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Book: “Immortal Pleasures” by V. Castro
Publishing Info: Del Rey, April 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra.
Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people.
In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands. But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love.
When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways.
For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart. Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
V. Castro is one of my favorite horror authors, and I had been waiting patiently (maybe not so patiently) for her to take on a vampire story. So when I saw the announcement for “Immortal Pleasures” and that it not only was going to be a vampire story that centers on La Malinche, but that the cover looked like a full on “From Dusk Til Dawn” aesthetic, I rejoiced. Of all of the V. Castro books I’ve looked forward to, this was up there with “The Haunting of Alejandra” (which I also loved). So I dove into “Immortal Pleasures”, eager and filled with anticipation.
So, first thing’s first. I am absolutely going to praise the praiseworthy things about this book, and there are lots of things that I really, really liked. For starters, the concept of the woman who was La Malinche being turned into a vampire with the name Malinalli, and using her immortality to reappropriate the items and objects from the Nahua culture back from Western clutches is PHENOMENAL (especially since Cortés is ALSO a vampire now and they are on a path to run afoul each other again). I am so thrilled that there has been more discussion about the Spanish conquest/invasion in Central and South America in fiction as of late, as I’ve seen this in multiple horror novels in the past couple of years, and what a neat idea to take the figure of La Malinche, the Nahua woman who worked as a translator and advisor for Hernán Cortés during his bloodthirsty mission, and to give her a voice and to give her something of a redemption arc when as of late she has been vilified for her role in advising and enabling Cortés (if you want some background on La Malinche, take a look HERE). Castro is game to dive into the themes of the colonial violence and genocide that the Spanish committed during their invasion and conquest, and to show La Malinche, now Malinalli, as a victim who wants to atone for the role she played, even if it was a role forced upon her as an enslaved woman. So yes, I absolutely love her as a reborn vampire who is traveling the Western world to bring pre-Columbian Meso- American cultures’ artifacts back from museums, universities, and collectors. It makes her powerful, it makes her redemptive, and it makes her complex. I also really like that she is finally in charge of her own sexuality, as when she was alive she was absolutely a victim of rape and sex trafficking as an enslaved woman forced into the role of Cortés’s accomplice. As Malinalli she is able to have agency in her sexuality. And given that there are many sex scenes in this book between her and a horror writer, as well as her and another vampire (whose twist of an identity made me SCREAM with both glee and also confusion but in a good way, I assure you), she takes control of her sexual narrative repeatedly. Also, very explicitly.
But here are the roadblocks that made this book a harder read for me, and it’s mostly a narrative choice in how the story is told. This is not only a first person narrative, with Malinalli telling the reader her story both in past and in present, but it is also done in a way that makes it feel very matter of fact and conversational, which means that the flow is almost ALL telling and very little showing. It felt to me like Castro was going for an Anne Rice “Interview with the Vampire” vibe, which I absolutely appreciate because that’s iconic. But I think that the problem was that it just made for a less interesting narration because again, it was more telling and less showing. I also didn’t feel nearly as much connection to the modern story of Malinalli trying to retrieve two skulls in the United Kingdom as I did to the historical story of her as La Malinche and her start as a vampire. I almost wonder if it’s because her modern story has the meandering paths of her relationship with Colin, the aforementioned horror writer, and the many many sex scenes she has with him. Some bordering on the ludicrous. I like to think that I’m not a prude in any way shape or form, and again, I LOVE giving Malinalli the agency she has in her sex life. But man, there were a LOT of sex scenes that felt superfluous. And oddly written. And Colin himself just wasn’t super interesting to me, and I couldn’t figure out why she was interested in him to begin with. Though that said, she drops him like a hot potato REALLY fast once she meets fellow vampire Alex, but that also felt rushed and hastily resolved. It just felt like a pacing issue, or indecisiveness on what to focus on.
So, overall, “Immortal Pleasures” wasn’t what I wanted it to be. There were aspects I liked, but it felt like a rare stumble from V. Castro in a lot of ways.
Rating 6: The themes and ideas of this book worked so well for me, but the narrative voice and the choices that came with it were a bit too stilted for me.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Immortal Pleasures” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.
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