eleventeen's Reviews > Certain Dark Things

3.25. I REALLY struggled with the first third of this book (almost to the point of DNF), something about the curt writing style not gelling with me, but once this finally got going I easily blazed through the rest and was left confusedly wanting more not only in terms of plot but in some indefinable thing.

The world that Moreno-Garcia has built here is fantastic and something that should span at least a duology - the work put in to cut off at a surprising end reminds me of RObin McKinley's Sunshine, where you feel like yelling "noooo you just got started?!?" The different vampire clans are fascinating in this alternate reality Mexico set parallel to modern times. This is a post vampire-reveal world and in many cities vampires are banned (including Mexico City, where the action takes place). The beats of culture and the melding of Aztec and Mexican street culture provided a rich backdrop, and the unearthing of this world bit by bit was paced well. The story unfolds from the pov of an Aztec vampire and that of a garbage-collecting street kid, then extends into the pov of a tired cop and a "renfield" (basically, human bonded in some unclear way to a vampire) of a Necro, a vampire species that plays on the compulsion themes of vampirism with its ability to control humans post shark-like bite.

Character-wise, you sympathize with both Domingo and Atl, feel the pressures on Ana, hate TF OUT OF NICK GOD WHAT A POS. So, all the character beats are here, all the world is here, but there's just something missing for me, something in how emotional choices are handled, with this sort of...odd detachment. It's not that Moreno-Garcia doesn't back the emotion up, but that it....doesn't feel right? ANd I could almost be on board with the alienness of vampirism as an explanation if Atl's very clearly human choices don't frame the ending of this book.

I'm not sure, I'm just left wanting more....More characterization, more real moments between characters, more bits of dialogue that flesh relationships out. Maybe that's just me, because this is an action packed book past the first slow build, so for fans of driven plot (if you can make it to page 100ish) I'd rec this as the action scenes are well-drawn, if not cinematic in their depiction.

A good read, but not a great one.