#also moreno-garcia's 'silver nitrate'

[xcziel]

oh i forgot to give the tuesday new release roundup huh

new john sandford thriller 'judgement prey'

yet another "danielle steel" book - 4th this year i think?

jordan peele's black authored horror-writing anthology is out: 'out there screaming'

sir patrick stewart memoir! 'making it so'

and awesome new music photo book! 'll cool j presents the streets win: 50 years of hiphop greatness' - this looks like an incredible gift book but i didn't get a chance to crack one open yet

book five of lore olympus graphic novel series in paperback

new kerri maniscalco adult novel set in her teen kingdom of the wicked verse - like tracy wolff she's branching out of ya: 'throne of the fallen'

hmmm what else ... new big hardcover d&d book 'lore & legends': quote "an illustrated history of the beloved fifth edition through artwork, interviews, and visual ephemera"

michael lewis has another business book out (he wrote the big short and liar's poker) 'going infinite'

oh also taylor lorenz's 'extremely online' finally hit the shelf

did i mention that 'chalice of the gods', the new rick riordan percy jackson book, came out last week?

[methodwriting]

me when silvia moreno-garcia new book is another horror:

[mangotortoise]

Silver Nitrate is actually kinda freaky...why am I reading this alone at night in the dark

[samglyph]

would love a list of your horror novels with women leads recs 👀

Yippee let me go find things so I can add a fun cover picture. These are all books that I’ve read in the last year! Definitely not an exhaustive list

*two of these technically aren’t horror books but I’m including them because I think they’re horror adjacent enough that if you like lighter horror, you’ll enjoy em.

A House With Good Bones by T Kingfisher: I just finished this! It was good! Not too scary imo, but great exploration of generational trauma, and a majority female cast. Also good if you are a bug enjoyer.

Family Business by Jonathan Sims: hey look it’s that guy that did that horror podcast that everyone likes. Family business is fun because Jonny really excels at “lulling you into a false sense of security” and also building a believable cast of characters. I think I’ve seen fewer people talk about this one compared to thirteen storeys, and I know that’s partially cause it just came out in paperback (in the US) but please! It’s good!

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones: this one is for certified weird girls. Jade’s special interest is slashers. She is now in a slasher. I love her so much. Part of a trilogy that I will conquer eventually.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw: (I talked about this one when I was reccing some queer books but I will repeat myself cause it’s good) I support women’s wrongs (eating people) and women’s rights (having situationships with agender plague doctors). Also this one is really short so if you don’t want to commit to a long read like chainsaw Id say try this one out. Very poetic.

Next two aren’t sorted into horror but honorable mentions:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: mushroom horror, good female lead, and a supporting wet cat of a man. I know some of you are going to devour this book so what are you even waiting for. Also I think the author has a new book out that’s actually sorted into horror but I haven’t read yet called Silver Nitrate. Frankly I think Mexican gothic should be counted as horror but I think it squeaks by on some technicalities. I love the descriptions in this book.

The Near Witch by VE Schwab: good folk horror, good quick read, I’m going to be honest I didn’t like the romance and I thought the lead should’ve been aromantic but otherwise pretty good book.

[claudeleine]

what would you say your favorite books are from this year? and you would recommend?

ooooo! i think i've read about 24 books this year, and rn i'm reading the vampire armand and the only good indians by stephen graham jones<3 liking both so far!

the hacienda by isabel canas - if you liked mexican gothic, this is a similar haunted house type story, and tbh i liked it more. also the author is a pnw local so <3 i also liked her book vampires of el norte, but i zoomedddd thru this one

the adventures of amina al-sirafi by shannon chakraborty - specifically the audio book though, there are a lot of asides where the narrators are speaking to ppl in the room with them, so it works better if it's like they're telling u the story rather than u reading what they wrote down if that makes sense. the narrators are also just phenomenal

martyr! by kaveh akbar - this book was just beautiful

near to the wild heart by clarice lispector - another beautiful book, i just love her writing style

