Review of The Bewitching—Witches of Folklore

The Bewitching cover“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches…” Is there a single element of horror fiction that Silvia Moreno-Garcia can’t write? She first hit it big when she blended traditional Gothic tropes with post-colonial mushroom horror in Mexican Gothic. She put a unique, multicultural noir spin on vampires in Certain Dark Things. And she mixed her love of old horror films with cults and curses in Silver Nitrate. And that’s not to mention the books of hers I haven’t gotten to yet, like The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, which reimagines the classic sci-fi horror tale by H. G. Wells. This prolific and multi-talented author tackles witches in her latest novel, The Bewitching, which came out last month. Continue reading Review of The Bewitching—Witches of Folklore

Review of Vampires of El Norte—Monsters and Mexican History

Vampires of El Norte coverBooks like this convince me that the vampire genre will never be dead. You think you’ve seen everything that could possibly be written about vampires already, and then someone comes up with something completely new and unique. Isabel Cañas (who made a big splash with her Gothic debut The Hacienda, which I still need to read) does just this in her second novel Vampires of El Norte, which came out last year. The novel weaves both supernatural/horror elements and a romance that pulls at your heartstrings into a historical tale about the Mexican–American War. Continue reading Review of Vampires of El Norte—Monsters and Mexican History