Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-GarciaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Silvia Moreno-Garcia definitely gets a lot of Guillermo del Toro vibes in some of her many Mexican-set period spec-fic stories, but never more than in her latest novel, which incorporates a lot of the same kind of elements that GDT loves to work with. Film history and Nazi occult scares, set in late 20th century Mexico City - in 1993, no less, the same year when GDT first came onto the scene with his auspicious and timeless debut feature Cronos. If SMG is writing this as an audition to write for The Cabinet of Curiosities, then if I were GDT, I'd give her the job to write the adaptation immediately. Though this book does suffer from a couple of leads who aren't very likable - especially in the context of a potential romantic relationship, one of the very few times I actually don't ship childhood friends to lovers - the unrelentingly creepy weird vibes and skillful dissection of bigotry in both the Nazi occult and Mexican society (Montserrat challenging the boys' club of the Mexico City film scene, Tristán having to hide his bisexuality and the Lebanese roots evident in his birth name) make this a new favorite Silvia Moreno-Garcia novel for me.
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