Silver Nitrate

Montserrat is a gifted sound editor working in 1990s Mexico City, where the film business is run by men who overlook her. She has been in love with her childhood friend Tristán for years, but he is a charming actor whose soap opera fame has faded, and he barely notices her.

When Tristán learns that his new neighbor is the cult horror filmmaker Abel Urueta, the director promises he can turn their lives around. His explanation sounds like pure fantasy: a Nazi occultist supposedly filled a movie with magic, using unstable silver nitrate film. The picture was never finished, and Urueta insists that this unfinished work is why his career vanished overnight. He believes a curse is upon him, and he wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift it.

Soon Montserrat senses a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins to see the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. As the two dig into the unfinished film and the obscure occultist who once walked their city, they may learn that sorcery is more than a movie trope. The book comes from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic.