2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Pages: 272 pages.

Length: 1 Month (September).

Participants: Saha, Valerie.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

Hi Saha, please let me know if you are still planning to read this.

I absolutely do! I will probably start sometime next week, and can't wait!

Ok next week suits me too so I’ll start it then.
I live in Mexico (although I’m from the UK) and enjoyed two of her other books - Gods of Jade and Shadow, Velvet is the night - but didn’t think much of Mexican Gothic. Hopefully this is one of her good ones.

Started today and read the first 7 chapters. Lot of explanation and introduction of characters but some intriguing hints about the events that have landed Atl in this alternative Mexico City. Bit slow so far but I feel things are about to kick off.

End of chapter 13. Ana is definitely the most interesting character for me at the moment. It will be interesting to see how she survives the murky world she’s getting involved with.

Well the pace certainly did pick up and I’ve flown through to the end of chapter 27. Good character development for Atl and Domingo with both being a lot more complex and compelling than they seemed at the beginning. The question is (view spoiler)[ will she kill him if it comes down to her or him? Are there really no good vampires? (hide spoiler)]

Finished. Certainly action packed in the final third although (view spoiler)[ the extended fight scenes had me skipping through the text so my eyes didn’t glaze over. Just not my thing (hide spoiler)].
I have mixed feelings about the ending (view spoiler)[ on the plus side I’m glad there was a not a love conquers all Hollywood finish with them riding off into the sunset together. On the minus side, I was rooting for Ana and wanted her to survive (hide spoiler)]
After a slow start, this was an entertaining read but lacked the real immersion in Mexican culture which is present in her better books. I will be interested to hear what you think, Saha.

I am starting this on Monday and am very curious to discover why the ending is rubbing so many people off.

Just started reading this so excited!