Book Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Berkley (August 15, 2023)

Length: 371 pages

Author Information: Website

It is 1846 in Mexico, shortly before the invasion by the United States Army. On the Rancho Los Ojuelos lived Nena Serrano, the eldest daughter of a ranchero, and Néstor Duarte, the son of a vaquero training to follow in his father’s footsteps. The two had been best friends since childhood, a relationship that deepened into something more as they grew up together, practically inseparable, which Nena’s parents saw as inappropriate. The year the children turned thirteen, preparations were set in motion to arrange a politically advantageous marriage for her. But before any of these plans could come to pass, Nena was attacked by a monster—a thing of the night that kills by draining its unsuspecting victims of all their blood. Believing Nena to be dead, a terrified and devastated Néstor flees from the rancho, vowing never to return.

Now, nine years later, as the Americans begin mobilizing their forces for an attack, a Mexican militia is being formed to fight off the Yanquís and the monstrous creatures they are rumored to employ. Néstor has decided to join up, but in doing so, it means he must return to Ranchos Los Ojuelos. There, he finds to his utter shock that Nena is not only alive and well, but she’s furious at him for having abandoned her. With war on the horizon, however, there’s no time to catch up. The two of them are swept up in the conflict, with Nena accompanying her father as he travels along with Néstor and the rest of the militia. When circumstances find them separated from the group, our former lovers must put aside their anger and bitter feelings long enough to work together and survive.

I believe Vampires of El Norte was likely intended to be part love story, part war story, and part vampire story, but let’s be real here: it’s mostly a love story. While author Isabel Cañas clearly spent a great deal of effort on researching the environment and historical events of the era, the Mexican War was meant only to fill the role of backdrop for this tale of rekindled romance. Likewise, the horror elements are supremely light, and despite the novel’s title, the vampires, like the war, were relegated mostly to the background.

Might this bait-and-switch have affected my enjoyment of the book a little? Probably. But let it not be said I can’t appreciate a story about star-crossed lovers kept apart by social status and wealth, and that’s not even accounting for the giant heap of misunderstandings between them. That said, this was a romance that just didn’t resonate with me. It’s laden with all kinds of clichés, including two of my biggest pet peeves in romance fiction: 1) that of miscommunication to create drama, and 2) characters using emotional manipulation to get their way.

I also feel the writing could have used a few extra rounds of editing. The author has this tendency to overuse fancy metaphors, leading to some very strange turns of phrase. I also came across several examples where on a single page there would be multiple uses of the same elaborate dialogue tag such as “rasped” or “breathed” and that was often distracting enough to pull me out of the story.

All in all, I can’t say I was brimming with enthusiasm while reading Vampires of El Norte. While I do find its premise original—that of a vampire story set in the time of the Mexican War—these original aspects didn’t actually feature all that much in the book. Instead, the entire narrative was overshadowed by a romance plot which included all the hackneyed qualities of romance plots I personally don’t find appealing or attractive. Of course, that’s just my preference. Readers who enjoy historical paranormal romance with a light splash of horror may find this more to their liking.