Ahoy there me mateys! This be the sixth book I have read by the author and me sixth five star read. Dang does she float me boat! I have said before that what I find amazing about all of the author’s books is that they feel so different from each other. The first was a vampire story with stunning vampire culture and history. The second was a Mayan fairy-tale set during the Jazz age in Mexico. The third was a romance with a hint of fantasy set in the Belle Époque era. The fourth was a coming-of-age thriller set in Baja California in 1979. The fifth was a gothic horror set in 1950s Mexico.
This was a novella set in Mexico City in a near-future. Amelia is 25 and her dream of getting to Mars is a strong as ever even if her once bright future has grounded to a halt. Life has become so bleak and Amelia is eking out her existence with odd jobs. One of those jobs is as a rent-a-friend. She isn’t popular and one of her few regular “friend” jobs is with an aging movie star watching the woman’s old films. How these films relate to the larger themes are lovely.
The real allure in this story is the starkness of Amelia’s life and the pain of the environment that Amelia lives in. It just feels so real and gritty. Her desperation for another life combined with watching her slowly shrivel up with each bad break is heart-wrenching. One can’t help but completely understand Mona’s bitterness and anger while still wishing for her to not give up and fight for herself. The ending was bittersweet and yet I still hope it all turns out okay. A beautifully painful and touching book that I do very much recommend.
I absolutely love Silvia Moreno-Garcia and can’t wait for whatever she writes next. Arrr!
Goodreads has this to say about the novel:
Love, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.
Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.
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Previous Log Entries for this Author
certain dark things (Captain’s Log – Sci-Fi)
gods of jade and shadow (On the Horizon – Fantasy eArc)
the beautiful ones (Captain’s Log – Fantasy)
untamed shore (Off the Charts and On the Horizon – Murder Mystery eArc)
mexican gothic (On the Horizon – Fantasy Horror eArc)
ARTWORK by Tithi Luadthong from 123RF.com.
Captain's Quarters 
I also love this author and I hadn’t heard of this one so I shall check it out.
Lynn 😀
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It is short and wonderful. I hope ye can track it down.
x The Captain
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I liked this one too, Cap! Glad to know you enjoyed this one so much – I think it’s one of her books that divides readers as it has a very different feel from anything else she’s written:))
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I think all her books are different and awesome. It is why I love her work and everything is five stars so far. Objectively I can see problems sometimes. Subjectively I just don’t care.
x The Captain
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It’s her super-power – she sucks you into her world…
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Hadn’t heard of this one of the author’s, but anything Moreno-Garcia is a huge yes
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Super glad to be able to share this one with ye. It be awesome!
x The Captain
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Great review! This sounds like such an interesting read. I need to pick up more of Moreno-Garcia’s work, I had a good time with Mexican Gothic but haven’t gotten around to more yet! I’m very encouraged to see all of her books tend to be 5-star reads for you!
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I know they are not all five stars for everyone but both her characters and her writing style so works for me. I love how smartly put together her work is even if I am sure I miss 95% of the references or influences. I love most of all how they stick with me and how I continue to think about aspects of all of them long after I have read them.
x The Captain
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All right, I’m sold! 😀
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ARRRR!!!
x The Captain
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I really enjoyed this story, too! It felt so different from most sci-fi I’ve read lately.
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It is very different in tone I think. I like the fun sci-fi but I also love the thoughtful kind. I can’t help but hope Mars will work out for her.
x The Captain
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Right? And she knows Mars won’t be perfect, she just needs it to be better. It resonated quite a bit with me this year.
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I loved this one (well, I loved every Moreno-Garcia story I read, to be honest…) and the juxtaposition between the main character bleak life and her dream of going to Mars was so very poignant that she stayed with me for a long time 🙂
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I think this story is going to stick with me. I could just feel her longing for another life, another chance, another world. I can relate sometimes even though overall life is good for me.
x The Captain
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Ahhhh I loved this novella – it’s not an easy read, and Amelia is such a spiky personality, but I found it so satisfying.
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I can’t decide if it was satisfying or not in terms of characterization. In terms of novella it was immensely satisfying because I can’t stop thinking about it. So well written.
x The Captain
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One thing that struck me about Mexican Gothic is how little Moreno Garcia crafts the setting of Mexico setting. Thus, I felt there was no contrast when we get to the English manor, which is described so clearly, and is so British. Did you feel like you could see Mexico City in this book?
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I didn’t feel like I could see Mexico City too much in the book but it was because the plot didn’t spend much time there. The point for me is that the crazy manor was trying to make itself be British when it shouldn’t have.
x The Captain
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Great review! I love this one, too; Moreno-Garcia writes this type of sci-fi so well and I’d love to see more from her. Then again, she writes fantasy, horror and historical fiction well, too, so I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do…
Please read Signal to Noise! It’s her debut and one of my all-time favourite novels and it’s SO underrated.
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I will certainly read signal to noise. Yer reminder led me to look it up at one of the libraries. I will request it when I get through me current batch o books.
x The Captain
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I‘ve watched a documentary where rent-a-friend is a real thing in South Korea. No sex involved.
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This fact surprised me for a moment and then made me sad. Join a club or something. Did the people in the documentary seem happy about the arrangement?
x The Captain
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Oh yes, they did. It’s just a service like getting done nails for them.
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