Certain Dark Things

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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?

• ISBN10: 1250785588
• ISBN13: 9781250785589
• Publish Date: 7 September 2021 (first published 25 October 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Nightfire
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

If you're looking for a spooky read to pick up this year, consider Certain Dark Things. Written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (the author that brought us Mexican Gothic), this novel very much delves into the paranormal side of things in a delightfully dark fashion.

In a world where vampires exist, there are few places that are truly safe from them. Especially when you're a vampire on the run from a rival clan, Atl can assure you of just how difficult that challenge is.

Her run brings her across Domingo, a young man living in Mexico City. Together, they're going to keep running and do their best to stay alive – and out of the hands of police and vampires alike if they can help it.

“Nothing is easier." Elisa said. “It’s just another way to get killed.”

I don't know how, but I somehow managed to miss the release of Certain Dark Things back in 2016. Thankfully, it caught my attention during the reprinting process this year, so I'm going to take this as a net positive.

Certain Dark Things is a very different vampire novel than I'm used to. Personally, I love seeing different takes on legend and lore, so I was thrilled to see what sort of world Silvia Moreno-Garcia created here.

That being said, I do wish that we could have had more time to delve into it a bit deeper. I feel like there's so much potential here and that we only just scratched the surface of what was available. I don't know; maybe that's just me being a greedy reader?

Don't worry; there's still plenty of blood in this vampire tale! It's actually quite a lot, so if blood and gore isn't your thing, you should probably find a different book to read. On a related note, other warnings for this book include slavery, eye trauma, and animal abuse (dogfighting). I'm not going to lie, the latter was pretty rough for me to read, and I probably would have put it down had I not been feeling so stubborn at the time.

Still, I think Certain Dark Things is a novel that paranormal fantasy lovers will really enjoy, especially if they like it when their novels get a bit dark and gory.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 3.5 Stars

A refreshing neo-nior take on Vampires, that takes place in the underbelly of Mexico City; The narrator was an absolute perfect choice to fit the tone of the book. An undeniably fun, dark & gritty, action packed, entertaining tale, & entertaining audiobook in its own right. Another winner for Silvia Moreno-Garcia!

A huge thank you to Silvia Moreno Garcia, Tor Nightfire, & Macmillian Audio via Netgalley, as well as Aida Reluzco for the audiobook ARC! This in no way changes or affects my review.

[Djilan]

A book with a different take on vampires and I think an interesting one.

Loved the story about Atl and Domingo and their interaction.

[ayla_abbott]

Moves fast in a setting far different from those other in the genre that I've read. The various types of vampires were fascinating and the outcome, while sad and bittersweet, felt right.