit paranormal towards the end. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

I am such a fan of this author and everything I read by her is so standalone to the rest of her back catalog. This book seemed like a nice amalgamation of her experience as a writer and the result was a fun, telenovela-esque horror story about possession, the occult and hauntings. It was really fun and the two main characters were great. If I had one point I would say the romantic storyline at the end seemed a bit forced and honestly based on the rest of the book I think it would have worked better if they ended as just close friends.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Publication date: 20 July 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
~~~~~
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, who she’s been in love with since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy.
~~~~~
When I reviewed Untamed Shore, I said I wanted more of Moreno-Garcia's beautiful writing and that's why I jumped at the opportunity to read and review Silver Nitrate. And boy, am I glad I did! I thought this book was excellent. I used to watch a lot of horror films as a teenager, and it seems I still have a soft spot for the horror genre when it is in the hands of skilled writers. Moreno-Garcia's writing does it for me: it is atmospheric and evocative, her characters feel so real, she weaves a clever plot and builds the tension and creepiness up so well. This is a slow burn book; it does take a while for the plot to come to life and for the action to kick off. But I appreciated the fact that Moreno-Garcia took the time to establish not only her characters, but a whole cultish, magical system based on racial purity, greed and coercion (which makes for some interesting discussions and moral dilemma in the story) that Montserrat and Tristán soon find themselves pitted against.
The action sequences were well-written and exciting; there were some really creepy moments and I loved Montserrat and Tristán; for all their faults, they were great main characters and I was 100% rooting for them.
I now definitely want to delve in Moreno-Garcia's back catalogue and I will definitely pick up anything else she brings out.
~~~~~

SILVER NITRATE is a slow burn horror that blends the supernatural with the film industry.

At first, it feels more like a historical in the vein of VELVET WAS THE NIGHT and then the supernatural elements slowly begin to creep in. Initially, I wasn't sure if they were "real" or "imagined", and thus if it would be a more psychological horror. Even at the midpoint, I felt like it could still me that more psychological "look what people do when they believe in something" (which I would have really enjoyed too). However, it then becomes clear that the supernatural is real, leading to some tense (and some gory) moments as the pacing ratchets up towards the ending.

Even though it is a slower burn burn, building towards the end, it is certainly not a gothic horror like MEXICAN GOTHIC. The atmosphere is different, not so much the "something is wrong, but what" of gothic but rather a "this is what' wrong, oh heck what will cause" (also it has a very modern vibe, being set in the 90s, which to me is not compatible with gothic!) It's fun to see an author flex creative muscles with different types of horror.

Through Ewers, the book exposes the hypocritical nature of white supremacy's attempts to explain the world. The explanation for indigenous Latin American magics is that they must have inherited from a mythical white race. The way that Ewers steals and co-opts practices from all over the world a his own. He is so very clearly like white supremacists of today, even though he's written as a man born in the 20s, and it makes him feel so much more dangerous as he's referencing both then and now, feeling far too tangible.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia brings us into the bright and chaotic world of the film industry in '90s Mexico City.

It was such a great read! The character work? Exquisite! Atmosphere? Superb! The plot? Mysterious and engaging!

The only real little complaint I have is occasional info-dumps. They didn't really annoy me and I liked the insights they brought us, but I think it can be handled a little bit better.
Apart from it, I loved this book(4.5 from me).

I've been dancing around Silvia Moreno-Garcia for some time, and even though the first books I read didn't deliver in the plot part I continued trying her books because other aspects of her writing were really appealing to me. And I finally found the book where everything is so balanced and I'm incredibly happy about it.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is so strong in writing characters. She writes about unique people, flawed, interesting, and believable, always acting as you expect them to act from the portrait the author created. It's so special.
In this book, we have a sound editor who is trying to build a career as a woman in the men's industry, an actor who is trying to restore his fame after a big tragedy, and a director past his prime who is haunted by his past.

We also have a cursed lost movie, an occultist, and maybe even magic. Who knows what is true and what is just the imagination of horror fans?
I loved how this book progressed, and the way we explored characters before diving deeper into the action. And the final sequence was really cinematic.

I can't choose the right genre for this book... it has thriller, mystery, and horror aspects, but it's not really scary, more on the atmospheric side.
So I highly recommend it if the description sounds interesting to you - I loved my time with it.

I'm so grateful to Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing me with this advanced copy in exchange for my review.

