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Back in print and available in paperback for the first time ever, Nightfire is thrilled to be republishing Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – one of NPR’s Best Books of 2016 – in May 2021!
From the author of Mexican Gothic comes a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.
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 instantly 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 out 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? Or will the city devour them all?
Here’s what Kelly Lonesome, senior editor at Nightfire, has to say:
“When Certain Dark Things first published, I was so excited to see such a fresh and fun treatment of vampires. When I saw Silvia tweet that the book was out of print, I couldn’t believe it. Which makes me all the more excited that Nightfire gets to help resurrect such an integral story to the vampire canon, and make sure the legend lives on and reaches new readers. It’s been a real joy to watch Silvia’s well-deserved success with Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic, and I’m looking forward to introducing (or reuniting) her fans to Certain Dark Things!”
And here’s what Silvia has to say:
“It’s a strange thing when a book comes back from the dead, but perhaps it is apt when the book is about vampires. Publishing Certain Dark Things in the first place was something of a pickle. When it originally went out to editors, most of them told us that urban fantasy and vampires didn’t sell anymore. Add to that the fact that it was something of a genre-mix, a neo-noir with vampires, and its setting of Mexico City, and it was a recipe for a lot of nopes.
Certain Dark Things went on to become a Locus finalist, an NPR book of the year, earned a starred review in Library Journal and numerous other accolades… and then the publisher promptly downsized, reorganized and it was never released in paperback. Certain Dark Things went out of print almost as quickly as it had come into the world. It is currently impossible to get in the original hardcover edition. It simply disappeared.
Oddly enough, though, it has had a strange afterlife. People e-mail me each week asking where they can buy it. It has continued to appear on numerous “Best of” lists.
A friend of mine said if we had called the book Narcula perhaps it might have become a bestseller. Another said it was like The Lost Boys and Pulp Fiction had a baby. I’ve always thought of it as a creation steeped in Latin American noir, with the dark streets, corrupt protagonists and hardboiled tone of an old era spun into an alternate reality in which vampires dominate most of Mexico and Mexico City is walled-off from the nation.
In this alternate reality, Atl is a vampire who rather than embodying a super-powered butt-kick heroine, is a morally compromised, cynical creature on the run. Domingo, the garbage picker who becomes her sidekick, inhabits a world of precarity and dreams made of old comic books. Both of them make their way through a violent, ruthless city that is all dark and no light.
I hope you find it interesting. Certain Dark Things has risen from the grave.”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, Untamed Shore, and a bunch of other books. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu’s Daughters).
Certain Dark Things will return to shelves in May 2021!
That keening sound in the distance is just me screaming in excitement. I have gifted a couple of copies of this in the past, but I look forward to spreading such a solid vampire story on to even MORE people once it is back in print!
I LOVED Certain Dark Things! I didn’t know it was out of print. Glad to hear it’ll be back!!
I’m going crazy trying to find this book. I keep hearing this is one of the best in the canon, but impossible to find. Why is this so? (Are most people simply not receptive to authors with Spanish surnames? Yup, I said it…) I hope to read it soon although I don’t think I can wait until 2021. I’m shocked it’s not on Amazon kindle.
See that’s weird because I bought a copy from B&N on Nook several years ago. Still on my device today. I too am shocked it’s not on Kindle.
Just checked. My copy is fine but no longer exists on the Nookverse. You can pre-order the “new” version coming out though. Will definitely have to grab a paperback copy or 2 when it comes out, just in case, though.