Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia is on a roll lately, and Silver Nitrate is yet another in a stream of creative novels that leave you begging for more. Silver Nitrate takes place in 1990s Mexico City. Montserrat is a talented sound editor, but she’s hardly a member of the film industry boys club. It means that she often loses out on shifts at her company. The only person who really seems to understand her is her best friend, Tristan. Though she has been in love with him since childhood, she’s managed to convince herself to convince herself he will never feel the same. Tristan is a soap opera star who has lost his shine in the past few years, following a horrific car accident that left his girlfriend at the time dead and him with scaring. Tristan moves into a building and discovers his neighbor is none other than a cult horror director named Abel Ureta. As a major horror fan, Montserrat is delighted to meet him and discuss a film of his that few if anyone has ever heard of. That’s because the film was never finished and for good reason. What follows is a fascinating and often frightening story of the Nazi occultist who tried his best to imbue the last of Ureta’s horror films with magic, and the cultists who are still left behind despite the occultist’s death.
Full of sorcery, occult symbolism, and Mexico City in the 1990s, Silver Nitrate is one hell of a book. I found myself devouring this book every chance I got. The descriptions are delightful, the characters fascinating, and the plot worthy of a miniseries.
Silver Nitrate is available from Random House July 18th.
