Vampires in Mexico City: A Unique Take | Book Chat - Shelf Addiction Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, book lovers, Welcome back to shelf Addiction, the podcast
where we dive deep into the pages of thriller and
fantasy reads. I am your host, Tamar, and today we
are discussing an urban fantasy vampire story with Neo nor Vibes.
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(00:25):
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(00:45):
speaking of community, I am thrilled to welcome back my
fantasy and romance rider die co host Casey from Part
Full of Ink. Welcome back, Casey.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hello, Hello, I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yes, I'm glad you're here. This should be interesting. Oh yes,
oh yes, this will be good. This will be a
good talk. Okay. You can find both of us online
and all the usual spots The links for everything are
on the show notes, so click around to do all
the things. Before we begin, I would like to remind
you that we talk full spoilers with book chats, so
spoiler alert you've been warned. Today we are discussing certain

(01:22):
dark Things. Written by Sylvia Moreno Garcia. The audiobook is
narrated by Ada Rulusgo. Published October twenty fifth, twenty sixteen,
by Tour night Fire and McMillan Audio. The paperback is
two hundred and fifty six pages and the unabridged audio
is eight hours and forty six minutes. Casey, would you
kindly share the synopsis?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis of a sea of vampires. Domingo,
a lonely garbage collecting street kid, is just trying to
survive it's heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on
the run swoops into his life. Alt, the descendant of
as Tech blood Drinker Blood Drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous.

(02:02):
Domingo is memorized. Alt 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 Alt
finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and
his undeniable charm. As the trail of corpses stretches behind her,
the local cops and crime bosses both start closing in. Vampires, humans,

(02:27):
cops and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City.
Do Alt and Domingo even stand a chance of making
it out alive or will the city devour them all?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, so I want to pause on second and double
check how they said this name in the audiobook, okay,
because I think it is definitely different. But I would
say all two, but I think it's ad All. I
want a double check on a double check. Yeah, she
keept saying adel like and I'm like, okay, maybe that's

(03:00):
a Hispanic way of saying the word or something. I
don't know. But when I saw the name, I'm.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Like, yeah, that's like.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
But I kept hearing ad All. I'm like, that's weird.
And I listened like a two X and I literally
went back just now and listened at one X to
make sure I understood it. So you can say we
can call it all if it's easier whatever you will
try to pronounce it adults.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Adult adl like, oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
So anyway, I'm gonna mispronounced so many names though, like
it's gonna be bad.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I apologize to my fans. Let's see, Nick and Domingo.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Are easy, and Roger and yeah Anna Anna.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah those are that bad, I guess. So just the
main character. I don't know why she named her adel
or you know whatever. Okay, let's let's dive in.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Okay, high level, what did you think? I feel like
you have more feelings about this than I do.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
So I was glad it was only one book, and
I was happy with the ending. I was like, oh,
but I was kind of annoyed that she didn't get
her dog. I'm like, why did he get her dog?
M So I liked that it wasn't like a skip
off into the sunset ending. It didn't seem appropriate for
this book, and so the author did the right thing.

(04:42):
So I was satisfied with the ending. But overall, honestly,
it was average at best, and I liked that it
was different from other vampire stories. But other than that,
it's fine. What about you?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I really liked it. I was very intrigued by the
world building. I thought it was very different from our
typical vampires like you. I'm kind of upset that she
left her dog, like that was such a bad dog
mom thing to do, Like, no, you would not just
walk away from your dog, even if you thought he
was shot, Like, you wouldn't leave him. My biggest gripe though,

(05:25):
is that the only person I didn't want to die died.
I would have been okay with anybody else dying, but
Anna the cop.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Anna. Yeah, I wanted her to live. And she died,
Oh yeah, killed do mingo.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
That would have been fine with me, Just not mother
cop who was worried about her daughter and actually like
she knows how to do the fighting the vampires and
stuff like.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
No, she was the fair person I really liked. She
didn't have a baby. She was like in her fifties
pushing fifties. Yeah, no, her child's ault adult.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, but still so she was a teenager in high school, Like, yeah,
that's fine. But I was like, out of everybody, she's
the one I want to live.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I was okay with it. I don't know why I
feel like, I mean, she was fine as a character. Again,
I didn't really feel any connection to Anna. I think
she got a raw deal because of just how police
and those type of things treat women in Mexico. That's
just kind of that sucks, you know, royally. But I

(06:33):
was like, what exactly is she doing? I didn't understand
some of the moves she was making, and I kind
of knew early on. I'm like, oh, she's not gonna
live through this book.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
She was my only one. I was like, you can
kill anybody else, I just want her to live. I
want her to survive this because she deserves to go
out happy, like a heart attack while sitting on a beach,
kind of happy, like not you know, mind controlled by
a vampire to kill yourself. That I just, I don't know.

