**3.5 STARS

Velvet Was the Night follows Maite, an unassuming secretary, who gets caught up in a mystery surrounding her neighbor Leonora. Maite is house sitting Leonora's cat, when Leonora goes missing. Maite goes down the rabbit hole searching for a neighbor she could barely call a friend. The book was a bit hard to get into at first. Maite isn't a very likable or pleasant character. I found it hard to relate to her. The action does ramp up towards the end of the book, which helps.

This was a really, really slow burn. But because Silvia Moreno-Garcia is incredible at writing compelling characters, I kept reading. I found Maite very interesting to read about, even though I didn't like her very much. I wish there had been more to the plot and that it had been a bit more exciting. Overall, I enjoyed it though.

I fell in love with Mexican Gothic, so I knew I needed to read this immediately. Velvet Was the Night didn't grab me as quickly, but the story was interesting. Set in Mexico in 1971, in the midst of violent student protests, this is a fun noir old between chapters narrated by Maite and Elvis. I found Maite to be unlikeable, so I think that's where this didn't click for me, but I enjoyed reading it.

Mexican Gothic made a loyalist of me and if Silvia Moreno-Garcia decided to rewrite my local phone book I’d read it, so it’s no surprise I enjoyed this too. Moreno-Garcia takes genres that are typically dominated by stories by and about white people and deftly reclaims those genres to tell stories that are uniquely Mexican in their historical and cultural references. It makes for books that avoid the old and tired tropes of their genres and her writing always feels so fresh. If you are reading this without knowledge of the cultural context, there will be things you have to look up—I don’t always understand the political environment discussed in this book but I think it is very much worth working for as a reader, and doing some research independently to learn about the context of the story.

I’ve seen Velvet Was the Night described as a ‘noir crime thriller’ and I think it’s very fitting.
We’re following Maite, set in 1970’s Mexico, as she tries to track down her missing neighbor Leonora. Things take some unexpected turns and we come across many shady characters.
I had a lot of fun seeing our main character navigate new experiences as the story progresses.
Silvia Moreno Garcia is becoming an author I’m keeping an eye out for, it seems she dabbles in many different genres I enjoy.

dark noir that's edgy but lacking..... couldn't finish it. See goodreads for full review. Making me have 100 characters in order to complete so......

Very enjoyable...historical fiction with a noir feel that keeps you guessing. Characters well-developed throughout and different plot lines come together nicely. Not many dull parts...each development in the story kept me highly interested in where it was going. 4 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

Velvet was the Night is a story of Maite and Elvis during a period of time in Mexico City that I had never heard about. In the 1970s, Mexico was very concerned about communism and would use these young men to break up protests that were going on. Until they start to become violent and the government has to stop the practice. Elvis is one of these young men and as everything is coming to a head his boss asks him to find a young woman. Elvis and his team start to stake out her apartment and soon start following Maite, the girl's neighbor. Maite is a secretary who gets dragged into this world all because she agreed to watch a cat for a weekend.
The story was very enjoyable and I would highly recommend it.

Not a bad read! Lots of crime and intrigue. As with many of Moreno-Garcia's books, the ending is kind of bloody and dramatic, but the lead up is very atmospheric. Recommended to those who enjoy noir.

Well done historical fiction that starts with an actual telegram from the CIA. Well developed characters, and a mystery that keeps you guessing.

I will always read anything this author publishes so when I saw this was her newest project, I was pumped! This story is narrated by a Mexican secretary who longs for more, at a time when the Mexico ruling party organized its own paramilitary groups to beat and even kill the opposition, as in the watershed massacre at Tlatelolco. The character is complex and interesting and Silvia uses the pulpy prose style of a detective novel, so it's a breezy read.
Full review to come on YouTube.

I’m not quite sure why, but this book failed to grab and hold my interest. The setting was interesting, Mexico in 1971, with student protests being violently quashed. The two main characters, Maite and Elvis, aren’t likeable but neither are they despicable. They also don't interact at all until the very end of the book.

While I received the eARC from NetGalley, I wound up mostly listening to the published audiobook by Random House Audio. The narrator, Gisela Chipé, did an excellent job with the many voices. It was not her fault that I wound up listening to the story at 2.0 speed, just to get through it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

So...I've tried a few of Moreno-Garcia's books now, and I'm thinking her style just isn't for me. Noir is alright, but I prefer a more modern tone in my mystery, I suppose. Would recommend to readers who enjoy her work but want something different from Mexican Gothic or her other fantasy work.

Another great read from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This one kept me on my toes. Made me realize I really do like the noir genre.

I really thought I’d like this book based on my opinions on this author’s other works, but I just think the setting was not my style at all. I kept thinking about how I didn’t like the aesthetic and how I didn’t like the main character. I will still continue to read more by this author, but this one missed the mark.

This book was just not for me. I requested this one when there was so much fanfare around the author's previous book, Mexican Gothic. I ended up reading MG and really disliked it and was hoping that this book would redeem the author for me. However, I am just not the reader for her style and genre. I would not plan to read this author again.

i wasnt quite invested in the content of the story (i often found myself skimming through the elvis gangster chapters), i always appreciate how SMG sets the tone in her books. its consistent throughout and i have no doubt noir and pulp fiction fans will enjoy this.

You are hooked from the first sentence. I enjoy Moreno-Garcia's writing and this books did not disappoint. Thank you for permitting me to read this wonderful book.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

The historical setting for Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s noir novel, Velvet Was the Night, is the violent suppression of a student uprising in Mexico City in the late 1960s, and that part was fascinating. The characters, an idealistic youth drawn into the world of gang brutality, and an insecure secretary, find themselves drawn into the mysterious disappearance of an art student who may be in possession of incriminating photographs related to the uprising. For most of the book, Maite and Elvis go about their separate lives, slowly spiraling toward one another.

I loved earlier novels of Silvia Morena-Garcia (Gods of Jade and Shadow, The Beautiful Ones, Mexican Gothic, and Certain Dark Things). For me, however, this gritty novel never found its center, either dramatically or morally. I found both central characters ambivalent enough to be unsettling. I kept waiting for them to grow up, but they never did. Elvis becomes a casual murderer and torturer, without empathy for his victims even when he himself becomes one. Maite’s a thief, consumed with envy, living vicariously through the treasures she makes off with. Sure, they’re anti-heroes, but I like a little redemptive virtue and a reason to connect emotionally with my anti-heroes. The only characters I cared about were minor and didn’t stay around for the ending. The background, while intriguing, seemed to belong to a different story. Added to this, I’m profoundly uninterested in gangsters and their culture, and would not have picked up this book were it not for the author’s other, luminously creative works. I applaud her courage in tackling new subject material. All experiments run a risk, and the edgier the territory, the trickier the high-wire act. Other readers may gobble this one up but for me, even with Moreno-Garcia’s storytelling skill that kept me in the story until the end, the result was more “meh” than “magical!”