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A review by peripetia
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
2.0
I should probably be gracious and give this 3 stars but I won't, because I hated reading it. I understand why a lot of people love it - the melodramatic romance probably appeals to many - but this was just a badly written story.
The setting is great and the historical elements interesting, but the positives stop there. The book is so repetitive and forces us to relive the same scenes over and over again with the changing POVs and rumination that goes on for pages, just to return a couple pages later. The whole conflict of the two main characters is based on miscommunication that was not the fault of either of them, but for some reason it takes 3/4 of the book to get over it.
The vampires are a mere afterthought that only comes into play very late into the book. Nena figures out the whole issue with them just off the bat, twice, with no proof and no apparent reason for her conclusions.
The two main characters were frustrating and annoying, just major YA vibes from both of them as well as their convoluted romance.
As far as I can see, only a couple people have complained about the Spanish/Mexican vocabulary. I am all for using local words to immerse the reader in the world, but it does the exact opposite when the reader has no clue what the words mean.
I've recently started reading two books, one that takes place in a Viking setting and the other with a Malaysian in South Africa. Both of these books use local vocabulary and still manage to explain or give a clue about what these words mean. Cañas does not. The words that provide important context are not explained in any way. The reader just has to know them or be satisfied with the vagueness. This annoys me in other books as well, even when I understand the language, as I do understand Spanish to some extent.
I complained about this to my (Mexican) husband who said that maybe this book isn't written for me. That's a good point. It probably serves people of Mexican descent better. Still, the vocabulary is the only thing that suggests that other readers should keep out, so I retain the right to criticize it.
I thoroughly disliked this book. Don't read it unless you want repetitive, melodramatic YA romance. I'm categorizing it as speculative fiction because horror it is definitely not.
The setting is great and the historical elements interesting, but the positives stop there. The book is so repetitive and forces us to relive the same scenes over and over again with the changing POVs and rumination that goes on for pages, just to return a couple pages later. The whole conflict of the two main characters is based on miscommunication that was not the fault of either of them, but for some reason it takes 3/4 of the book to get over it.
The vampires are a mere afterthought that only comes into play very late into the book. Nena figures out the whole issue with them just off the bat, twice, with no proof and no apparent reason for her conclusions.
The two main characters were frustrating and annoying, just major YA vibes from both of them as well as their convoluted romance.
As far as I can see, only a couple people have complained about the Spanish/Mexican vocabulary. I am all for using local words to immerse the reader in the world, but it does the exact opposite when the reader has no clue what the words mean.
I've recently started reading two books, one that takes place in a Viking setting and the other with a Malaysian in South Africa. Both of these books use local vocabulary and still manage to explain or give a clue about what these words mean. Cañas does not. The words that provide important context are not explained in any way. The reader just has to know them or be satisfied with the vagueness. This annoys me in other books as well, even when I understand the language, as I do understand Spanish to some extent.
I complained about this to my (Mexican) husband who said that maybe this book isn't written for me. That's a good point. It probably serves people of Mexican descent better. Still, the vocabulary is the only thing that suggests that other readers should keep out, so I retain the right to criticize it.
I thoroughly disliked this book. Don't read it unless you want repetitive, melodramatic YA romance. I'm categorizing it as speculative fiction because horror it is definitely not.