NATIONAL BESTSELLER โข From theย 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 filmโand awakens one womanโs hidden powers.
โNo one punctures the skin of reality to reveal the lurking, sinister magic beneath better than Silvia Moreno-Garcia.โโKiersten White, author of Hide
LOCUS AWARD FINALIST โข 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. Sheโs a talented sound editor, but sheโs left out of the boysโ club running the film industry in โ90s Mexico City. And sheโs all but invisible to her best friend, Tristรกn, a charming if faded soap opera star, though sheโs been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristรกn discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their livesโeven 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 Tristรกn to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristรกn 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 Tristรกn may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.