Silver Nitrate is a novel about occultism and movies, as two friends face off the magic of a strange film. Montserrat is a sound editor in Mexico City in the 90s, fighting for shifts from people who disregard her as a woman, and spending time with her best friend Tristán, a faded soap actor. When Tristán meets aging cult horror director Abel Urueta, Monserrat and Tristán are drawn into the story of a Nazi occultist who made a film with Urueta using silver nitrate film to try and capture magic, and soon it seems that magic is back and threatening them.

Pretty different from Mexican Gothic but still imbued with objects and ideas holding magic and horror, this novel starts slowly, building up the world of the two protagonists and their relationship and struggles. The threat is a slow burn one, as they start to believe in magic and ghosts thanks to darkness following them, but by the end there's dramatic action. Moreno-Garcia explores ideas both of the film world and of the Nazi obsession with the occult, and how magic might be used by people who believe in hierarchy and oppression of those not "worthy" by weaving it into real life fascism, and this gives the book an unsettling feel.

A real highlight of the book for me was the relationship between Montserrat and Tristán and the way their individual characters are built up, with their childhood friendship and Montserrat having been in love with Tristán for a long time but having always pushed it away. The details in the ways in which they care for each other whilst also knowing each other too well gave the book a rich sense of character, and the fact they were tied to each other was crucial to the narrative. I also liked the fact that both of them were bisexual and it was just another thing about them, explored slightly in Tristán's case from the perspective of being a soap star who had to appear to be straight.

This is a slow burn book that creates a rich world of horror films, dark magic, and two outsiders drawn into something beyond their control. Maybe ironically it might make a good film, though hopefully not one with magic burnt into it.

Yet again, Moreno-Garcia weaves a stunning and spine-tingling web of magic, mysticism and mayhem. This is a dark and fairly bloody book that I absolutely devoured.

Silvia Monreno Gatcia NEVER MISSES, I have been reading this authors books for so long and have loved every single one of them and this is no different I would honestly read her grocery lists like oh my god

It has great and well-developed female characters and an interesting premise. However, the pacing is rather slow, and at times I had to push myself to finish it.

Another completely different and completely wonderful tale from SMG, who this time evokes pulpy horror novels and occult nazis with pitch perfect precision. This time, the horror is tinged with a romantic undertone between the two spikey protagonists. I've come to believe that Silvia Moreno-Garcia can do no wrong. She consistently delivers satisfying, enjoyable and atmospheric novels that feel totally unique.

This was such a unique and interesting book, you can tell a tonne of research went into it. 2 chaotic bisexual friends in their late 30s accidentally become involved in an old curse from the 1950s started by a cult and its former Nazi leader wanting to be resurrected all via an old horror film. I really enjoyed this and loved the character arcs for Montserrat and Tristan.

I’ve had Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic in my tbr list for awhile now, so when I noticed this intriguing book was by them, I jumped at the chance to read it. Silver Nitrate blends a slow, creeping horror with historical elements (I’m a sucker for these!) and a fascinating friendship. Tristan and Monserrat are two of the most developed characters I’ve read in ages and their familiar, yet at times, intense relationship is a breath of fresh air. I loved all the silver screen references that sent me off down a rabbit hole of research and the author notes at the end only added to my enjoyment of the story. A fabulous tale!

I’ve got a couple Moreno-Garcias on my TBR, but Silver Nitrate was my first and I can finally say I understand why her books are so popular.

From Montserrat’s job as a sound editor, to Mexican horror, to Nazi occultism, the amount of research that went into this really shines through and is one of the things I just love to see in books. This was such an immersive, slowburn experience packed with intriguing characters and worldbuilding.

I’ve barely dipped my toes in horror books and this was such a breath of fresh air between my high fantasy reads. The writing was straightforward, evenly paced, and in places a bit more dry than I would’ve preferred, but still just what I needed.

Montserrat knows what she wants and takes no shit and I love her for that. Her characterization was especially strong and I really enjoyed her arc. Tristán on the other hand was annoying and charming and annoyingly charming which was, I feel safe to say, intended.

The pace was slow but fitting, inevitably ‘tell not show’ happened due to how much research and investigating the characters had to do, but it was frankly fun to read. I wasn’t sold on the ending but I’m not too mad at it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus books for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Riveting, atmospheric and precisely-wrought writing; Moreno-Garcia's style is again solidified as a favourite.