(07:04):
I felt like she deserved better. She was. Out of
every character, she was the one I connected with the best.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Really, Okay, I don't think I connected to any of them.
So was this your first time reading Sylvia Moreno Garcia?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
This is my first time reading anything by her. People
have been telling me to read Mexican Gothic for I
don't know how many years now, but I haven't read
it yet, Like it's on my bookshelf. I'll read it eventually,
but this is my first book by her.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Well, I read Mexican Gothic. Okay, and actually me and
Classy did we did it on the podcast. Oh okay.
I'm trying to think how far back that was. I
can actually do a quick look. But we did it,
and I ended up writing that three stars. I did
not love it, and I'm starting to realize that I
don't think her writing is for me. I think it's

(07:54):
very unique. I love that it's like Mexican, you know,
It's it's so different. It's not like this is a
different treatment of vampires, right, It's not quhitewashed. It's like
we're talking about vampires that are out in the world.
It's like a known thing. It's an alternate reality. It's
very unique in concept. I could feel like what I

(08:16):
think it would look like. I was getting like twisted
metal vibes. I guess like how I expected to look like.
I said, neon h you know, neo neo nor you know,
I'm saying that's kind of what in my mind, what
I visualized. But for some reason, I just don't connect
to these characters. And I felt like it took me

(08:39):
longer than I would have liked to finish this because,
like For example, when I text you yesterday when we
were supposed to record, I'm like, look, dude, I'm not done,
and you know, I don't like doing that, but I
was like, I have like at least three more hours
to go, and I'm not sure I can get into

(09:00):
in three hours because it was just so just not
hitting for me in that way you know where you
start reading something and you just want to devower it
because it's so good. Yes, that's not how it was
hitting for me. So I don't know that sucks. I mean,
it wasn't bad.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
But now I was really really into like the different
types of vampires and how you know, like she was
talking about how they're from a long line of az
Tech warrior vampires and all of this really cool stuff,
and I was like, We've haven't ever really seen anything
like this in any of the vampire books we've read before.
They're usually British and very pale white and pasty blonde,

(09:44):
and you know, I want to drink tea with their.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Blood or whatever. Like these vampires felt grittier, almost very
dull adult drank a lot of tea.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
So much tea it was weird. I was like, are
you half British now. But yeah, it felt like there
was more action kind of before the story picked up,
like when her mother was murdered and her sister and
all of that, and we got that a little bit
through flashbacks. But I almost feel like this, if the

(10:19):
story had started then it might have been better and
a better hook for us, just because like vampire battles,
vampire wars, you know, it would have been more intriguing
to watch her descent from this pampered princess into running

(10:41):
away and hiding in the fridge and then running to
Mexico and hiding instead of just picking up while she's here.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
I think I agree with you because it took us
quite a while to figure out why she ran away,
like what is she doing? Exactly what's going on? And
then we get that that whole what happened to her family,
like flashback style while she's explaining to Domingo or whatever,
and I'm like, I don't know, not Domingo, that's the

(11:09):
wrong name. What's the kid's name is Domingo? Okay? Yeah,
so I just I don't know. I'm like, that's kind
of sucky, you know, you end up having to hide
in refrigerator, But I.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Agree, Okay, in the future, if I need to hide,
I'm gonna hide in the fridge.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I know, right. But I do think that maybe if
we had got that action on the onset, like bam
bam bam, and then you know, we find her on
the street, we go back, you know, to the beginning
of that how it starts after that action, that might
have pulled me in in a different way, I think.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
So it wouldn't give the noir vibes, but it's more
urban fantasy horror almost, And I don't know. I think
this author was going for too many genres and it
didn't quite mesh because I think she really wanted it
to be like the noir vampire kind of smoky, misty,

