Certain Dark Things

Just when I thought I was done with vampires, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things came along.

I was burned out on the genre. Most of the characters in vampire stories are rich, privileged, and frankly, not that interesting. Atl, the main character in Certain Dark Things, is the exception.

A descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, she finds herself caught between the rival vampire clans that dominate Mexico City. When she develops an unexpected attachment to a street kid named Domingo, her life gets even more complicated. 

Domingo could have been nothing but a Renfield, a plaything for her vampire… show more.

In critiquing the failures of our institutions, noir necessarily spends a lot of time in society’s underbelly. Almost everyone in the cast is morally gray, if not on the darker shade of the spectrum. That’s what we get from Certain Dark Things, which takes the narco gang wars in Mexico City, and instead of cartels, we get vampire clans, each with their own agendas and rules. For the protagonist Atl, a young female vampire on the run, the pull of the criminal underworld seems inescapable, and in her struggle we see the complications and the horrors of escaping one’s… show more.

Atl, the “wild child” daughter of a matriarch in a vampire clan that was old when the Aztecs ruled Mexico, is on the run from the slaughter of her family. She risks hiding out in Mexico City, off-limits to her kind, setting off a clash between warring vampire narco gangs, the beleaguered police, and the mortal crime families.  Atl needs to grow up and figure out how to survive before any or all of the above find her.  Forget everything you think you know about vampires. Moreno-Garcia throws all the pieces into the air and creates a new world of… show more.