↠ 5 starsIt’s 1971, and in Mexico City, a quiet secretary becomes embroiled in a complicated plot linked to the political unrest currently transforming the town. All Maite wants is to escape into the latest issue of Secret Romance; with every passing page, she can feel the world's problems fade away as she is swept up in tales of passion and danger. When her beautiful next-door neighbor asks her for a favor, and then mysteriously disappears, Maite attempts to put together the pieces and finds he...

**3.5-stars rounded up**Maite works as a legal secretary in 1970s-Mexico City. But that's just her day job. At night she reads romantic comics and dreams of a different life for herself.Elvis is an enforcer for a group called the Hawks, whose main objective is to suppress political activists within the city. His life is surrounded by violence. Elvis is also dreaming for more; maybe to be more like the King himself, Elvis Presley.Elvis and Maite are about to have their lives intertwined, all beca...

4 ~smoky~ starsAnother unstoppable novel from an author who can seemingly tackle any genre. Crime noir, interesting characters, and a plot that moves at the pace of a snail and yet captivates your attention. A very interesting read. Writing: ★★★★★Pacing: ★★Characters: ★★★★Plot: ★★★★Velvet Was the Night is a study in interesting contradictions wrapped around a "true horror story," as the author notes in their afterword. I found it to be utterly compelling even despite of a few personal quirks. Ma...

4.5 stars. I feel bad not giving this 5 stars because if you like noir it is absolutely a 5 star read. I don't love noir but I love Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I enjoyed the book in spite of the genre and that's saying something.

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |DISCLAIMER: as I did not like Velvet Was the Night my review will be, alas, a negative one. If you are a fan of SMG or you happen to love this novel, congratulazioni. Please, don’t @ me just because I don’t feel the same way as you do, I get it, YMMV. If you are interested in reading this novel I recommend you check out more positive reviews.I think this novel is confirmation that SMG’s books are not for me. I want to love what she writes but so far, I find her boo...

Pro tip: Read the last few pages of Velvet Was the Night first. Go on… open the book up, flip to the back, and read the Afterword and Author’s Spotify Playlist. If you’re then compelled to turn back to page one and dive in, this will likely be a solid atmospheric historical fiction reading experience for you.As author Silvia Moreno-Garcia explains in the Afterword, her latest novel “is noir, pulp fiction, but it’s based on a real horror story.” The story of focus is that of the Dirty War, when t...

You know that feeling, when you've become fully immersed in a story and you no longer realize you're just reading words on a page? Well, that feeling never came for me in Velvet Was the Night.Maite is a self-centered girl, working as a secretary while waiting for a wealthy, attractive man to sweep her off her feet. El Elvis is a thug in the Hawks, whose sole purpose is to undermine activist students using whatever means necessary. When Maite's neighbor goes missing, their individual steps to fin...

Why I kept falling in love with the book covers of Silvia Moreno Garcia’s! Isn’t this one gorgeous? Mexican Gothic’s cover is still my favorite but this smoky, mysterious vibes of the cover and author’s name made me dive into this one by going blind! First of all: this is not paranormal, gothic thrillers just like some of her previous work! This is political thriller-historical fiction- emotional lonely hearts of broken people story! The story takes places in 70’s of Mexico, centered on high te...

May 2022: Out in paperback. The US edition comes with a moody stepback cover (second, interior cover) by Karla Ortiz.A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Selected for CBC Canada Reads longlist, one of the best books of the year according to The New York Times Book Review.Velvet Was the Night is historical and noir. There is no SFF element. Here is a book club kit with more info on the time period and background of this novel: http://www.randomhousebooks.com/wp-co...What is noir?This

Maite is living a quite life as a secretary when her neighbor, Leonora, asks her to watch her cat for a few days. But Leonora never comes back. What happened to Leonora? Is she coming back? Where is she? Maite isn't the only one looking for Leonora either...You know what I love about the movie Inception? That the ending isn't exactly clear. Many have debated if the main character was just dreaming or did he actually make it back home. Velvet Was The Night also had that open ending which really e...

With this stunning cover and engaging title, I expected an amazing story as well. I love Silvia's mexican gothic so much. It was one of my fav book of last year. So naturally I had really high expectations.I will be honest, I have never watched/read an noir before. So I looked up the possible tropes and I felt this book didn't even slightly touched many of them.I found this one rather boring. Because I guess I was expecting something mysterious and something paranormal like her previous books. T...

Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.She wondered what kind of story started like this.Well, if the story is anything like Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest novel, Velvet Was the Night, I would say it’s noir and pulp fiction. It’s the kind of story that stars a government thug named Elvis, a romance comic fanatic named Maite, and a missing woman. It’s the kind of story that transports you to 1970s Mexico during the politically-charged Dirty War.And it’s the kind of story th...

A suspenseful novel centering on Maite, Elvis, and Lenora—brought together when Lenora goes missing. As Maite and Elvis combine their search, they discover Lenora might have had incriminating secrets against a powerful official. Secrets that some people will go to great, and dangerous, lengths to keep buried. Check this one out if you’re in the mood for a gritty, historical noir!

Moreno-Garcia's ability to swing from fantasy to horror to mystery to historical is unparalleled. Her books always exist at some crossroad between those genres and while I certainly have my favorites, I've never left a Moreno-Garcia book disappointed. Why you may not like this book: This is a slow burn, noir mystery populated by morally gray characters whose motivations for tracking down a missing woman are very self-interested. Moreno-Garcia's works tend to be very descriptive, though each of t...