(12:07):
scary vampires in the dark, but it was also very
urban fantasy.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
It was also very not that at the same time,
mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
And there you will never hear me say this ever again,
but I almost think there was too much romance between
Domingo and Alta, like that could have been cut. They
didn't need to have sex and become that obsessed with
each other.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
There were okay, so I think there wasn't a lot,
but I agree with you. It shouldn't have been any
yeah like that. Also he was seventeen. Yeah, I was
gonna say that. She kept calling him a boy, the boy.
You know, he's seventeen, and what did she say? She
was twenty three? So I and I missed the author? Okay,

(13:02):
So I think the author kind of messed up by
making him visually average at best, Like he was an
average looking kid with messed up teeth, like he needed
some braces or something definitely coming up right, So what
I think if he was fine as hell, maybe there
could have been some motivation for her to like kind

(13:24):
of like be so attracted to him. But I don't know,
but maybe she was trying to I don't know. I
feel like she was alone and missing her people and
he was just around.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
She explained that towards the end, where she was like
he just needed an anchor and he was just there
and I'm basically using him because I don't have my family,
And I was like, I understand that, but also, maybe
don't have this in the story or make him a
better character.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Or what would have taken for the author to just
make the kid eighteen? Just make him eighteen? It's when years,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Like he's very much a puppy dog, very obsessed with her.
He came across as like a young teenager, Like he
didn't feel like a seventeen almost eighteen year old. I
would have been like he just turned seventeen, Like he's
still sixteen, Like he's still very much in the middle
of you know, hormones and gross spurts, and like very

(14:22):
very young. He does not have anything figured out.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Or she could have made at all younger mm hmmm.
Because she also she's mature in the way of killing, right,
So she's mature in that she has lived a lot
where she's been around you know, drugs.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
But even then, like he's more exposed than her to
some of those things. Yeah, it'd rather have him been
like twenty twenty one and she was twenty five or
twenty six. Like that still gives that age gap. That's
still great. But even she talked about in her history
how she was very spoiled with her life. She was

(15:03):
just the spare. She didn't really do much of anything.
She would drink and party and eat blood and you know,
hang out with friends, and that's good, but that's also
not how she's really coming across about the story when
she pulls out her gun and starts shooting people and
she's like, yeah, no, I'm a badass now, but my

(15:24):
sister did all the training and yeah, I'm a badass,
but I never did anything. So there's that weird dichotomy there.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, Okay, So ultimately, neither one of these characters are
really likable to me. Neither one of them really make
me feel for them in a way where I care
what happens to them, which is bad. I think that's bad,
and maybe aging them up could have fixed that, Like

(15:57):
a couple things could have fixed that. I think maybe
if Domingo wasn't so young feeling emotionally, he was very
emotionally stunned. I feel like he was really embarrassing happened
to him and degrading. But he also you could tell
he didn't have experience when he tried to kiss or
it was awkward, you know what I mean. He didn't

(16:19):
have any experience and he needed that. Yes, yes, he
needed to be fine, and he needed to have a
lot of experience, even though he might be a novice
when it comes to the world of vampires, which is fine. Still, yeah,
he could still be dumb in more cards to what
he learned about vampires, but he needed to be stronger
in other areas to balance that.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
To me, yeah, he didn't really have that anywhere. It
was more like I know how to gather garbage, I
know how to take care of myself and make money
with this, and I know just enough to say this
is how we can.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Get out of here.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
But everywhere else he was the bumbling.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Fool mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
And that I felt bad for him more than anything
mm hmm. Also I felt bad that, like he got
kicked out because his stepdad as a dick, and like
that was I definitely pitied him for that.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
But I don't know. But again it's in a oh,
poor kid kind of Oh yeah, definitely poor kid.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It doesn't feel like, Okay, you've come from this really
terrible background, you've made something of yourself, you're strong in
other ways. I don't know, Like it just he gave
him a few more years, and I think I would
have liked him better mm hmm. But and same with her,

(17:45):
Like I wish even though she had been you know,
spoiled and called despair and all that fun stuff, like
I wish she either had more of that and like
actually needed more help or that she was like, Okay, yeah, no,
I was despare, but I cared a bit and I
was trying to do this and I was trying to
do that and I was trying to learn how to

