Certain Dark Things Is Urban Vampire Noir With Bite
A good Halloween read must embody number of key qualities: dark, of course, but not too bleak, with a little pep in its step, and a touch of gallows humor or black comedy. Maybe it’s scary, or maybe it revels in a milder form of spooky. The best Halloween books deal in monsters and lore, often keeping one foot in our reality. Sometimes, they remind us that the real monsters are us.
Distill all of that, and you might just happen upon a book like Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s follow-up to her heralded retro-’80s fantasy Signal to Noise. While ostensibly about vampires, her sophomore effort is truly one of those uber-hyphenated books; for the sake of categorization, let’s call it paranormal-noir-punk-urban-fantasy.
As she did in her debut, Moreno-Garcia once again revels in, and reinvents, Mexico City, this time with cyberpunk embellishments, rather than the magical realism aura of Signal to Noise. This Mexico City is one of the few places untouched in a world overrun by vampires, and the only such oasis in Mexico. The city maintains its precarious balance by heavy policing, both by law enforcement and competing (yet in this case, cooperative) gangs. Until it doesn’t.
Into town blows Atl, the descendant of Aztec vampires, one of several strains of blood drinkers culled from myths around the globe. (Though a minor distinction in the grand scheme of things, Atl’s breed is probably the least horrifying of the lot.) Shehasn’t come to town to stir the pot, though that’s a significant consequence of her arrival. She’s on the run from a rival vampire clan, one that killed her powerful family and now has its eyeteeth set on her.
She needs an ally, and she finds just that in the unlikely form of Domingo, a street kid wise in the ways of his circumstances and remarkably naive in the ways of the world—and women. He’s smitten with Atl from the start. Raised on a steady diet of pulp science fiction and monster movies, Domingo is, even more than physically attracted to Atl, utterly entranced by the whorl of chaos she leaves in her wake, and the ever-present sense of danger that lingers on her person.
For Atl’s part, she’s of two minds about Domingo’s adoration: simultaneously suffocated by it, and reveling in the sparks of her own humanity his passion seems to ignite in her. She needs him—to protect her, to run her errands, to feed her—and she finds that dependency both repulsive and intoxicating.
Neither of these characters, nor really any of the others revealed in alternating point-of-view chapters (be they competing vampire clan members or downtrodden police officers) are likable in the traditional sense. Everyone is flawed, some rather deeply so. Yet, you’re rooting for them. Despite yourself, you’re rooting for Domingo, head-over-heels in a toxic love affair. You’re rooting for Atl’s salvation, even as she chooses self-interest over nobility.
Most of all, you’re rooting for fireworks—action, suspense, drama. All of that you get in spades. Certain Dark Things doesn’t stop churning until its bittersweet epilogue. Rather than focus too intensely on its will-they-won’t-they-will-she-eat-him love story, the novel lets that tumultuous uncertainty blossom naturally, and its tendrils wind their way into every bit of the action, adding extra color and tension to vampire attacks, corrupt police investigations, gruesome killings, and Atl strong-arming old family “friends” into favors.
All of that is to say Certain Dark Things is a fast-paced, quick-witted urban fantasy, and an absolutely perfect Halloween read.
Certain Dark Things is available October 25.