Audiobook Review – Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Narrated by Aida Reluzco (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 8 hours and 46 minutes
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: September 07, 2021
ASIN: B08GFFRRWG
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“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?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this as an audiobook from the library.
Thoughts: This is an odd book. It is set in Mexico City in “current” day but it is alternate Mexico City where vampires exist. The tone to the story is very noir, dark and gritty. It also has a bit of a cyberpunk feel to it; there is some technology in here that doesn’t fit with current day Mexico City, so I can only assume that this is a result of the world developing differently as a result of vampire existance. I listened to this on audiobook and it was well done.
The story follows a garbage-collector/street kid named Domingo as he happens upon a vampire in hiding named Atl. Atl ends up hiring Domingo to help her evade capture while she dodges a rival vampire family (vampires aren’t legal in Mexico City, so both Atl and the rival family must stay in hiding). It also follows a cop that is trying to track Atl down and ends up joining forces with a human gang to do so. There is a lot of gang activity and we watch as Atl tries to figure out what to do after her family has been killed and hunted down.
I enjoyed the different types of vampires in here and the Aztec lore that ties into Atl’s race. I also really enjoyed Domingo, he has a sort of go-with-the flow vibe and innocence that plays off well with Atl’s aggressiveness. The story is a pretty basic evade capture type of scenario but with some mafia-like politics thrown in. I also liked the way the story ended, I though it fit the tone of the story very nicely.
The writing was fine but the whole book feels a bit lost to me. The story wanders and our characters don’t have a lot to drive them besides Atl trying to evade capture. It was okay but definitely not Moreno-Garcia’s best. It is also very different from her other books. Previous to reading this I had also read “Velvet was the Night” (hated it) and Mexican Gothic (really liked it). I also have “Gods of Jade and Shadow” to read.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was an okay vampire read that is a bit different. The setting reminds of a noir cyberpunk type of theme. I enjoyed the different vampire types but found the story to be wandering and lacking. If I hadn’t been listening to this on audiobook I probably would have DNF’d it, however, it’s pretty short and I didn’t have anything else to listen to so I went ahead and finished. I just kind of felt “eh” about it, I wasn’t eager to listen to it but didn’t mind either. Not Moreno-Garcia’s best, but an okay gritty dark mafia vampire read if you are looking for something like that.