(18:07):
fight to help my sister. You know, I wish there
had just been more, not this straight line of Okay,
this was before and before I was just the party
girl and now I'm not the party girl, but I'm
like actually good at shooting and killing and all these things.
Like I wish there had been more of a this
is how this developed or this is how I did this.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
She just wasn't all there. Yeah, you know who I
think this author in my mind, who this character is
kind of modeled after a little bit. You know, what's
her name, Kate Becking still in the underwel oh yeah yeah, yeah,
oh absolutely. I was vibes. Yeah, I was getting those

(18:53):
vibes from this character, like she was trying to be
like that alone but not really. It was very I
don't know, and you know, like you were just saying,
I just feel like for her to be the main character,
like there needed to be more to her, more something

(19:13):
to connect us to her, to make all of this
other stuff worth it, you know, and pan out like,
I mean I want to be like, oh, well, I
guess she had her reasons for falling for that child.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I mean, I know there's only what like five years
six years between them, but still like and even just
needing the human connection, needing the anchor, needing somebody around
her didn't feel like a good enough reason. There were
so many other people she could have connected with. And
I guess it's his story because he was the one

(19:51):
who's like, yeah, well, i'll just be your friend, I'll
buy you a watch, i'll help you, I'll do whatever
you want. But he was still so and he was
like sick to his stomach about killing for her. And
he wasn't sure. He's like, oh my god, she's walking
away with somebody else. What are they doing? Are they
fucking in the bathroom. I'm like, you're a child, of
course they're not fucking in the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
He acts like a very like obsessed teenager, like he
became very very quick yeah, And I'm like, well, why
is he getting her a watch? Like, dude, you barely
have any money, Like I couldn't understand the watch thing, Like.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Why because he's seventeen, So I will give the author
credit for this. She knows a seventeen year old boy
who is obsessed and in his puppy love era. So like,
she nailed it for that, And we're just lepping them
to shreds because we don't like that. We don't want teenagers,
We don't want little boys in their puppy.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Love era, right, not in this setn in this it
doesn't fit. That's so that is the biggest misalignment to me.
It does not fit. I don't care. There's no way
you can help me into it.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
No, Honestly, Like, if she really wanted to lean harder
into this, she should have killed him at the end,
m h and really leaned into the you know, naivete
doesn't survive, being childlike doesn't survive. You know, he's the

(21:27):
light to her vampire darkness, and light doesn't survive.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
She could have.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Leaned into those types of themes, and she didn't. She
let him live at the end.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, and we could have got a really great scene
of you know at all, like actually showing some emotion
about him because he died, and then she could have
walked off into the sunset with her dog.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yes, like that would have been a much better ending.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, to really.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Highlight the fact that, like, okay, this is the dichotomy
between the two of them, and this is how you know,
even though Shoe was spoiled and survived, he's not able
to survive and YadA YadA, like it would have been
much more poignant if he died.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah. So again, like the author kind of missed opportunity there.
I don't know. Okay, actually I think it's a good
time to take a break and then we'll talk about
I guess, more things we liked or more things we
didn't like. Whatever happens, happens, you know, whatever has happened,
whatever happens. Yeah. So while we're gone in this break,

(22:36):
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we'll be right back. Okay, welcome back. Clearly they know

(22:57):
what we don't like or what I don't like. I
was very clear, you too, You were clear too, Yeah,
so I guess if I had to show some positives,
I would say that the world building was good. You
know you mentioned liking the different types of vampires. I
like that too.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Oh yeah, no, it was amazing, Like we don't usually
get this much world building, like global world building, you know,
typically in vampire series, it's always like, Okay, well, we
live in America, we live in Europe, and let's only
talk about Transylvania, let's only talk about this, let's only

(23:33):
talk about that, And it can get very stagnant, it
can get very annoying. But here it was very much Okay,
we have these different types of vampires, and here's how
all the different types of vampires work together. And here's
our lineage from the Aztecs, and here's how we don't
know if the colonizers like knew about the vampires, or

(23:57):
the vampires came in with the colonizers or just so intertwined.
It was fascinating.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, I think though I wish I had a little
more guts on the types of vampires and what they
could do, Like I understood like high level that like
some were more inherently bad, some could you know, control
people more, and some could change into things and some couldn't.

