Certain Dark Things

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Add in stark class divides and a cutthroat criminal underbelly, and Moreno-Garcia’s Mexico City is perfect for noir stories, with or without fangs. He had his comic books and graphic novels to keep him company, but most of the time, when he was bored, he would watch people as they walked around the subway lines. Mexico City has become a closed nation city, leaving the rest of the country at the mercy of powerful vampire gangs who fight for territory against each other and the humans.

I’m not someone who’s ever needed much motivation to pick up a vampire story after all, and after learning that one of the main characters is a descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, I was even more intrigued. For people who only know me for Mexican Gothic, I should warn you all my books tend to straddle different genres and have a very different feel for one another.Overall I enjoyed Certain Dark Things, and I think it’s a vampire novel wrote reading if you want some diversity in that genre. He is naive and enamoured with her, but he also knows the city inside and out, something that Atl knows will come to use. I wasn't sure about the writing quality for the first couple chapters-it seemed a little unseasoned (this is only Moreno-Garcia’s second novel). But Moreno-Garcia puts a fresh spin on this backdrop by creating a world where human gangs and vampire gangs of different species are bitter rivals in the fight to control the drugs—and thus the wealth and the power—that flow through Mexico.

I was one of those people who read a ton of urban fantasy – vampires, werewolves, and fairies – about 10 years ago. Her plan doesn't include Domingo, but little by little, she finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm.

The book’s climax is perfectly okay, but I genuinely assumed there was more to come, as it felt really of a piece with the other set pieces, but no – that’s the end of the book, complete with a coup de grâce that feels so brief as to almost be an afterthought (and not worth the buildup that we’ve been given, especially since the reveal is shot a few pages earlier). Domingo’s life on the street made him the perfect person to become a Vampire’s assistant, his desperation for solidity, for something regular ensures his loyalty, and while Atl does take advantage of this, she also see’s the strength in it. It’s not splatterpunk, but there’s enough in the novel for me to recommend a warning for the squeamish.

I read most genres, but some of my favorites are historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and children's literature. The animal looked mean and had a green bioluminescent tattoo running down the left side of its head, the kind of decoration that was all the rage among the hip and young urbanites.And good thing it was, since it would be a shame for this fresh take on vampires to pass into obscurity.

The moment they meet Domingo knows that Atl is something special, and the two of them form a bond despite their differences.In Certain Dark Things , different types of vampires inspired by various world mythologies are depicted as competing subspecies. Lastly, there are a few human characters in addition to Domingo whose perspective made this book a lot more interesting. Certain Dark Things takes place entirely in Mexico City, and Moreno-Garcia does such a good job of making it into an evocative setting it makes me wonder why I haven’t read more books set there. But as with all rules, there are times This one looked like a man who worked selling life insurance, a man who opened and closed his briefcase dozens of times during the day, handing out pamphlets and explanations.