Convincing You to Read Books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
If you have Goodreads and follow Maude Garrett, Amanda Tass, or Amanda Guarragi (me), you know Maude chose Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for Book Chat last year!
This year, I decided to dive into Mexican Gothic, which blew me away and is one of the best books I’ve read this year. And next on the list is Silver Nitrate, which people have been raving about. Silvia Moreno-Garcia crosses genres and gives such depth to her female characters, which is one of the main reasons I enjoyed her writing.
Have you read any books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia? Well, if you haven’t this is why we think you should!
Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination. Cachanilla and Canuck, originally from Baja California, now reside in Vancouver. She has an MA in Science and Technology Studies from the University of British Columbia.
She is the author of Silver Nitrate, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has won the Locus, British Fantasy and World Fantasy awards.
Themes in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Books
Gods of Jade and Shadow: coming-of-age, love, loyalty, family, mythical gods
The Beautiful Ones: love and betrayal, struggle between conformity and passion
Certain Dark Things: urban fantasy, crime noir, violence, strong language, alternate reality
Mexican Gothic: sexism, female independence, power, agency, outdated gender roles
Velvet Was the Night: broody, passion, danger, political unrest
Signal to Noise: friendship, magic, learning from mistakes, music as an escape
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau: gothic romance, ethics of scientific experimentation, colonization, reimagining of H.G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau (1986)
Untamed Shore: sex, duplicity and greed, the perception of a young girl in a small town
Silver Nitrate: white supremacy as a cult, colonialism, exploitation, colorism, life-long friendship
Synopsis
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis—neighbours call her the Witch of Oldhouse—and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip.
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 blooddrinkers, 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.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city. When her next-door neighbour, the beautiful art student Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.
Mexico City, 1988. Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said "I love you" with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, discovers how to cast spells using music, and with her friends Sebastian and Daniela will piece together their broken families, and even find love...
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau:
Carlota Moreau: a young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of either a genius, or a madman.
Montgomery Laughton: a melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.
The hybrids: the fruits of the Doctor’s labour, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.
All of them live in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.
Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she's soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners' lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies--but soon enough, someone's asking questions. It's not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.
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 neighbour 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.
Why You Should Pick Up One Of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Books
Silvia Moreno-Garcia effortlessly brings in historical elements of Mexico’s culture and lifestyle with her fantastical stories. She often puts women at the forefront and gives them rich backstories that coincide with women’s issues. When reading a Moreno-Garcia novel, many social issues are woven into multiple characters in the story. It’s not just one topic that is brought up in her novels because conversations about hierarchy, power, and racial divide all should be discussed together. She has crossed genres with her novels while keeping the foundation roughly the same.
Moreno-Garcia can go from horror to fantasy to crime noir and constantly re-invent herself as a writer. She keeps Mexican stories in the mainstream with her novels, and the perspective of Latinx women as protagonists is important. Whether you’re reading the horrors of Mexican Gothic or Silver Nitrate, she creates an atmospheric experience for her readers. In almost every way, she transports you to a time that feels unfamiliar, but the socio-political commentary is presented with urgency to make it relevant. If you need strong feminine energy, then you should pick up one of Moreno-Garcia’s novels.
Which Silvia Moreno-Garcia books have you read? Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below, or join our discord today!
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