(24:26):
But I don't know. I just I wanted a little
bit more of that as well, just a little Maybe.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
There's a gloss story at the end of the ebook.
I don't know if you had it or not, or
do you just listen to the audiobook m hm. It
goes into there's a lot at the end of the
e book. So there's like descriptions of all the different
type of vampires. It's like what the Renfield means, vampire relations,

(24:55):
vampire health. Then there's an interview with the author. Oh,
they even have discussion questions.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
You know what Renfield. When they mentioned the Renfield a Renfield,
that reminded me of that movie. I'm like, oh, yeah, Renfield,
So there were he was Dracula.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
I didn't think about that for a second there. I
was like, what that vampire's name Dracula. Yeah, it was
his his his helper, helper mm hmm. But that's a
cute movie. Not to get sidetracked Renfield.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, I think that's like carry over from you know,
other you know themes.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
You know that was not absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
I don't know, So what were you going to say?
I'm sorry, I interrupted, I don't remember I got distracted. No, no,
I'm just thinking about the movie, which was better than
this book. I must say, yes, it made me laugh
a lot. This book to not make me laugh, So
I wish then since there were descriptions for all of

(26:05):
these things, I almost wanted like how JR. Ward does it?
And she puts it in the front of the book,
like show me up front instead at the end. And
then also, if you're on audio, say something like oh,
descriptions and ditch glossary is available in the line or
you know, on the author's website or something, because I

(26:28):
feel like I needed that just to get a little
bit more something or another. I don't know, it's fine.
I guess that's one of the downsides I guess to
audiobook is like if there's some extra in the publisher
doesn't see fit to let you know there's extra, or

(26:50):
there's an attachment to the audio book, you know, you know,
sometimes they'll put a PDF with the audiobooks so you
can see whatever map or or definitions. Yeah, but not
this not this one.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Well that's annoying that it didn't work with this one.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
But that's nice that they do it generally. Mm hmmm.
I don't know. How much more that would have made
me like it or feel like it was more complete.
M M, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
I mean, it's always really helpful when you have a
gloss story defining these are the different types of vampires,
these are what this means, This is this, this is that.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Like, it's.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Helpful, it's fantastic, it's necessary most of the time. I mean,
authors shouldn't rely on that entirely. They need to have
those descriptions in the book so if people don't have
access to the gloss story or don't read the gloss sory,
they understand what's going on. And she did that a
little bit, not to the best extent.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
But it was.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
It was there in the story. But I just wish
like there had been more.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
So what do you think about the antagonist Roderigo?

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Honestly, they just felt bad for the sake of being bad.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Like Nick, Yeah, he's just a playboy who wants to
hurt women. There's no my daddy hit me or like
I've been abused. It was just she said no to me,
so now I want to skin her alive and torture
her forever because I'm a fragile male with a very
big ego. I'm just sick and tired of villains like that.

(28:31):
They're so benign and just evil for the sake of
being evil or evil because misogyny, and I'm just like,
can we just not can we give them more depth?

Speaker 1 (28:46):
No, it's just all about dominance, and he just wants
to put his dominance over everyone, every woman he comes across.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, that's absolutely and it's it's just so.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Pedantic. It's annoying. Yeah, give me something else. Yeah. And
it's weird because it's like he's not in charge, but
he wants he's in charge, but not in charge. He
wanted to charge.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
So that played up his weak ego ness because he's like,
I feel like I should be number one, but I'm
definitely not.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
So people are.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Stomping on me, so I have to in turn stomp
on women. And I'm just like, can we find another reason?

Speaker 1 (29:30):
But how is rocher Rigo a Renfield and also in charge?
That seems weird.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Because he is his father's Renfield and so he has
a higher ranking simply because like he takes the rules
and directives from Nick's father. So it's you know, like
he's the mouthpiece for the head Honjo. Yeah, Nick doesn't

(29:57):
really listen to him anyway, but he does.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
He gets really angry at him and stuff. He's like,
I don't want to drink this bagged blood and I
don't do this. I don't want to do that. You're
not in charge of me.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
I'm just a little kid throwing a temper tantrum.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
All. Yeah, he was childish as well. Did we ever
know how old he was?

