In 2015, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut, SIGNAL TO NOISE,
jump started her writing career as one of the best of the year on seven lists
including RT, BookRiot, Buzzfeed, io9, Vice, and Tor.com. The debut was also
was finalist for the 2016
Aurora Awards, Sunburst Award, and the 2016 Locus Awards.
Already highly anticipated, her sophomore book, CERTAIN DARK THINGS (Thomas
Dunne Books; October 25, 2016), adds to this emerging talent’s buzz. Set in the
dark underworld of Mexico City, Moreno-Garcia spins a fast paced story based on
Latin American myth about a dark vampire drug war.
Title: Certain Dark Things
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Vampires
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, St Martin's Press
Release Date: 25th October 2016
BLURB supplied by St Martin's Press
Welcome to Mexico City… An Oasis In A Sea Of Vampires…
Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is busy eking out a living when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.
Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America, far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten.
Her plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm.
And then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries.
Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?
Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is busy eking out a living when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.
Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America, far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten.
Her plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm.
And then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries.
Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel Signal to Noise and the short story collection This
Strange Way of Dying, which was a finalist for the Sunburst Award in Canada. She was a finalist for the Manchester Fiction
Prize, and a recipient of the Gloria Vanderbilt/Exile Award for Best Emerging Writer.
AUTHOR LINKS
EXCERPT
Collecting garbage sharpens the senses. It allows us to
notice what others do not see. Where most people would spy a pile of junk, the rag-
and- bone man sees treasure: empty bottles that might be dragged to the
recycling center, computer innards that can be reused, furniture in decent
shape. The garbage collector is alert. After all, this is a profession. Domingo
was always looking for garbage and he was always looking at people. It was his
hobby. The people were, not the garbage. He would walk around Mexico City in
his long, yellow plastic jacket with its dozen pockets, head bobbed down,
peeking up to stare at a random passerby. Domingo tossed a bottle into a
plastic bag, then paused to observe the patrons eating at a restaurant. He
gazed at the maids as they rose with the dawn and purchased bread at the
bakery. He saw the people with shiny cars zoom by and the people without any
cash jump onto the back of the bus, hanging with their nails and their grit to
the metallic shell of the moving vehicle. That day, Domingo spent hours
outside, pushing a shopping cart with his findings, listening to his portable
music player. It got dark and he bought himself dinner at a taco stand. Then it
started to rain, so he headed into the subway station. He was a big fan of the
subway system. He used to sleep in the subway cars when he first left home. Those
days were behind. He had a proper place to sleep now, and lately he collected
junk for an important rag- and- bone man, focusing on gathering used
thermoplastic clothing. It was a bit harder to work the streets than it was to
work a big landfill or ride the rumbling garbage trucks, sorting garbage as
people stepped outside their houses and handed the collectors their plastic
bags. A bit harder but not impossible, because there were small public trash
bins downtown, because the restaurants left their garbage in the alleys behind
them, and because people also littered the streets, not caring to chase the
garbage trucks that made the rounds every other morning. A person with enough
brains could make a living downtown, scavenging. Domingo didn’t think himself
very smart, but he got by. He was well fed and he had enough money to buy
tokens for the public baths once a week. He felt like he was really going
places, but entertainment was still out of his reach. He had his comic books
and graphic novels to keep him company, but most of the time, when he was
bored, he would watch people as they walked around the subway lines. It was
easy because few of them paid attention to the teenager leaning against the
wall, backpack dangling from his left shoulder. Domingo, on the other hand,
paid attention to everything. He constructed lives for the passengers who
shuffled in front of him as he listened to his music. This one looked like a
man who worked selling life insurance, the kind of man who opened and closed
his briefcase dozens of times during the day, handing out pamphlets and
explanations. That one was a secretary, but she was not with a good firm
because her shoes were worn and cheap. Here came a con artist and there went a
lovelorn house wife. Sometimes Domingo saw people and things that were a bit
scarier. There were gangs roaming the subway lines, gangs of kids about his
age, with their tight jeans and baseball caps, rowdy and loud and for the most
part dedicated to petty crimes. He looked down when those boys went by, his
hair falling over his face, and they didn’t see him, because nobody saw him. It
was just like with the regular passengers; Domingo melted into the tiles, the
grime, the shadows. After an hour of people watching, Domingo went to look at
the large TV screens in the concourse. There were six of them, displaying
different shows. He spent fifteen minutes staring at Japanese music videos
before it switched to the news. Six dismembered bodies found in Ciudad Juárez.
Vampire drug wars rage on. Domingo read the headline slowly. Images flashed on
the video screen of the subway station. Cops. Long shots of the bodies. The images
dissolved, then showed a beautiful woman holding a can of soda in her hands.
She winked at him. Domingo leaned against his cart and waited to see if the
news show would expand on the drug war story. He was fond of yellow journalism.
He also liked stories and comic books about vampires; they seemed exotic. There
were no vampires in Mexico City: their kind had been a no-no for the past
thirty years, ever since the old Federal District became a city- state, walling
itself from the rest of the country. He still didn’t understand what a city-
state was exactly, but it sounded important and the vampires stayed out. The
next story was of a pop star, the singing sensation of the month, and then
there was another ad, this one for a shoulder- bag computer. Domingo sulked and
changed the tune on his music player. He looked at another screen with pictures
of blue butterflies fl uttering around. Domingo took a chocolate from his
pocket and tore the wrapper. He wondered if he shouldn’t head to Quinto’s
party. Quinto lived nearby, and though his home was a small apartment, they
were throwing an all- night party on the roof, where there was plenty of space.
But Quinto was friends with the Jackal, and Domingo didn’t want to see that guy.
Besides, he’d probably have to contribute to the beer bud get. It was the end
of the month. Domingo was short on cash. A young woman wearing a black vinyl
jacket walked by him. She was holding a leash with a genetically modified
Doberman. It had to be genetically modified because it was too damn large to be
a regular dog. The animal looked mean and had a green bioluminescent tattoo
running down the left side of its head, the kind of decoration that was all the
rage among the hip and young urbanites. Or so the screens in the subway
concourse had informed Domingo, fashion shows and news reels always eager to
reveal what was hot and what was not. That she’d tattooed her dog struck him as
cute, although perhaps it was expected: if you had a genetically modified dog
you wanted people to notice it. Domingo recognized her. He’d seen her twice
before, walking around the concourse late at night, both times with her dog. The
way she moved, heavy boots upon the white tiles, bob- cut black hair, with a
regal stance, it made him think of water. Like she was gliding on water. She
turned her head a small fraction, glancing at him. It was only a glance, but
the way she did it made Domingo feel like he’d been doused with a bucket of
ice. Domingo stuffed the remaining chocolate back in his pocket, took off his
headphones, and pushed his cart, boarding her subway car. He sat across from
the girl and was able to get a better look at her. She was about his age, with
dark eyes and a full, stern mouth. She possessed high cheekbones and sharp
features. Overall, her face was imposing and aquiline. There was a striking
quality about her, but her beauty was rather cutting compared to the faces of
the models he’d viewed in the ads. And she was a beauty, with that black hair
and the dark eyes and the way she stood, so damn graceful. He noticed her
gloves. Black vinyl that matched the jacket.
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