NATIONAL BESTSELLER âĸ From the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost filmâand awakens one womanâs hidden powers.
âNo one punctures the skin of reality to reveal the lurking, sinister magic beneath better than Silvia Moreno-Garcia.ââKiersten White, author of Hide
LOCUS AWARD FINALIST âĸ A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Tordotcom, Polygon, CrimeReads, BookPage, Book Riot
Montserrat has always been overlooked. Sheâs a talented sound editor, but sheâs left out of the boysâ club running the film industry in â90s Mexico City. And sheâs all but invisible to her best friend, TristÃĄn, a charming if faded soap opera star, though sheâs been in love with him since childhood.
Then TristÃĄn discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their livesâeven if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
Now the director wants Montserrat and TristÃĄn to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and TristÃĄn begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.
As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and TristÃĄn may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.