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I think he was in his mid twenties m hm.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
But he was acting like a child as well. Yeah. Yeah,
he was annoying Rogerico. I feel like he was just
like like he was doing this as a means to
an end. He saw retirement in his future. He's like,
I just need to get through this. I just need
to survive. And he didn't.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, which was good because he's a terrible person.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah. Well, we don't really know his history and how
he ended up there, not really, and like.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
He chose to work for vampires and is happily going
around murdering people or covering up murders. Yeah, I don't
he got what he deserved.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
I'm not. Yeah he did. I didn't feel bad for
any of them.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
I'm like, nope, you died, I said earlier, and it
was the only one. I was like, everybody can die.
I just need her to live. And then she didn't,
and I was like I hate everything.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Mm hmmm. But she really wasn't one hundred on the
straight and narrow either.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
And that's fine. Like she was a cop who kind
of knew how to fight vampires but also was trying
to find a safe place to live without vampires.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
And yeah, h no, I like, what did you think
about Bernardino?

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Creepy, very creepy. That was my time, just very uh
side note, and I promise I have a a thing.
Did you ever watch the movie What We Do in
the Shadows? M oh okay, Well it's a vampire movie
set in New Zealand, and they have a vampire who

(32:04):
kept reminding me of him, very hunched over like, skin
as white as bone.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
His name was Peter in the movie. But that's how
I pictured here really. Okay, So that was a comedy, right,
that's a comedy.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Let me see if I can find it really quickly,
just because you know.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Because he's very powerful and very old.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
If I hold this up, can you see this picture.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
That's Peter? Okay? So I was suring Okay, very ark.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Scary, big teeth, bald, long fingers, and long fingernails.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, I mean he definitely aged when he was trying
to like give her some energy or power boost or something.
He's trying to, like you, he'll or helper or something
he was trying to do, and he turned old in decrepit.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
That's another thing that I really wanted more of the
backstory for so apparently like he was in love with
her mother, but her mother left him, and then when
the daughter shows up Alta, He's like, Okay, fine, I'll
just keep healing you, I'll keep giving you energy, I'll
keep doing this and that and whatever.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Because why, Yeah, I don't know why. I wanted more
explanation there. I wanted more death because I'm on the
strength of the relationship he had with her mother. Really
love it, I guess, But why.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Like why were they in a relationship, Why did they
love each other, why did they leave each other? Why
is he not her father? Like there was so much
more that should have been detailed.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Mm hmmm, And wasn't. I agree, He's just this random
character that was kind of weird and he just kind
of showed up to give like cryptic advice I know,
and like I'll help you here, but that's it, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
It's like many wise man trope, the wise person who
comes in to give the best advice and then walks away. Yeah. No,
there could have been so much more to his character too,
and the relationship between him and her mother and why
he was actually helping her and going above and beyond helping.

(34:35):
Like what he was doing was not just like a Okay,
I owe your mother a favor favor kind of thing.
This was like a I owe your mother a favor,
but I really loved her, and now I really I'm
transferring that love onto you. So I'm gonna do ten, fifteen,
twenty favors for you, right. Yeah, I'm gonna feed you
all the time. I'm gonna help heal your hand, I'm

(34:56):
gonna help get you out of the city. I'm gonna
help you here. I'm gonna give you this Like it.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Was just so over the time. It would have been
an easy way to explain that would have been like
your mother. I owed your mother like a life debt
or something like she helped me in such a tremendous way. Yes,
I can never pay it back. So I'm gonna pay
it back to you, especially now that she's gone kind
of something like that. But we didn't even get serious, no,

(35:22):
And that would have been a great way to explained it,
Like she got me out of a really tight spot
and I owed her, then I owed her this and
she can't take payment, you can. I'm sorry that she's dead.
And yea.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Also like they didn't even go into why they killed
her mother. It was just like we just got her
head and then she retaliated, so that's why they retaliated again.
But still, like, why kill her mother in the first place.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
M I don't know. I mean, was it like just
simply the drug trait, like it was the Negross vampire family,
Like they're against Adele's family because of just the drugs.
Was it drugs?

