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by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
From the 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.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (10/09/2025)
...return flight from vacation in Oregon. I loved it and am still processing it. I have Migrations on my TBR. Thanks for the endorsement. I have started Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
-Barbara_B1
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (09-18-2025)
...ted listening to Black in Blues by Imani Perry. It will take a bit for me to finish this, but so far I am interested to keep going. I hope to pick up Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for a book club next month. I will be traveling so I've had to suspend my library holds, but I am going with a fully loaded Kindle. It would be nice...
-Barbara_B1
"This is a knockout." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Moreno-Garcia's prose is enchanting, full of perfect phrases that dot every page." —BookPage (starred review)
"A love letter to Mexico City's film industry and an excellent entry into the popular horror subgenre of occult films." —Library Journal
"An engaging, inventive story of moviemaking and the occult for film geeks and genre buffs." —Kirkus Reviews
"Hip as hell, Silver Nitrate delivers a cinematic and exhilarating punch. Silvia Moreno-Garcia does it again with this creepy and unforgettable occult thriller, teeming with the decadence of old horror movies." —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, bestselling author of Woman of Light and Sabrina & Corina
"Perfection. No one punctures the skin of reality to reveal the lurking, sinister magic beneath better than Silvia Moreno-Garcia." —Kiersten White, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide
This information about Silver Nitrate was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels The Daughter of Dr. Moreau, Velvet Was the Night, Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, and a bunch of other books. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award–winning She Walks in Shadows (aka. Cthulhu's Daughters). She has won the British Fantasy Award and the Locus Award for her work as a novelist.
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