Certain Dark Things: A Novel

Written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Narrated by Aida Reluzco

From Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, comes Certain Dark Things, a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.

Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized.

Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her. Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. As the trail of corpses stretches behind her, local cops and crime bosses both start closing in.

Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Sep 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250808271

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the critically-acclaimed author of Signal to Noise — winner of a Copper Cylinder Award, finalist of the British Fantasy, Locus, Sunburst and Aurora awards — and Certain Dark Things, selected as one of NPR’s best books of 2016. She won a World Fantasy Award for her work as an editor. Prime Meridian is her first novella.

Reviews for Certain Dark Things

[Candice - Books Bacon Glitter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great little vampire novel. I think my only gripe is that there are a lot of different points of video, and while I really liked the narrator, it was sometimes hard to tell which pov I was getting at the moment.

[Veronica Moncayo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was really original, also nice to read about Latin American vampires, I enjoyed it very much.

[Fredrik Söderberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Highly entertaining and I hope this will someday get a worthy show adaptation.

[Megan Denise Robinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent neon noir vampire novel! I loved the characters, the world building and the gritty, slightly futuristic Mexico City where most of the story takes place. It was very cool that the author portrayed multiple species of vampire, which only makes sense given how many kinds of vampires there are in world folklore. She created a fascinating, compelling and disturbing reality with competing vampiric drug cartels, sympathetic street kids, dirty cops, a worn out detective and a lot of action. There is a fair amount of blood and gore but it’s just right for the story.

I thought the narrator did a great job.

[Oso Isko · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book. I'm really over pseudo-scientific explanations for vampires, but this turned out to be quite a surprise. The vampires were interesting, as was this near future of an alternate history, and the setting refreshing. I also like the authentic voice about a story set in Mexico, or even dealing with subject matter such as poverty, crime, and government corruption, whether it's set in Del Jefe or not.

[Rahul Gor · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story was contrived characters were not well developed I think I’m a little disappointed by this book. Felt like it was a Y a novel that was made to look more adults