I love books that make me feel I'm in another world -- and books that help me to better understand this one. Atl and Domingo stand little chance at all of making it out alive before the city devours them all - but they are determined to try. The plot hops around between various viewpoint characters, allowing us to get a broader look at what’s going on– and in turn making some of the story beats hit even harder as we see them from multiple perspectives. Certain Dark Things is exquisitely vicious and brutally beautiful * Ann Aguirre, New York Times bestselling author * Certain Dark Things is dark, inimitable, and so very, very cool.

Through Domingo, readers learn that Atl is not the arrogant and confident vampire she tells herself she is. I think the ending made sense for the direction the rest of the book went in, but I could see some people finding it unsatisfying. Mexican Gothic is the only Moreno-Garcia book I’ve read so far and like you I thought it was fantastic. It centers on Domingo, a trash-picking street kid, and his chance meeting with Atl, a young vampire on the run from her family’s enemies. I read for quite a bit into the story, hoping for some of the fun and folklore of Gods of Jade and Shadow, but this feels like a very early blueprint.

Rodrigo, on the other hand, works tighly with Nick and is more familiar with the criminal underbelly of Mexico City. Or, to say it differently, if she wrote a book about Mexican vampires now, after having written something as fantastic as Mexican Gothic, it would be a much stronger book.

If The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo met (and devoured) Interview with the Vampire to the twined rhythms of Octavio Paz, Bram Stoker, and Ozomatli, you might come close to the layers and textures of Certain Dark Things. I really enjoyed the overall idea and the setting; particularly, how humans and vampires live side-by-side. This noir-style story takes place in an alternate version of Mexico City, where vampires are real and everyone knows it. In Certain Dark Things, the author grants them all equal space, with each version being a separate vampire subspecies native to different areas.Oh what a cool book this could have been if the many cool ideas it contains had been spun a little further, if there had been a little more plot and substance, a little more depth to the characters. Overall I’d say this is a middle of the pack book of Moreno-Garcia’s, where I’d love the see more of this world, if not necessarily with the same characters.

Atl and Domingo come to rely on each other as they try to survive and ultimately escape Mexico City, while pursued by a rival vampire, the police, and the organized crime syndicates that have made Mexico City a no-vampire zone. There were no vampires in Mexico City: their kind had been a no-no for the past thirty years, ever since the old Federal District became a city-state, walling itself from the rest of the country. With only her faithful dog Cualli and a young street boy Domingo, Atl must try to find a way out of the country while pursued by both Necros and human gangs who refuse to tolerate any vampires on their turf.SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, Untamed Shore, and a bunch of other books. Certain Dark Things is the perfect blend of fantasy, horror and noir, with vivid characters and set in a Mexico City that became a character in and of itself. Only Mexico City has succeeded in remaining vampire-free, thanks to strict rules and vigilant organized crime.