Silvia Moreno Garcia’s newest novel brings something fresh to the sub-genre of occult and magic in this pseudo-contemporary setting. SILVER NITRATE is a title perfectly fitting for the story’s beginning, middle, and end. It is about two young people who find themselves stumbling into a community uncovered and a whole universe unearthed, with silver nitrate, the substance, at the heart of it. Montserrat and Tristan are childhood friends. Life has not treated them well, which has left them bereft of emotional availability and financial stability. A brilliant sound designer not given enough credit because of her gender, Montserrat is broken trying to juggle life professionally and personally. Tristan, a once-famous movie star, is now forgotten after a scandalous incident in the past and is having as much of a difficult time as Montserrat. They happen to meet their childhood hero, the director of so many of their favorite movies, Abel Urueta. Abel has had his share of hardships and draws them into the world of witchcraft and occult he used to dabble within his glory days. Little do they know that they are unraveling years of work put in by a Nazi magician whose worldviews do not match with their own.    SILVER NITRATE throws you into this world where weird things happen, and the reader is left alone to figure things out as they read. I was pleasantly surprised in the first half trying to figure out how and why things work out the way they are. I figured it was impossible to comprehend the magic and strapped in for the ride after a certain point. There are fiction books talked about, history lessons given, mythological tales considered, and what have you. Nothing really blends and makes a coherent narrative at any point, but the characters were compelling enough for me to finish the book.    I liked the tension between the main characters, figuring out their broken friendship and what they mean to each other while the world around them falls into chaos with magic and other dangerous evils from the past. I would also like to read other such outlandish adventures if it meant these two would be a part of it.   Go ahead and pick up SILVER NITRATE if you love stories of occult, necromancy, and other time-bound tales to give yourself an adrenaline rush.