Speaker 2 (36:06):
I think so? But that's such like a not a
good enough description or background or detail, Like it's okay,
this is a thing, but give me something else and
give me more detail. Tell me that these two families
have been feuding forever. Tell me that now that they've

(36:26):
killed off the entire family, they've taken over this drug trader,
They've taken over this or they've taken over that like,
give me more than just the Okay, yeah, they killed
my mother, then they killed everybody and I escaped, and like,
what else is happening?

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Now I'm on the run. Now I'm on the run
because they want me.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
But also ye bye, there's just so much more that
could have been here. Yeah, it was very I mean
I was less than three hundred pages, so it was
a tiny book.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, it was just surface level of everything. I think
had the author gone more in depth, maybe I would
have liked it better. Mm hm.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
No, Like I said, I feel like if she had
started with the action and started with like the massacre,
that would have been a much better way.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
But also that I.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Don't think that would have given the very noir feeling.
I think that would have been leaned more into like
the horror that.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
She was aiming for. Yeah, because I mean honestly it
felt also I know she was going for something darker,
but to me it also felt very like borderline. Ya, like,
was this why a is this supposed to be? Hya?

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Well, he's a fucking teenage child and he's had.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
At the point of view.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
But yeah, she's only twenty three, which is kind of
new adult, but it's not neither one of the main
characters are adults.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
No, but it's not been called out like it was
not advertised to us as young adult. No, not at all. Hmm.
Because you know, we've had other books where it was
very adult, but there was like one or two characters
that were underage. But this book is adult. Yeah, no, this,
but that doesn't feel like that was the case here exactly,

(38:26):
even though there were some dark and horror ish things happening.
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
No, this this felt more young adult knew adult than
adult story.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yeah, which I also didn't like, just make it all
the way adults. I don't know. It's a stage to
twenty mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Maybe he'd been in love, like real love before, so
he doesn't have this puppy love.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
So that makes me think that Domingo and actually at all,
they're kind of one dimensional. Mm hmm. They're not, which
kind of also in turn made them a little bit
dull mm hmm. Unpredictable and predictable. Yeah, I don't know.

(39:22):
I like the dog. The dog was great, but the
dog was like it had some kind of thing on it,
like something. Yeah, an enhancement, like a tech enhancement on
the dog, which was interesting. I don't know. I'm not
a fan of Doberman pinchers, but it's still fun. But

(39:46):
this was a magical do so, yeah, who would like
bite someone's head off? She told it too. That's the
type of dog I want. Yeah, but I want my
dog to know that looks so scary. I wanted to
be like, what's the word I'm looking for? Stealth? Like
you know, oh, he looks like a what's what's that trend?

(40:09):
Looks like a well, people say they look nice but
their mean, and they look mean but they're mean and
they look nice but they're nice. You know, what's that
looks like? It looks like a something is a something?
I can't think of the two words right now.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
It's going me, you know what you're talking about?

Speaker 1 (40:28):
And it's that's why I want my doc to be
like incognito. So yeah, but yes, yeah, danger, danger in disguise.
But yeah, her dog was not in disguise. He's very intimidating.
But that's fine. Yeah, it was fine with it. I'm

(40:51):
trying to think what else. I don't think. I think
we've pretty much covered the whole book, which is also
part of the like, I guess it just it just
wasn't a lot. The story at its root was very basic.
It was very baseline, and I'm not even sure we
needed the multiple point of views. Honestly, I'm not sure

(41:11):
we needed it just for me, because again, I didn't
feel connected more to any of these other characters by
having the multiple point of view. That's just my too.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
First of all, if you cut them out, you're only
left with Domino and Alt, and they did not have
enough personality to cover this whole book. Yeah, which is
very mean to say, but like, like we just said,
they were very one dimensional. They didn't really fit. They
didn't give us much of anything. It wasn't there. So

(41:45):
I feel like we needed these alternate points of view
to help flesh it out and help like really bring
it in. I wish that Rodrigo and Nick had more
personality than just evil for being evil's sake, and that
we could see more of of whatever their evil plans were,
just in general, not just here for this moment and

