In 90s Mexico City, Montserrat, an overlooked sound editor in a male-dominated film industry, and her best friend Tristán, a soap opera star, help cult horror director Abel Urueta, finish his cursed magic film. However, they encounter strange occurrences and dark presences that may reveal that magic is not just fictional.

The moment I discovered that Silvia Moreno-Garcia wrote a horror book incorporating old nitrate movies and occultism in Mexico during the early 90s, I knew it was a must-read.

Silver Nitrate is best described as a psychological, supernatural horror that’s mainly character focused. The characters carry most of the story as they are interesting, flawed and quirky ones at best with as bonus that one of them is queer. The interactions between them are funny, sometimes hilarious, but most of the time complex.

The storyline though is somewhat slow, or in times, rather absent. It switches between long dialogues of info dumping to some scary moments. For me it meant I missed the flow in the plot, plus the anxious feeling I want in reading a supernatural horror.

However this book is still quite interesting because of the historical facts, movie info and its magic system based on runes. But I was not tense or spooked, which was a shame.