legendborn and bloodmarked by tracy deonn - a phenomenal low fantasy book, and honestly if the publishing industry wasn't terrible to black women, especially in the fantasy genre, this could easily have been adjusted to be adult fiction/fantasy

starve acre by andrew michael hurley - we love gothic folk horror, it was like the prologue to a horror story but falls just between the chaos. it's a quick read, u could knock it out in a day probably

silver nitrate by silvia moreno-garcia - it takes a bit for the action to get going, but i really liked how well u get to know the two mcs and it really strengthened the story when shit starts hitting the fan. this is the 2nd or 3rd book i've read by this author and i'm not totally sure how i feel about her endings, but i did like this ending more than mexican gothic, which fully knocked that book down from 5 stars to 4 for me lol

carmilla by j. sheridan le fanu - but specifically only the version annotated by carmen maria machado

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Queer Books July 2023

🦇 Good morning, my beloved bookish bats. I'm sorry this post is coming to you so late in the month; I planned more content than I realized! Let's rewind and look back on all the queer books released this past month. Though I'm sure a number of these covers look familiar, there are also as few that haven't received the attention they deserve!

What books are you adding to your summer reading list at the last minute?

🌈 Role Playing by Cathy Yardley 🌈 A Place for Us by Brandon J Wolf 🌈 A Thorn Among Roses by Hayley Anderton and G. L Preston 🌈 Of Love & Libraries by Brenna Bailey 🌈 A Crime of Secrets by Ann Aptaker 🌈 The Beasts of Paris by Stef Penney 🌈 Wanderlust by Elle Everhart 🌈 The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson 🌈 Go the Way Your Blood Beats by Emmett de Monterey 🌈 The Lighthouse Keeper by Liv Rancourt 🌈 Overemotional by David Fenne 🌈 Lioness by Emily Perkins 🌈 All About Romance by Daniel Tawse

🌈 Moonlight and the Monarch by Evelyn Carver 🌈 The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera 🌈 A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow 🌈 All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky 🌈 A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero 🌈 Digging for Heaven by Jenna Jarvis 🌈 Marigold by Melissa Brayden 🌈 All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan 🌈 On an Ebbing Seafoam Tide by Alannah Radburn 🌈 The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa 🌈 The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqqi 🌈 Play to Win by Jodie Slaughter

🌈 A Rulebook for Restless Rogues by Jess Everlee 🌈 Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch 🌈 The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella 🌈 More to Love by Georgina Kiersten 🌈 Defiant Bodies: Making Queer Community in the Anglophone Caribbean by Nikoli A. Attai 🌈 The Ink Drinkers by Dror Bloodwood 🌈 Counting Lost Stars by Kim van Alkemade 🌈 Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders 🌈 Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle 🌈 Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia 🌈 The King is Dead by Benjamin Dean 🌈 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

🌈 Buzzing by Samuel Sattin & Rye Hickman 🌈 The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley 🌈 Firebird by Sunmi 🌈 A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui 🌈 What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan 🌈 The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan 🌈 The Stablemaster’s Heart by Sarah Honey 🌈 The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero LaCruz 🌈 The Valkyrie's Shadow (The Helheim Prophecy #2) by Tiana Warner 🌈 In the Case of Heartbreak (Fern Falls #2) by Courtney Kae 🌈 The Hunt by Kelly J. Ford 🌈 Rana Joon and the One and Only Now by Shideh Etaat

[housewarningparty]

top 5 horror book recommendations? it's spooky season and i need to get my read on...

Hell yeah! Gonna break this down a little. First an obligatory rehash of books I always recommend for this, these are like all-time faves for me

Wounds/North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud - can't choose between these two, so they're tied for my favorite single author short story collection. Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite writers of all time

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado - a very very close second for my favorite single-author short story collection. Machado is a beautiful writer and finding an author writing such powerful horror from a queer woman's perspective was world changing for me.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - COME ON!!!! You might have already read this but consider reading it again! Absolute classic.

