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Book: “Vampires of El Norte” by Isabel Cañas
Publishing Info: Berkley, August 2023
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.
As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.
Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind.
When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
Given how much I loved “The Hacienda”, I was totally waiting on pins and needles to see what Isabel Cañas was going to do for a follow up to her Gothic ghost story debut. It’s probably no shocker that I was elated when I saw that her next book was going to be about vampires. She approached the haunted house story with such a unique and cool hook, I just knew that she would do the same with vampires.
Much like “The Hacienda”, the time and place of “Vampire of El Norte” makes for the perfect setting for this horror novel. Taking place in the 1840s during the Mexican-American War, where the U.S. started to invade Mexico in hopes of taking more land for itself. Our protagonists Nena and Néstor find themselves swept up in it, as Nena is the daughter of a powerful ranch owner and Néstor is a vaquero who has returned to the ranch after a long absence when Mexicans start to band together to fight against the Anglos. The societal structure of Nena and Néstor’s world is laid out plainly and shows conflict, as these childhood friends are on different footing, but both have reasons to feel confined and oppressed in their own ways. For Nena it is her fear that her father will marry her off like property as a daugther, and for Néstor it is his lower class standing, which makes their lingering attraction from childhood all the more forbidden. But even more so is the fact that white settlers from the U.S. and the United States Government are encroaching in an act of violent colonialism, and for Nena and Néstor their very survival could be at risk, with him on the front lines, her acting as a healing curandera to the soldiers and fighters, and both of them being Mexican citizens who could face violence at the hands of invaders. The horrors of colonialism have a significant part to play in this book, as does classism and misogyny and the traumas that come with both. I really liked Nena and Néstor as they start to reconnect, and how their admiration and attraction is approached in a way that feels realistic while still being wholly satisfying. I also loved them on their own, as Nena is ambitious and capable, while Néstor is sweet and loyal, and their chemistry is simmering off the pages.
And then there are the vampires. It’s the perfect allegor, using vampires against the backdrop of Imperialistic wars as outsiders want to leech off of the people who live on the land that they desire to approrpiate. And I liked the vampire mythos in this book, as they are very animalistic and very brutal, with some interesting systems at play in how vampires function and live within the storyline and world. I really enjoyed the dread that builds as various characters find themselves stalked and hunted by the vampires, sometimes in lonely and vast areas in nature where there is little hope of help and already high stakes due to the war that is raging around them. There were lots of moments that really tapped into the suspense, and I think that if there was one aspect of this book that I needed more from it would probably be that I needed more vampire action.
Once again, Isabel Cañas nails a historical horror story, and brings with it not only supernatural threats and villains, but villains that were very real. “Vampires of Il Norte” needs to be on horror fans book piles!
Rating 8: A suspenseful and engaging horror story about vampires and colonialism, “Vampire of El Norte” is another well done historical horror novel by Isabel Cañas.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Vampires of El Norte” is included on the Goodreads lists “Mexican Gothic”, and “Historical Fiction Set in Latin America”.
The Library Ladies 