Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Reader friends! It’s a spooky ghost story set during the 90s in Mexico City! And it’s so, so good.

From the Publisher:

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him 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. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

I absolutely love this book! Moreno-Garcia has a real talent for crafting characters that feel incredibly real and relatable. Many ghost stories involve silly people who make silly decisions for silly reasons. Not in this book. Montserrat and Tristán get caught up in a decades old magical mystery purely by knowing a great deal of horror movie trivia and stumbling across a once famous horror director. What starts as a friendly chat between a director and devoted fans, quickly becomes a terrifying adventure into the dark occult underground in Mexico City. It’s beautifully written, incredibly complex, and perfectly paced.

I really liked how the author set this in 1993-no internet or cell phones-and how it impacted the characters’ actions and ability to research the history of our occult characters. At several points, Montserrat has to go to an actual bookstore to find books for research and to me, it’s such a fun detail. There’s also something about Tristán carrying around a pager and being tied to his apartment awaiting a phone call that was quite charming.

Montserrat is a very interesting character. She grew up being bullied for a disability but never let it stop her from pursuing her love of film and sound editing. As an adult, she has to put up with sexism at work and unwanted advances from coworkers and other men connected to the business. But Montserrat stays strong and true to herself and was a great character to follow on this dark adventure.

I truly loved this book and if you want to add this dazzling dark adventure to your shelf, you can click on the cover or here for ordering information.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own. This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon Associate links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.