Looking through my list of blog post drafts the other day, I was surprised to find that I never published my response to Isabel Cañas’s Vampires of El Norte. I listened to the audiobook in February 2024.

Two years after reading the novel, some scenes still stick with me. Oddly, I don’t remember much about the vampires. What has stuck with me are scenes of interpersonal tension between the humans, along with their longing and anguish. Below is the response I wrote shortly after finishing the book.

Audiobook to the rescue

It took me several attempts to get into this novel, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

Every time I came across the novel, in the library, at the bookstore, or online, I was drawn to it. The cover is dramatic and compelling, evoking drama, a sense of place, anguish, loss, and beauty. It sounded right up my alley — historical horror, early 19th century, Mexico, vampires — but the text wasn’t grabbing me.

So I turned to the audiobook. It is narrated by two performers, Krysta Gonzales and Jose Natters. Part of what drew me into the audiobook was their performances and the culturally correct pronunciations, which helped reinforce the story’s sense of place.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.

As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.

Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.

Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind.

When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh.

And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

You can hear a sample of the audiobook on Penguin Random House’s website.

A love story

Vampires of El Norte is primarily a love story using the classic trope of young lovers torn apart by class inequities and war, with the “modern” twist of vampires. There is also the soul-crushing patriarchal system that values women and girls for the empire-building that their arranged marriages can bring about.

One of my favorite lines in the novel is, “He was a man of dust who served men of silver.” A succinct, yet poetic description of Néstor’s place within the patriarchal hierarchy.

At first, I didn’t think the story really needed the vampires. The tropes of young lovers kept apart by class and family issues, along with the invading Yankees and the Battle of Palo Alto, seemed like enough tension. The vampires do help to reveal Nena’s character. Still, they seem more like a device than being fully integrated into the storyline.

Although I was rooting for Nena and Néstor, their doubts and assumptions are repetitive, sometimes annoyingly so. I also wanted a deeper understanding of the vampires’ history and mythology in this novel’s world. I only listened to the audiobook during my relatively short commute to and from work, so there’s a chance I may have missed some things.

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• Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
• Published August 15, 2023, by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• The audiobook is 12 hrs, 3 min
• Bottom line: Solid historical fiction with good atmosphere that revolves around a love story, impending colonialism, and the threat of war and supernatural creatures. It may appeal more to historical fiction readers who enjoy a love story and a touch of supernatural action rather than to those seeking a thrilling vampire novel.