Audiobook Review: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publication Date: July 18th 2023 by Random House Audio

Pages: 323

Audio Book Length: 13hrs 3min

Narrator: Gisela Chipe

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Montserrat and her friend, Tristán befriend Abel Urueta, an aging film director who hasn’t made a film since his last horror flick stuttered and died before being finished. Since then, he claims because the last scene wasn’t finished, the spell that had been woven into the film wasn’t completed and everyone involved with the film was then cursed. With Montserrat a film engineer and Tristán an actor, Abel thinks they’re the perfect candidates to finally finish the last scene and nullify the curse.

 

Montserrat becomes immersed into the history of the Wilhelm Ewers, the screenwriter and occultist, now dead, partly looking for clues to keep them safe and partly fascinated by the man. After the three of them complete the scene crazy stuff starts happening to them as it seems they’ve re-awakened a dark power. 

Silver Nitrate started off slow, with the history of Montserrat and Tristán’s friendship, and a lot of detailed Mexican film history related. There’s a bit of romance, unrequited for most of the story, that fell a bit flat for me.

 

Even though the story is labeled as horror, I wouldn’t say it’s a scary. I was entertained and invested in seeing how it would all turn out, hoping Montserrat and Tristán would survive the evil pursuing them.

 

I enjoyed Gisela Chipe’s narration. Her subtle Spanish accent was well suited for the characters. I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

3 Stars

Book Description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.

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.