The Cipher by Kathe Koja - dark, fucked up meditation on art and addiction and toxic relationships. I think about this book all the time. A guy finds a weird hole in his apartment basement and then everything goes wrong (first slowly and then very very quickly)

Red X by David Demchuk - talked about this a lot before too but I really do love it. Fictional story inspired by real life serial killings that took place in Toronto's gay village over decades. The author inserts essays throughout the book that makes it part memoir as well. A supernatural story about real queer trauma.

--

Okay with that out of the way, here's some recommendations for stuff I think would be fun for Halloween specifically

Echoes edited by Ellen Datlow - OKAY CHEATING I ALSO RECOMMEND THIS ALL THE TIME BUT IT'S A PERFECT OCTOBER BOOK!!! Fuck-off huge ghost story anthology. Huge range of tones, pretty diverse group of contributing authors, it's my all-time favorite anthology.

Slewfoot by BROM - this one's got major autumn vibes. It's a story of a woman in Puritan New England who's accused of witchcraft. It's also a story about the devil. Kind of. The print version has really amazing paintings by the author, but I've heard this is also good in audio.

Come Closer by Sara Gran - this is a great little novella. Possession story that really packs a punch. I can't really say much more than that, but it's not a huge time investment and I think it's really worthwhile.

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu - if you can, get the version edited by Carmen Maria Machado (she adds in some great footnotes and it has some neat art too). This is a classic and also quite a brisk read. The original lesbian vampire story.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - here's a new release for you! I always watch a ton of horror movies in October, and if you're anything like me maybe you'll want to read a horror novel about horror movies. This story follows a female film editor in 90s Mexico and her washed up actor friend as they help a retired filmmaker complete his famously unfinished last film, which he had been making with a former Nazi occultist before strange misfortunes and the occultist's mysterious disappearance forced production to shut down.

Okay that was double the amount of recommendations requested so I'm stopping here. Haha don't look in the tags don't worry about it there's nothing there you're crazy

[secret-third-thing]

Do you read a lot of horror? Do you have any horror novel recs?

- @daycourtofficial

LOL hi. Get ready for an essay.

I need to read more. Oops.

Visual media first: I've watched a lot of horror films with @jessicafongarts. Smile fucked me up, but there was a different one that I really liked. It's the one where the ghost girl has been sitting on the guy's back the whole time!!! I legit have no idea what it's called but ill bug jess to see if they remember. Nothing has every scared me as much as It Follows. I've also seen a handful of the classics - The Shining, Poltergeist, the Exorcist, but I largely am more psychological horror and avoid films that have body horror & explicit violence. I'm a bad film student cause yes those films are spooky but i didn't enjoy them.

x-files and twin peaks could be slotted into horror tv, but my film school sensibilities want to slap the Drama label onto it. Twin Peaks changed me as a person though. My writing has always possessed a dark tone but my Media Crit class's analysis on Twin Peaks gave me the language to understand what I liked. It's about time for my rewatch anyway. I like horror/surrealism/absurdism etc.

Books/Comics:

I'm not as well read when it comes to traditional? horror, but that's largely cause I've been inhaling fantasy for the past two years. I read one Deen Koontz book and noped out. I tried IT and noped out. I do have other Stephen King books I need to try, but I generally prefer things written by women.

I'm currently reading Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, (T. Kingfisher is who I want to be when I grow up and I recommend EVERYTHING she writes).

Junji Ito scares the living daylights out of me. The Body horror makes me awlfj;sdlkfj but The Enigma of Amigara Fault is probably the most accessible of his stories? Someone correct me. This Hole was made for me!!!

Bunny by Mona Awad is probably my favorite horror that I've read to date, but it's absolutely not for everyone though. If you were ever an outcast in school (esp if you were a creative type), this will hit you like a ton of bricks.

I've read Such a Pretty Smile (which was just okay imo) and nearly all of Poe. And The Bloody Chamber short story collection by Angela Carter (which is classic but def read some commentary cause iirc it hasn't aged well)

Up Next:

Her Body and Other Stories

Lapvona

Slewfoot

im know im missing some of the horror i've read but that's what immediately comes to mind. IF YOU have recs lemme know.

