I run across Silvia Moreno-Garcia when I was reading about another one of her books (which I haven’t yet read) called Mexican Gothic and I decided to start my foray into her work with Silver Nitrate – which proved to be both informative and scary – which I’m not sure how to feel about.

An engorged, yellow moon painted the sky a sickly amber hue, illuminating a solitary figure. A woman, standing between two sycamore trees.

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.

I liked this book. It has Nazis, film producers and mysticism. And at the heart of it, a couple of friends trying to uncover the mystery behind a 50-year old movie which was never finished which cast a spell of success and immortality with a heavy curse as a thank you.

“Ewers’s concepts were, shall we say, a little fantastic. He saw parallels between European runes and Aztec and Maya ideograms and glyphs. His true innovations, the element that made him popular in Mexico in the late fifties, were his mishmashes of ideas about film and magic. Tell me, have either of you heard of Anton LaVey? He was the founder of the Church of Satan.”

Good points:

An amazing study on the loneliness of grown friends who never got together even though they’re a very good match. When I read the following, I felt it. It was so well done.

“Yolanda said we had a codependent relationship. I think she got that from one of those self-help books she loves to read. But I like to think we have a partnership.
“I feel so alone sometimes, you have no idea. And the loneliness seems to seep into my bones and I get scared because I feel numb. Not depressed or upset: I’m a blank tape. Like someone dragged a magnet against the tape inside my brain and erased all the information. There’s nothing left to feel. I felt it all and I’ll never feel anything new again and I’ll always be alone

I also liked the connection between the esoteric and the movie medium. There is some truth in the statement that a movie transports the viewer and can move mountains if done right. The Silver nitrate – the specific medium of the movie, (as the title) is what amplifies this power into big enough to grant immortality to the person doing the conjuring.

It was the film itself that seemed to amplify whatever latent abilities she possessed. And it was not only the film, but the act of watching the film with an audience that granted it its might.

Bad Points:

What made me chuckle though was the heavy use of the word “mordant”

• Tristán added with a shrug, showing a little of his trademark mordancy after all.
• It was the time to read out loud the mordant rhymes about death printed in the morning edition
• “You want me to tie your shoelaces?” she asked, her tone mordant
• “Why don’t you forget about finding a new apartment and stay on my couch,” Montserrat replied mordantly.

If you’re curious why I’m so fixated on this word, it’s because it’s the first time I’ve seen it used. Especially peppered so much all over the text.

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Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

mordant

/ˈmɔːdnt/

adjective

adjective: mordant

1. (especially of humour) having or showing a sharp or critical quality; biting.”a mordant sense of humour” h Similar:caustic

trenchant

biting

cutting

acerbic

sardonic

sarcastic

scathing

acid

sharp

keen

tart

pungent

stinging

astringent

incisive

devastating

piercing

rapier-like

razor-edged

critical

bitter

polemic

virulent

vitriolic

venomous

waspish

corrosive

acidulous

mordacious

Opposite:

vague

1. uncritical

noun

noun: mordant; plural noun: mordants

1. 1. a substance, typically an inorganic oxide, that combines with a dye or stain and thereby fixes it in a material.
   • an adhesive compound for fixing gold leaf.
2. 2. a corrosive liquid used to etch the lines on a printing plate.

verb

verb: mordant; 3rd person present: mordants; past tense: mordanted; past participle: mordanted; gerund or present participle: mordanting

1. impregnate or treat (a fabric) with a mordant.”mordanting a fibre is simple”