Rating: 3.5 stars
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Representation: Mexican, Latinx
Content Warning: gore, murder
Description
Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her. Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. As the trail of corpses stretches behind her, local cops and crime bosses both start closing in. Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all? ~ Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s website
Review
As a fan of the author (and vampires), I felt like this book was right up my alley. I loved the vampire lore, descriptions of the city, multiple povs and the writing. I would have enjoyed a longer book or a series following Atl. Domingo was cute but boring, to me. I was disappointed when I saw all of the descriptions of the different types of vampires and more in the back of the book because I had hoped that the author would include them more in the plot. As an already short book, the multiple povs gave even less time for digging deeper into each character. Instead, we get a surface level view of Domingo, and the others. I didn't fully connect with the characters and it felt like the plot picked up just as the story was coming to a close.
Overall, this was a cool novel but it had the potential to be a fantasy series or a longer book with more world-building and action.