books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 124

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

“A strangeness. A ripple of unease. An understanding, though timid at first, that perhaps there was some truth to the stories of blood-hungry beasts and river ghosts that the abuelas on the rancho spun to keep children close to home after sunset. A sense that there was a reason to watch one’s back when shadows grew long.”

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

"It was often said that a strange kind of magic ran in the waters of Rancho Los Ojuelos, the kind that made the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca go mad, the kind that made mustangs swift and the land rich. Nena knew, even as a child, that magic was a turn of phrase. A way that adults talked about bounty and blessings: with reverence, and perhaps a bit of fear, for when you had much, you never knew how much of it could be lost."

First book I’ve rated 5 stars in a long time 🌟

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Nine years divided them, but time meant nothing to hands: her fingers interlaced with his as naturally as if they were eight years old, or ten, or thirteen. Palm to palm, thumb over thumb. A bridge between them.

okay now THIS is what i'm talking about

✨happy weekend! ✨

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve finished Vampires of El Norte but there’s a small language quirk in it that I haven’t stopped thinking about. It’s something that you can easily miss if you’re not a native Spanish speaker and I need to explain it.

The quirk comes from the name Nena, which is a shortened form of her full name, Magdalena, but nena is also a cute and endearing way to refer to a young girl (nene in the masculine form) in Spanish. I have since returned my copy to the library so bare with me as I’m paraphrasing, but there are times where Néstor refers to her in his thoughts as “my Nena”, an emphasis on the capital “N” here denoting her name, but during the final act, in the least spoiler-y way possible, he refers to her as “mi nena, mi nenita” in desperation. The lowercase “n” here isn’t a typo, this effectively changes the meaning from him calling her by her name to him calling her a term of endearment. Especially with the diminutive “-ita” at the end making it cuter and therefore more endearing. It really shows how much love Néstor has for Nena and it’s a small detail that conveys so much emotion.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

This book was so incredibly good! When I began reading this book, I was expecting something that focused on just the horror aspect and the interesting take on the vampire lore. However, with a wonderful surprise, it drew you into the romance between Nena and Néstor - the hurt, the grief, the miscommunication, the slow burn, the coming to terms with the mistakes they have made in the past and how they won't fall to them again. How they are tied to a love of their land and devotion to their family but in the end find home within each other.

This amazing story brings these two characters together to fight for each other, their people, and their land, all while trying to also fight for the future they have dreamed about. The bloodthirsty vampires are only the start of it.

5/5

Vampires of El Norte

By Isabel Cañas.

ok Isabel Cañas, drop your AO3 username already

They're finally together!

I just finished Vampires of El Norte last night, and just like The Hacienda, it was absolutely 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5! I loved it!!

i have like 30 pages left of the gospel according to jesus christ so im hoping to finish it today at some point :thumbs: yes these are all botm choices i've made this year i need to read still i want to get through at least two of them before the end of the year

ink blood sister scribe

vampires of el norte

queen of thieves

lady tan's circle of women

small angels

"The night had no mistress but her." — Isabel Cañas, "Vampires of El Norte"

“It was often said that a strange kind of magic ran in the waters of Rancho Los Ojuelos, the kind that made the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca go mad, the kind that made mustangs swift and the land rich. Nena knew, even as a child, that magic was a turn of phrase. A way that adults talked about bounty and blessings: with reverence, and perhaps a bit of fear, for when you had much, you never knew how much of it could be lost.”

- Isabel Cañas, Vampires of El Norte

Can We Fix It? Yes We Can! Vampires of El Norte

Overall, I feel like the base of “Vampires of El Norte” was pretty decent. It’s that dreaded “potential” that I hate so much. 

However, I agree with a lot of the reviews: if this is a romance novel, why was the angle of it being a gothic horror pushed so hard? 

In order to actually fix this book, I would focus harder on the Romeo and Juliet aspect of it. I would highlight more of the day-to-day life of Mexican ranchers, showing exactly what an ordinary woman would be doing, vs the daughter of the ranch owner. Then, I would highlight what Papa does, vs the work Nestor does. 

I’m not even sure that I’d even want to put vampires in it. I was reading the author’s notes at the end of the book, and it was like… “Yeah, putting vampires (re: monsters) into historical Mexico is cool and all. But you answered literally no questions and never bothered to use them.” 

I’m sure that somebody could come up with a way to make this work. But me, somebody who doesn’t read a whole lot of horror/gothic horror novels… I’m completely drawing a blank in regards to fixing THAT aspect of it. 

So the only real advice that I have to give in order to fix it is to lean more into the actual romance novel. Because at the end of the day, that’s actually what this story was about: star-crossed lovers who couldn’t be together because of their class difference. 

And maybe to get rid of the “we were in love 10 years ago” bullshit. It was dumb, and served no real point. 

Read VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by Isabel Cañas if you love interesting vampire lore, supernatural western historical romances, colonialism narratives, sneaking around at night, class dynamics, young love, big dreams, grief, salt, rosemary, coming home, Yanquis as villains, and desert road trips.