Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Books for Spooky Season

The Last Book on the Left by Marcus Parks, et al

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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As a fan of Last Podcast on the Left, I both looked forward to reading the book by “The Boys” (Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry Zebrowski) and also wondered how they would pull it off. The podcast is irreverent and explicit, with Parks (usually) providing the research and central narrative of a particular topic, while Ben and Henry offer asides and impressions. The good (?) news is that The Last Book on the Left essentially replicates that structure. Each chapter provides information on a serial killer (ten […]

Is there any genre that Moreno-Garcia can’t tackle?

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I unfortunately don’t remember too much of this book, but I enjoyed reading it so 3 stars it is. This is a stylized noir, with MacGuffins we never see, dames who’ll do you dead, gangsters with guns jumping out of cars, and a vague sense that no matter what happens to our little hill of beans the larger tale won’t skip a beat. Perhaps it’s part of the genre, but I enjoyed that our view into the whole dramatic tale was Maite, a 30-something secretary […]

“In the end, we are always our hunger.”

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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That cover is gorgeous! And hey, who doesn’t want to read a book about a vampire and her glowing dog? “Bribes could buy almost anything back north, but this was not the North. This was good old Mexico City, which had fallen to the Spaniards but would not yield to vampires.” In this alternate world, vampires were revealed to the world in the 1970s, leading to political upheaval all over the world. While the rest of Mexico may be controlled by various vampire gangs, Mexico […]

Dirty War

Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Read as Part of CBR13Bingo: Rec’d. Inspired by Emmalita’s review.  This one is a tough one to review. I really wish both Cannonball Read and Goodreads had half stars. This is a solid 3.5. I’m giving it the bump to 4 but just barely. I appreciated Emmalita’s review and others I’ve read. BookMarks collected mostly rave reviews about this book. At times, I felt like it elevated itself. The feeling of Mexico City in the 70s, political tension, Cold War flashpoint was real. The two […]

Death becomes her

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Casiopea Tun is a poor relative. She and her mother were taken in by her grandfather when her father died, and since then she has been treated appallingly, more like a lowly servant than a family member. In Mexico in the 1920s, her options are limited but she dreams of escaping her relatives and the small town she’s living in and live The Life: cars, dances, fancy dresses and swims in the ocean. One day, when she’s alone in the house, she opens a chest […]

That night Maite dreamed of drums in the jade-green jungle.

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Velvet Was the Night would make an amazing movie or TV series. The book felt cinematic as I read. Moreno-Garcia paints pictures and moods so beautifully I could see them play out in my head. I don’t usually see books in my head. On top of that, Moreno-Garcia has created a Spotify playlist to listen to while reading. It is excellent. It’s June, 1971 in Mexico City. The Mexican Dirty War is just starting. President Echeverria is suppressing rock and roll. After a couple of […]



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