Book Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
Genre: Historical Horror
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
When Nena is attacked during a nighttime adventure, her best friend Néstor flees, believing her dead. After spending nine years going from ranch to ranch, Néstor returns home ready to go to war. He doesn’t expect to see Nena, alive and well, and working with his grandmother as a healer. Nena has been dealing with a mysterious illness that drains men of their blood, and when the same illness sweeps through the ranks of men preparing to fight, Nena and Néstor realise there is something supernatural waiting for them in the dark.
This book was okay – I think it would have been stronger as a YA rather than Adult book, and as a horror, it’s a bit toothless. The pace is generally slow, and at times became sluggish, especially as there is a lot of repetition between our two POV characters, who constantly rehash the same things over and over again.
The vampires are as menacing and creepy as they should be, and I found their mysterious presence to be a strength, especially with their uniqueness compared to modern vampires, their use as tools by the Anglos, and it always felt like there was something else underlying their presence, something that could have been explored further but isn’t a drawback when it’s not.
But partway through the book they stop feeling as much like a threat. The bigger threat to the characters is always the US soldiers, and that’s clear throughout, but the vampires lurk in the background and although they attack a few times, it isn’t fatal, and the effect they have lessens as the book goes on.
Néstor comes across as a more likable character than Nena, but their relationship feels frustrating and childish. Nena often comes across as a bit too privileged, lacking any understanding of how her actions impact others and not seeing why Néstor maybe doesn’t want to return to working for her father. Again, there’s interesting things to explore in this, but by the end everyone just shrugs and carries on with life, and it’s hard to see how the pair would be happy long-term considering the issues between them still exist.
As a whole, I felt disappointed by the book. Cañas is clearly a talented writer, and the historical elements, the setting, the menace of the approaching army was all done well, but the characters weren’t quite engaging enough and the horror ended up lacking.
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Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from Solaris via NetGalley for review consideration.
