Certain Dark Things

Certain Dark Things is a great case for making big worlds into little stories. I don't say that to belittle Moreno-Garcia's novel, this story is not small in a bad way, but it is tight and rather simple. And yet behind it is some pretty sophisticated world building.

Moreno-Garcia alternate universe is one where vampires have been out of the coffin (as Charlaine Harris would say) for fifty or sixty years. Humanity has done its best to create vampire free zones without antagonizing their superiors on the food chain (this did made me think quite a bit about how you manage a society where one group of people needs to eat the other to live), and one of those supposedly safe places is Mexico City. This is where the young vampire Atl runs when her vampire-narco clan is wiped out by a rival cartel. There, she runs into Domingo, a naive but charming street kid who decides to help her get out of the city while the Necros, the police and Mexico City's cartels are trying to kill her.

Domingo is a refreshing main character in many ways. I always appreciate it when a writer creates a character that isn't smart. A character doesn't have to be brilliant, or even particularly wise to earn my respect or interest. Despite living on the streets for a few years, Domingo's knowledge - of the world, of vampires, of emotion and relationships - is limited. He barely knows how to express his affection for Atl other than telling her she's “pretty.” But he is dedicated and loyal, and I like to think he knows a good person when he sees them. Atl has both parts bad ass supernatural chick, and sheltered narco brat who barely knows how to take care of herself on her own. Both her and Domingo are emotionally vulnerable and immature in this way and its why, while their romance is light-handed, its still effective. It's also why Nick Godoy, the Necro heir that comes to Mexico City hunting after Atl, serves as a good foil for both of them, but Atl in particular. Much the same way, Nick is a spoiled son of a vampire cartel boss who thinks he can do and get whatever he wants, and what he wants is for Atl to suffer. He's an easy villain to hate, and one that keeps the pace fast and the adrenaline high.

As said, this is a tightly wound book. Moreno-Garcia doesn't spend a whole lot of time dwelling or ruminating on anything with maybe the exception of the relationship between Domingo and Atl. Nick's hatred of Atl is summed up in a brief flashback of them meeting in a club and his anger about her attacks against his family. Nick's personality is summed up in his greed and petulance - he's not complex. The suggestions that there was a relationship between the Revenant, Bernadino, and Atl's mother are indulged for a just a moment and then left hanging. Moreno-Garcia also treats us to the inner workings of some more seasoned characters involved in the conflict, only to give them rather unceremonious and rather disappointing endings. I am glad though that Bernardino had his moment. I had a feeling once we began to learn what a Revenant was that this guy was going to have moment. That, thankfully, did not disappoint.

Certain Dark Things is enjoyable, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there's supposed to be more, that there's a deeper story hidden between the lines. Maybe I'm projecting a little bit. There's a fascinating little glossary of different vampire subspecies at the back of the book, and even though I'm not really sure its Moreno-Garcia's thing, I'm really crossing my fingers for a sequel, or some sort of expansion of this world. This book felt like a snack, a tasty snack, but I feel like somewhere there's a meal.

This book is hard to describe and even harder to rate.

I both did and didn't enjoy it. I liked it, yet also got so bored with reading it that I couldn't read more than a couple chapters at a time. (In fact, I needed to return the library rental then turn around and re-borrow it... even though my library has fourteen-day rentals.) I found the world fascinating and cared about the characters, but I also got sick of repetitive info-dumping and thought each of the characters were either annoying or completely unlikable in some way. I loved the dog character, Cualli, but hated how he was constantly referred to as “the dog” or “it” instead of solely by name or with the appropriate pronouns for a sentient, living being.

Frankly, I think this book is in desperate need of a heavy-handed editor. It could be amazing with better pacing and less repetition - such as the swapping POVs which frequently cause the narrative to backtrack and retread familiar ground to show another perspective of the same scene, or the constant reminders of which breed of vampire each character is. The inclusion of an “Encyclopedia Vampirica” at the end makes me even more confused by the choice to dump multiple paragraphs of Wikipedia-worthy lore writeups into the actual narrative. It does nothing for the story to spend a few pages learning, in awkwardly textbook style prose, the histories of different locations or vampire clans. It's interesting lore, but presented in a frustrating and boring manner; when I'm reading a story, I want to read a bloody story and not be given a fictional history lesson in the middle of character development or the meandering plot. (Comparatively, the lore guide at the end of the book is actually really good and reminds me of the guidebooks for Vampire: the Masquerade, which I love. I wish there were even more detail to it.)

The atmosphere of this book, however, is exquisite. The noir meets pseudo-cyberpunk meets horror vibe is everything I love all rolled into one. The bleakness isn't overstated, such that it's the kind of noir which doesn't make me hate life more but rather just entertains and fascinates me. Even though the characters aren't particularly likable, I still cared about their fates because they were so richly characterized. The pacing is terrible, but the story told and the writing quality in general - minus the in-story infodumping - is high. And once the action picks up? Oh, it gets good! The ending is even absolutely perfect, despite not being what I expected at all.

I suspect this book would make a very entertaining piece of visual media. In my mind's eye, it played out a bit like a movie - the kind I would watch at least once a year when getting my gritty paranormal fix - but even a video game would work well with the lore. (It even drove me to do a rewatch of Constantine and Devour and has me eager to play Until Dawn and V:tM Bloodlines again!) As a book, however, I feel a smidge let down by its presentation. I just wanted more and better from this, but was left feeling as if it would've been so much better if only I'd been able to read more than a couple chapters at a time before getting bored - or at least if more happened before the three-quarters point.

So, it's hard to rate. I liked and enjoyed it, I think. By time things wrapped up, I was completely invested! But, man, it was a rocky path so I can't rate it particularly highly. I feel both like I'm being too generous and not generous enough choosing three stars, but a middle-ground rating seems fair enough to balance the positives and negatives. But, man, my love of gritty, gory, grimdark supernatural noir makes me want to tack another star onto the end, anyway...

i apologize duly to veronica and justine who finished this book... an eternity ago. it's not even that long of a book and yet it took me so long to finish? sigh

you know, world-building that feels like a textbook at some points is only done well on occasion, and SMG knocked it out of the park with this one. i was obsessed with all of the details and history behind all of the different vampires. the slow reveal of what got atl into this situation was great, and i loved the relationship between her and our lil dummy domingo (bless his heart)

definitely spent too much time in the back of the book reading about all the different species