[heavenlyyshecomes]

—tagged by @sawasawako to share some of the books i want to read this year ! 🌷

want my readings to be different this year, less random novels i picked up from my tbr and more connected books! I want one book to lead to the next and sit with a topic. also because i am graduating this year and i feel like i can finally let myself read the books i thought i wouldn't properly "get" because i am too young and don't have the experiences but I'm going to try not to be so averse to books about people in their twenties (the first three on the list reflect that) 🤧❣️

temporary—hilary leichter / three rooms—jo hamya / stay true—hua hsu

margery kempe—robert glück / tomb of sand—geetanjali shree tr. daisy rockwell / the traitor baru cormorant—seth dickinson

silver nitrate—silvia moreno-garcia / florence in ecstasy—jess chaffee / woman running in the mountains—yūko tsushima tr. geraldine harcourt (the three i'm most excited to read !)

tagging: @lovlettres @serpentgirls @helenfrankenthaler @engulfes @oldyears @powm @mossyshadows @ch4momile @soracities @firstfullmoon @librarycards @maeumsim and anyone else who wants to do this feel free to tag me i love seeing people's lists :~) 💙

[le-trash-prince]

Okay here is the final list of all the books I’ve finished this year! (since it doesn’t look like I’m going to get anything finished or even started this week.)

I tend to not finish things if I’m not enjoying them (two exceptions on this list because sometimes I am spiteful), so I liked all of these—but the ones in bold are those I particularly loved (I only bolded one per series or it would just be a wall of The Murderbot Diaries lol).

LGBT+ books read: 48

wlw books read: 22

trans/nb books: 17

I’m very happy with my year in reading. I hit my new year’s goal of 52 books finished. And I read a lot of things that I really fucking loved. Lots of robots. LOTS of scifi/fantasy sapphics which I am SO happy about. Some good horror, some good fucky “romances”. A lot of things written in response to the Trump era or written during 2020 lockdown.

I also enjoyed partaking in online book fandom for the first time in possibly ever! Especially Murderbot fandom, which is very active and creative and lovely.

(If you followed me for my bookblogging, thank you for enduring my Thai BL vroom vroom omegaverse brainrot. It will not be stopping anytime soon.)

For 2024, I am going to keep my goal at 52 books and save any extra time I have for rereading old things.

Anyways the list, for posterity:

After Midnight: A History of Independent India by Meghaa Gupta

The Old Place by Bobby Finger

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae

Women and Girls With Autism Spectrum Disorder by Sarah Hendrickx

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

Strictly No Heroics by B. L. Radley

Love after the End edited by Joshua Whitehead

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

Burning Roses by S. L. Huang

In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

No One Will Come Back For Us by Premee Mohamed

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Witch King by Martha Wells

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Galveston’s Maceo Family Empire by T. Nicole Boatman et al

Blood Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Galveston’s Red Light District: A History of the Line by Kimber Fountain

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Linghun by Ai Jiang

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie

Spear by Nicola Griffith

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starking

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Iona Datt Sharma & Katherine Fabian

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Silver Nitrate Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele

[bookclub4m]

31 Recent Horror Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. You can also listen to our episode on Horror fiction.

This list features horror fiction by BIPOC authors published within the last 3 years.

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Morena-Garcia 

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Manmade Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

Chlorine by Jade Song

Midnight Storm Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories by Alex Soop

There's No Way I'd Die First by Lisa Springer

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

[kenzie-eli-reads-books]

Silver Nitrate

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Horror | Fantasy | Historical (90s)

★★★★★

In Silver Nitrate, we follow Montserrat and Tristán, two messy best friends working in the entertainment industry in Mexico in 1993. The two of them strike up a friendship with a retired director whose final film was never completed and may or may not be cursed. He persuades them to help him finish the movie and things get a lot out of control when the film's history with nazi occultism is revealed.  

