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Book Recommendation: Silver Nitrate

Title: Silver Nitrate

Author: Silvia-Moreno Garcia

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed. Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

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“Lopez says the living hold on to ghosts. You made a haunted house out of your own flesh and bones.”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a compulsively readable author, whether she’s tackling gods, noir vampires, or the nuances of sound editing in 1990’s Mexico City. In Silver Nitrate, she seamlessly weaves together the chaos and spookiness of stumbling into a creepy, decades-old magic trap into a background that manages to be both nostalgic and horrifyingly realistic.

Silver Nitrate follows trouble bisexuals Montserrat and Tristan, two thirty-something-year olds with a love for horror movies and their own brands of regrets. I loved these two. Montserrat and Tristan were so viciously raw, it was impossible not to care about their struggles–and the struggles were many. Morena-Garcia once again excels at giving us characters painted in broad strokes and letting us discover the nuances as we go along.

Montserrat was probably the one I related to the most from the pair, but Tristan (Tristan !!!)--he’s precious to me. Someone get both of these people warm blankets and some good Lebanese coffee because whew. 

The secondary characters felt equally real, from Abel Urueta to José Lopez to–ugh–Ewers. The cast feels compact, but also developed, and by the end of the book I truly knew them all, their present and past selves, and the ways they’d gotten twisted along the way.

The setting of Silver Nitrate was its own sort of character. Listen, I never lived in 1990’s Mexico, but I feel like I have? Moreno-Garcia does such a good job of dialing up all the sounds and feelings and trinkets that comprise an era, and she has such a knack for it. I think everybody who’s read more than one of her novels understands what I mean–her settings live and breathe (sometimes literally…, but only figuratively in this book). 

I read Silver Nitrate as a book in conversation with film and history and our current times, with the way we perceive genius and the forces we allow in our homes to satisfy our own ambitions. The evil present in the book feels real because it was and it is, beyond the supernatural, and Silver Nitrate captures that ominous feeling of danger perfectly.

The only reason this book gets 4 stars and not 5 from me is that the beginning felt slow, more so than I expected, and I found myself referencing the back cover to recall what kind of book I was reading. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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I haven’t been on here in a long while. Life got really stressful, and I’m TheWorst.com at getting my head in order once it falls out of whack. But hello, tumblr.

Here’s a thing that’s happening: In one day, I will be done with medical school. I will be a doctor.

w o w

I’m not here to wax on The End of an Era, but WOW. ME. A DOCTOR. My first official act as a doctor will be to watch Infinity War, yes.

Anyway, what I did come here to do was show you Literally The Best THing.

My friend Bernice, who is awesome and a gem, got to go to #NTTBF18, where apparently everyone was incredible and also Sarah Rees Brennan was in attendance. Bernice surprised me with this:

This might be my ghost typing. Tumblr, I died.

I have no words (except THANK YOU to Bernice and THANK YOU to Sarah Rees Brennan) omg. I gasped and dropped the phone and cried when I saw this. Not because of the phone. The phone was fine.

Just rewatch it. REWATCH IT. 

I can honestly barely watch it anymore, it’s like too much concentrated happy. 

SRB is hands down one of my favorite authors. Her books are all--and I mean, all--heart-wrenchingly incredible. Her characters jump off the page, grab you, and never leave you. Her worlds invite you in. I have not read a single story by SRB that I have not loved, not a one. She is one of the few authors that I consider absolutely magical, just a master of what she does.

So, suffice to say, I greatly admire her.

TUMBLR: THIS IS A SURPRISE. NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED ME: SHHH

I want to say, I think it’s really difficult online (and in real life) to straddle the line between EXCITED and wow stop that is creepy. Sometimes I look at the posts I’ve made about SRB’s books, especially The Lynburn Legacy, and I’m just like, “wow adriana chill you sound like a weirdo”. But here is the thing: it is hard to chill when things mean so much.

Unspoken was a book that shattered my orbit. It was the first time, in my many, many years as a reader, that I read words and was like, “That is me” and “:o”. That shock will never not resonate with me, of reading a character and finding myself there fully. For years after I first read it, Unspoken was the book I would turn to when my edges were getting shaky.

I shoved it in everyone’s faces. Everyone. I have never in my life so ardently shared a book. It is my most re-read, my most praised--if William Shakespeare rose from the dead right now to ask me what my favorite book was, I would say Unspoken.