(42:05):
here for just killing girls. Yeah, Anna gave the perspective
of like what it's like to be a human in
this world who doesn't like vampires and doesn't want to
be around them, and also trying to protect her own
daughter and trying to live her life. And she was
the only one who had like the most depth for me.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
So that's why I liked her.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
She wasn't even on the page that much. She wasn't,
but out of everybody else, like, she had good goals,
she had a solid background, she had somebody, she was
fighting for her daughter.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
She had the most depth to me like that.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
That's interesting because like we just talked about everybody else,
nobody else had that.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Well, I guess she had the most at stake. Yes,
I don't know if that makes Yeah, she did, but
I don't know. You're right, You're right on all those points.
But that not made me care for her anymore. I
don't know. There was something. There was just something like
there was a gap, there's something there were Anna's point
of view did not I don't know. It did not

(43:12):
make me. It didn't do what I think the author
wanted it to do for me personally, I'm like, okay,
and maybe I'm just a person with ice water in
my veins.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I don't know nod to care about other characters and
other books.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, and I was like jaded.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
You know, her life hasn't been very good. She keeps,
you know, smoking and breaking promises to her daughter, and
she's worried about money and it's very standard issues. But like,
out of everybody, I felt like she was the fleshed
out or fleshed out the most.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Mm hmmm. So that's fair. That's that's fair. I don't know,
my goodness? All right, certain dark things? Where did the
title come in? So I guess they're all dark certain things?
I guess so vampires, Yeah, I guess. Okay, So I

(44:18):
bet you can guess what I'm going to rate this.
Let's rate it. I bet you can guess. Well, do
you want to get first to guess? I want you
to guess what you think I'm going to rate it.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
I think you're at a two point five, but you're
gonna round up two.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
A three almost. I met a down point five, but
I'm going to round down to it two. So I
was right when it's at two point five, yeap, you were.
I just there's just so honest to god. Once I
started this, I was like, fuck, why do we pick
this one? That was like I feel like and I

(44:55):
was complaining to Kevin about this book, and I was like, dude,
I feel like our book chats, we've I had the
best picks. This year has been bad. Yeah, So I
was like, damn, I said, we were trying to find
a shorter book, and I feel like it bit us
in the ass. This was not the way to go.

(45:16):
But no, it was just kind of like it dragged
my mood down. It was like, that's what you get too,
what about you.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
I'm also at a two point five, but I'm going
to round up to a three. I'm I'm more impressed
by the like overall world building, and I'm interested enough
to like if she ever writes another vampire book, I
might pick it up, especially if it has other characters,
because I feel like this world is so big, she
could easily do something else in this world with completely

(45:47):
new cast, and that might be interesting and.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I would be tempted to pick that up. So three
stars very good. I think that's very generous of you. Yes, personally,
I think I'm done with this author. This was my
second time with her, and when I went and honestly,
I looked through like her all of her published books,

(46:11):
and I looked at the average rating for all of them,
and they're all in the three point something, not a
single one of them is a standout. So I am
more confirmed that I think I am done, because like now,
there's not even one that's a high four somewhere in
the mix of everything she's written. So I have a
feeling like I've gotten a really good representation of her

(46:33):
style of writing, and I'm not I'm not sure it's
for me. That's fair, that's fair. Yeah, m hmm. Even
though I did like that it was different, but not enough,
not enough? Yes, all right, so I think well in
things there, Okay, we don't know what we're gonna read
next on the book chat. You'll have to come along
on this ride with us and be surprised with us.

(46:55):
We don't know. That'll be exciting to figure out. Look,
I know one thing, I hope we don't have any
more time restraints so we don't have to limit ourself
to a short book. Yes, or we'll find a short
book yeah, or at least like this. I don't know.
I need to win, dammit. So actually, if you guys

(47:18):
have any suggestions for us that are standalonees or something
that you're really really really interested in and you will
like stand like ten toes down, we need to read it. Please,
you know, give us the suggestion, let us consider. Yeah,
we'll consider. We don't promise, but we'll consider. All right,

(47:39):
that's it, guys, thanks so much for listening to the
entire episode. We appreciate you for doing that, and we'll
catch you in the next one. Take care of yourselves, everybody.
Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, please head over
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(48:01):
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(48:26):
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(48:48):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Vampires in Mexico City: A Unique Take | Book Chat