One of the most amazing things about Moreno-Garcia’s writing is how her characters are flesh and blood. Montserrat and Tristán are two deeply flawed and deeply real people. They make bad decisions; Montserrat is stubborn, Tristán is self-centered, and they don’t always treat each other kindly. There were moments where I genuinely wanted to throttle one or both of them and yell at them to stop being a dick for fuck’s sake, but I loved them nonetheless. 

Montserrat is extremely passionate about film and sound, and I was thrilled every time she info-dumped about a process or a director that I was unfamiliar with. This may not appeal to every reader, because there is quite a bit of technical jargon, but I think Moreno-Garcia does a good job of explaining what needs to be explained while also not inundating the reader with so much information that you get bored. 

There’s also, at the heart of this book, an important discussion of the post-war Nazi presence in Mexico, and the colorism and racism that pervades through colonization and persistent European influence and oppression. Moreno-Garcia shows how insidious and seductive language can be, and how these perverse systems of white-supremacy, aryanism, nazism, etc. are built on stolen knowledge and stolen ground.

I enjoyed this book so much! I consume a lot of horror media, and I’m always excited to learn more about niches and facets that are unfamiliar to me; and this book is a wealth of information with a lot of heart.

[freckles-and-books]

Since it’s bi visibility month do you or any of your followers have book/movie/series recs with bisexual characters? (except for heartstopper I already know that one and I love it) I don’t care about genre tho I am not the biggest fan of pure romance books but if they have great characters I am willing to try. Thank you so much. :)

If my followers have good suggestions, I hope they chime in.

Off the top of my head:

VE Schwab often has some bisexual characters. The ones I’ve read are the Shades of Magic series and the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

The two main characters in Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia are both bisexual.

One of the main side characters in the Timothy Wilde series by Lyndsay Faye is as well.

Also, the main character in Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell.

I know I’ve read more, but that is what I’m remembering right now. Hopefully there is enough variety for you to find something you would like.

[slowdripsunrise]

jfc okay so i have forgotten/been too lazy to write up reveiws here i apparently havent updated since. lone women which is well. so ive read a shit ton since then so i'm going try my best to write up as much as i can in this post bc i don't want to just. stop and skip over stuff. so well. here we go. spoilers for various books under the cut, i'll tag them all !

first book i finished after i last updated was silver nitrate by silvia moreno-garcia. been a while but damn do i remember the fucking vibes. absolutely killer vibes and atmosphere, and the plot was fun and interesting; i do remember being a bit confused in one of the final scenes fighting the guy but it wasnt enough to take me out of the story. the characters felt real and i could feel their love of movies and maybe each other off the page, definitely recommend if you're looking for an atmospheric, creepy little book.

next (and i'll just group these together) i read the poppy war trilogy by r. f. kuang ! absolutely wonderful storytelling and the characters were interesting and loveable. i think that this story succeeds in being one of the few good "war stories" as in it doesn't glorify or make light of any aspects of the war. there are good moments and bright spots throughout, but in the end pretty much every single character we know and love ends up dead, and before they're dead, they've been shaped so thoroughly by the war around them that there is no way anyone could have come out of this series thinking that it in any way romanticized the events. i loved everything about it and more. but while i did love the series. tbh i don't agree with everyone saying that its the most serious and intellectual and groundbreaking book in the entire world. yes it is groundbreaking and yes it is based on a lot of real life horrific events, but it's also. extremely entertaining. it's written beautifully and has some very poignant scenes that i love, and i am gonna be honest i lost where i was going with this point. i think what i'm trying to say is like before i read it, i saw a lot of people on the internet saying that it is like. the highest peak of literature and such and like. for me, it's mostly just a damn good time. i go into most books looking for entertainment (meaning like. i would like to feel emotions, not necessarily happy ones, just emotions in general) and what i think a lot of people made it seem like, was ONLY an epic tome about the brutality of war, the military, and colonization. and it absolutely is about that ! i am not docking points for it being about those things, in fact if it hadn't had all these hard hitting topics i wouldn't have liked it as much. but it's ALSO about rin, kitay, and nezha, and how they love and hate each other. and sometimes i think people lean too much into one aspect of the book, one way or the other (i have absolutely seen the inverse of this, people forgetting about the colonialism and militarization aspects in an impressive show of hypocrisy. which... is worse imo.) but idk. i have no idea what i am trying to say i just like this book yall.