And every SRB book I’ve read since has been a vicious wonder.

All I’m saying is: chill is not plentiful around these parts, tumblr. So thank you for your hello and your books, Sarah. (No thank you for the tears and misery that inevitably follow reading your books.) (Jk.) (It’s part of the experience.)

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six of crows + wolfpupy tweets (2/∞)

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Every locked door has a key. Every problem has a solution.

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*looks up NY-Boston tickets*

*looks at work schedule*

*hyperventilates*

IN OTHER LANDS EVENTS

Other lands, I am coming to you!

So, IN OTHER LANDS has been out for several moons, but I was still a trifle under the weather and honestly my mother would’ve had a cat and a canary if I had tried to jet off, so I was not able to physically promote it as much as I could have wished. But now, having tested the waters with a lovely con avec the lovelier Seanan McGuire, I am coming to physically promote!

I am doing one event in Canada and one in America and here are the details.

MONTREAL EVENT ARGO BOOKSHOP

Feb 01, 2018–7:00 p.m.

ARGO BOOKS http://bookmanager.ca/argobks/ Location: 1915 Rue Sainte-Catherine O, Montréal, QC H3H 1M3, Canada

BOSTON EVENT BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH

Kelly Link, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Cassandra Clare Feb 05, 2018—7:00 p.m.

Location: 279 Harvard Street Brookline MA 02446-2908 Tel: 617-566-6660 Fax: 617-734-9125

I am super excited about both! I have never done a solo event in Canada before, and I am nervous but excited. Plus, Argo Books is Montreal’s oldest indie bookshop, and I am so looking forward to visiting it! I have only been to Montreal once, ten years ago, but I really liked it. I remember I had a cab driver who drove in zig-zags to avoid alligators but that’s not important.

Brookline Booksmith is an amazing bookshop in Boston that has kindly hosted me before, and I have met such cool people there (the staff of course, a beauteous reporter like Kami but real and cooler, several fanartists of extraordinary talent, kind heroes who even listened to my reading of a first draft!) and am delighted to be going back, especially with two excellent lovely writers.

To all who cannot make it but would like me to sign’n’personalise for you, please contact either bookshop and I will make sure to do it while I am there!

To all those who can make it to either signing, I will (with your permission!) embrace you soon!

To all, pls answer this important question. Should I wear

a) my own hair, which sticks up in interesting permutations?

b) a cool wig? I have them in many COLOURS.

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omg omg omg my   h e A R T

i didn’t know i still had one of those to break

angela, kami, and holly! the ~dream trio~

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Y’all gotta fucking read In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. 

Sometimes it’s not the kid you expect who falls through to magicland, sometimes it’s … Elliot. He’s grumpy, nerdy, and appalled by both the dearth of technology and the levels of fitness involved in swinging swords around. He’s a little enchanted by the elves and mermaids. Despite his aversion to war, work, and most people (human or otherwise) he finds that two unlikely ideas, friendship and world peace, may actually be possible.

THESE KIDS NEED HUGS AND RESPECT

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lynburn legacy + character name meanings

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“Love grows such strange things.”

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“They aren’t for disguise at all. You just didn’t want to leave behind your favorite book.” ― Susan Dennard, Truthwitch

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Book Recommendation: THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS

THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS by Sarah MacLean

5 out of 5 stars

The one woman he will never forget… Malcolm Bevingstoke, Duke of Haven, has lived the last three years in self-imposed solitude, paying the price for a mistake he can never reverse and a love he lost forever. The dukedom does not wait, however, and Haven requires an heir, which means he must find himself a wife by summer’s end. There is only one problem—he already has one. The one man she will never forgive… After years in exile, Seraphina, Duchess of Haven, returns to London with a single goal—to reclaim the life she left and find happiness, unencumbered by the man who broke her heart. Haven offers her a deal; Sera can have her freedom, just as soon as she finds her replacement…which requires her to spend the summer in close quarters with the husband she does not want, but somehow cannot resist. A love that neither can deny… The duke has a single summer to woo his wife and convince her that, despite their broken past, he can give her forever, making every day The Day of the Duchess.

Sarah MacLean is one of the greats of Romance. Don’t fight me on this because I’m right. Every one of her books is so delicious, so heartfelt, that it’s impossible not to come back for more.

THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS is no different. It follows Seraphina, Duchess of Haven, on her return from America as she fights for the only thing that will give her freedom ... a divorce. Oh, my fragile heart. 

Sera and Haven were introduced to us in the first Scandal & Scoundrel book, THE ROGUE NOT TAKEN, in which the heroine, Sophie, summarily pushed Haven into a pond for being basically the worst, That incident catapulted Sophie’s own story, and now here we are, some years after, showing the flip side of the story: why did a Duke need to be dunked in a pond to begin with? (And he really, really did deserve it.)

THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS was a revelation. Despite my certainty in Sarah MacLean’s writing prowess, I was worried: about Sera and her HEA, about Haven and how he could ever achieve redemption. Reading this book was like starting at the Dark Night of the Soul and finding the light to get out.

Reading Haven’s thoughts and watching Sera’s self-confidence wow the world felt undeniably satisfying. Right. It was, simply put, incredible.

Also, unexpectedly hilarious.

Honestly, the highlight of this book was seeing how MacLean would make these two, deeply hurt people fit back together without losing themselves. And, damn, did she deliver. Swooning all over the place.

I can’t end this review without mentioning my favorite thing out of this series: The Talbot Sisters. THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS was perhaps the book were they got the most attention and it was magnificent. All of them are a treasure and now I want all my Romance books to have a group of raucous sisters that give hell, to others and to each other.

So, that’s THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS: angst, growth, strength, hilarity, and more Greek mythology that you might have expected.

Sarah MacLean outdoes herself once again.

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hermione: rules are Very Important™

hermione: -sets teacher on fire-

hermione: have you checked the restricted section?

hermione: our only answer is polyjuice potion, brewed extremely illegally in the girls' bathroom. btw we have to steal the ingredients

hermione: we gonna fuCK time up, fuck what the ministry said, let's save a gd hippogriff and an escaped felon

hermione: -knitting hats- don't mind me, just tryna trick all the house elves into going free

hermione: -keeps a HUMAN BEING in a jar-

hermione: hey harry, u should lead us in a secret underground defense group. i'll make a sign up sheet. don't worry, it's hella cursed

hermione: oh, remember that human being animagus i captured? let's blackmail the shit out of her to get her to write an article for us

hermione: -uses confundus on mclaggen-

hermione: -obliviates her FUCKING PARENTS-

hermione: -runs away from school to fight the dark lord-

hermione: anyway, rules are Very Important™

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Left off here, can’t wait to get home and work on this.

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Book Recommendation: CARAVAL

CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Remember, it’s only a game…

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever. Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away.

Pure magic.

I could stop this recommendation right here. I’ve said all I need to say. 

I picked up CARAVAL after what felt like an interminable reading slump (2-3 months? Interminable). I side-eyed it, poked it, stared at its luring cover, before finally giving in. I’m glad I gave in.

Here’s some background: I’m always iffy about circus books. I love the circus--love--to the point where I almost joined. For real. For life. So whenever I hear about hyped circus books, I just ... get suspicious. Will they get it right? Will they do it justice? Will it be as incredible as I want them to be?

Oftentimes, the answer is no.

But, wow, CARAVAL.

From the first chapter, Stephanie Garber sweeps you into a world that feels so, so vivid, like stepping into Caraval is a memory for the reader. I was enthralled with the schemes and contradictions and scenery. I was swept in the mystery of it. 

I’m a very character-focused reader. Usually, for me, characters come first and middle and last. And the characters of CARAVAL--Scarlett as our leading lady, Tella, Julian, The Master (who has me intrigued), Iko, to name a a few--were all the kind that pull you in and don’t let you go. They each had their goals and flaws and small wonders that made them a special place in my book-loving heart.

That said, it was the setting that made it magic for me. The setting, and the constant wondering.

CARAVAL is a book written to draw you in, like you can take one step forward and you’ll find yourself in the middle of the show. The characters warn you not to get too swept away in the game, but by the time you remember, it’s already too late. You don’t want to turn back.

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The ending made me happy beyond belief

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“I expected more screaming from you. I must not be trying hard enough-”

“Don’t you dare.”

Feyre/Rhys belong to Sarah J Maas! May can’t come soon enough. I know technically they’re dressed for dinner in this scene but you can’t tell me this is the only time he’s tried to freak her out while flying… :]

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Dressing up characters, that not so secret passion of mine. Today with free drink headcanons!