Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno Garcia

I have really enjoyed reading this author's work over the past year, and while I enjoyed this, I enjoyed it less than the others that I have read. She leans heavily on Mexican culture, the occult, horror, all wrapped up with a touch of romance, and that is true in this book as well. The setting is Mexico City, 1993. Two lifelong friends in their late thirties, find themselves in the midst of a plot they don't necessarily want any part of. Montserrat is a gifted sound engineer who is stubborn, introverted, abrasive, and a bit of a misanthrope. . Tristán is a former soap opera star and bad boy now relegated mostly to voiceover work after some press that he might be bisexual sank his career, haunted by the death of his starlet girlfriend ten years prior in a car accident that left him scarred both psychologically and physically. When Tristán moves into a new apartment after yet another messy breakup, he discovers he’s now neighbors with cult horror director Abel Urueta, who invites him to dinner and he brings Montserrat along, as she is a big fan. Abel has an ulterior motive it turns out--and here is where it gets a bit weird. He saved a single reel of the film, shot on silver nitrate film and stored in his freezer (much to Montserrat’s alarm, as silver nitrate film is highly flammable and prone to spontaneous combustion). He asks them to help him complete the spell by recording fresh dialogue for the key scene and syncing it to the film. Suffice it to say it does not go as planned, and not everyone makes it. I have to say that I am not a fan of horror, and this did not change my mind.