next oml. okay again grouping them together for my own sake but i read the southern reach trilogy by jeff vandermeer ! this series was such a creepy and weird and offputting good time i ate that shit right up. the first book and the biologists pov are my favorites, and all of the insight we get from her and the first book into area x was just. so compelling i could not put that shit down. i'm pretty sure the second i finished in the hospital lol i was INVESTED. and honestly. i did really like the second book. not as much as the first, but i don't think it was bad or underwhelming compared to the first. once i got past the pov shift, i really liked controls pov partly because he is just some guy. like he is just so average and banal, and seeing this set against the absurdity of the rest of the book was really interesting. i liked how even though we weren't IN area x, the southern reach still had that otherworldly and offputting suspenseful energy, even in a familiar setting (office building type i mean. as opposed to weird as fuck forest). that and also i am deep into my f1 phase so like i kept picturing control as checo perez. like hes just so guy to me like hes just a normal guy that has no fucking clue whats going on and thats really funny and awesome to me. like man. anyway the third wasnt my favorite, but i still really like the series as a whole and will probably read the 4th one coming out whenever it does.

NEXT. sharks in the time of saviors by kawai strong washburn. did i cry. maybe. did i really like the story. yes. it was definitely a change of pace for me after reading the above books but the story was lovely and magical and engaging and very sad and i enjoyed every bit of it.

after that i read scattered all over the earth by yōko tawada, which is a story that i kinda have mixed feelings about? i listened to the audio book and the narrator did such a wonderful job, i loved listening to the two man characters talk about language in the mc's made up language, panska. and if the book was just about that, i probably would have liked it more, exploring language and the loss of it; however one of the side characters constantly get's misgenders when the story is outside of her pov. and it's like. really fucking distracting. so like i guess i don't have very mixed feelings about it lol. i liked one bit, definitely did not like another bit, and the rest of the book wasn't really strong enough to sway me back into the "i like this book and think it's interesting" camp. although if you can get past the blatant transphobia, the audio book really is nice to listen to, especially coming off a post surgery high.

next i read the ghost bride by yangsze choo ! this was another really atmospheric, palpable book. i could feel the setting, the humidity, the smells, all of it and it was so good! an engaging story, i'm pretty sure i read this one in a day or two. the characters were fun, the plot moved quickly in a way that made sense, and exploring the realms of the dead and the living with the characters was so fun, definitely recommend !

im gonna wrap this post up here mostly bc im hungry but i still have a lot more to update on ! if u made it this far thank you and also im sorry. happy reading!

[wri0thesley]

Hi I don’t know if you’ve mentioned it before but I would love to know what books you’ve read and what ones you really enjoyed. Seeing as I really like your writing i think I might like some of ur book recs!

i love love love talking about books, anon, so i never get sick of the question!!! <3

my own very personal fave books ever:

les miserables (victor hugo), the vampire chronicles series (anne rice), the discworld series (terry pratchett), the picture of dorian gray (oscar wilde), we have always lived in the castle (shirley jackson - i also love her short story collections a lot!!!), let the right one in (john ajvide lindqvist), the chrestomanci series (diana wynne jones), anything by laura purcell, the valdemar series (mercedes lackey)

books/authors i've read recently (slash within the past few years) and have really enjoyed:

the regency faerie tales series (olivia atwater), spinning silver (naomi novik), deathless (catherynne m valente), the bell at sealey head (patricia a mckillip - i've been reading a lot of mckillip and really enjoying it!), bitterthorn (kat dunn), the salt grows heavy (cassandra khaw).

if you want recs in specific genres or about specific things i can help with that too, these are just generic recommendations! my personal interests tend to be fantasy, horror, and especially historical variants in both! i love fairy tale retellings and gothic vibes and vampires and fae beings. (i also love recommendations from other people too!)

i am currently reading (and have been high key struggling with) silver nitrate by silvia moreno-garcia; i've been recommended her work a lot but if more of them are like this i'm not sure if i'll enjoy them! still, i will persevere!!!!

[mediaevalmusereads]

Silver Nitrate. By Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Del Rey, 2023.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: horror/supernatural

Series: N/A

Summary: 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 neighbor 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.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: smoking, references to drug use and pain killer addiction, homophobia, reference to drug overdose/suicide attempt, Nazis, racism, disturbing images, violence

OVERVIEW: I got this book from the library after reading several Silvia Moreno-Garcia books that I've liked. Usually, books set after the 1920s aren't my jam, but I wanted to see what the author can do. Luckily, I had fun with this one; the focus on film was a creative way to explore horror and the occult, and the two protagonists were well-developed and fun to watch. While I didn't think this book was perfect, it certainly held my attention, so for that reason, it gets 4 stars.

WRITING: Moreno-Garcia's prose is very easy to read; it flows well, it balances showing and telling, and it's descriptive and eerie without feeling overburdened. I don't think I have much to say that I haven't said before.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Monserrat, a sound editor, and Tristán, a down-on-his-luck actor, as they form a friendship with a former horror flick director, Abel. Abel convinces them that his final film, which is incomplete, needs to be finished in order to lift a curse; at first, Monserrat and Tristán help him to humor an aging film icon, but soon they discover that the unreleased film was a conduit for nefarious magic. As Monserrat and Tristán learn more about the film's production, they uncover a world of cults and occult knowledge that threatens to reshape the present.

I loved the weirdness of this plot. I loved the role that film and horror movies played in shaping the way the magic worked and the way the characters interacted with the world. I loved the mixture of runes, ritual, and willpower that systematized magic while also making it personal - not something secret and guarded by elites, but something that can be enacted by those that have the desire to act. I also love the nod to history; Moreno-Garcia is clearly interested in the occultism of the 1930s and how Nazi enthusiasm dovetailed with racism, and I liked how this focus was brought to 1990s Mexico to show how the fanaticism of the past can have effects years on.

But as much as I liked this plot, I do think there are moments where uncovering the past led to extended paragraphs of backstory and explanatory dialogue. While the history is important, a lot of it is conveyed by characters just telling the characters a long story or something akin to a mini-lecture. This isn't my favorite way of communicating information, but I understand why it's needed.

CHARACTERS: This book has a number of characters, so I'll speak of a few individuals before looking at supporting or side characters generally.

Montserrat, the sound editor, is likable in part because she is so direct and competent. I very much enjoyed watching her become focused on getting to the bottom of things, and her take-no-shit attitude was pleasing and refreshing. Her inability to cook and her endless supply of ratty t-shirts was also quite endearing.

Tristán, the actor, is a great foil for Montserrat. He's charming where she is blunt, he's cowardly where she is brave, and he's flippant where she is determined. Heck, he even cooks and dresses well, so he felt like Montserrat's opposite in every way. This made the two an interesting duo, and their bickering was actually kind of interesting because it forced them to confront their respective weaknesses.

Supporting characters are fine and they serve their function. Abel was primarily a source of knowledge and was responsible for getting the whole plot moving, and I kind of liked that he started out as this lonely old man who just wanted company to listen to his stories.

Ewers, the occultist and primary antagonist, was actually kind of well-done. I usually don't enjoy antagonists that spend most of their time off-page, but I think Moreno-Garcia was smart in that she made him something of a ghost: a being who is there but not. Ewers gradually shows up by starting as this undefined presence, but gets more and more corporeal as more magic is used. I found this effective because it made the story feel like a gradual uncovering, like at first, we're not sure if magic is real but then, by the end, we're absolutely convinced.

TL;DR: Silver Nitrate is an eerie supernatural thriller that unites movies with magic in a quite literal way. The chemistry between the protagonists and the focus on occultism make this book especially memorable.