Vampires of El Norte
Isabel Cañas
Hardcover / Ebook
ISBN: 9780593436721
Berkley, August 2023, 384 pgs

With her second novel, Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas crafts a suspenseful romantic vampire tale set along the Texas-Mexico border. The novel is a dual POV tale of yanquis, war, vampires, but more importantly, love and how it protects and shapes the two main characters and points of view in the novel: Nena and Néstor. The two find themselves growing up in different stations in life; Nena is the daughter of a ranchero and Néstor is a vaquero who worked on the ranch where Nena grew up.

The two are close as young children and begin to fall in love as teens, but then a mysterious attack leaves Nena believed dead and Néstor on the run. The beginning of the novel mainly follows Néstor as he buries his grief in work and women until the Mexican American War calls him back to the ranch he left years ago. Upon his return, he learns that Nena is alive and has written him off as abandoning her. As the novel flashes between the two POVs a charge builds between the characters. The reader can feel their connection and the passion they hold for each other even after all the years apart.

Brought back together due to war, Nena rides along with Néstor and the rest of the ranch, including her father, to help as a curandera. While healing the men fallen in battle, Nena and the rest of the healers are attacked and set upon by Texas Rangers and vampires who are taking advantage of the blood and dead left the wake of the Ranger attacks. Néstor saves Nena and the two go on the run back to the ranch to try and save their home from the threat of vampires.

Néstor’s chapters are drenched in Mexican western vibes. He occupies a rustic world where dust and the demons of the past intermingle. On the other hand, Nena’s chapters pulse with bridled desire and a longing for a life that isn’t chained to family obligations. Cañas uses her research and writing skills to craft an authentic voice for both characters, making for an exciting exchange between the two perspectives throughout the story.

I’ve spent most of this review talking about Nena and Néstor because the story is primarily about the bond and passion between the two and how it plays out in 1846, during a time of so much change. There is also the supernatural element of the vampires preying on people throughout the land and causing a sickness called susto that drains the victims of life. While the vampires are constantly in the background, the story feels very much like a gothic romance. Despite not being a huge presence, whenever the vampires do appear, it is absolutely terrifying.

This has a lot to do with how Cañas describes the actions and emotions of the characters in the story, making each of these scenes gripping and horrifying. Some vampire literature that tries to step into new territory with the classic monsters comes across clunky, cheap, and confusing. Vampires of El Norte presents a new form of vampire that is well-crafted and enthralling for longtime vampire fans. Cañas crafts her vampires with an artistry that conjures Nosferatu-like creatures who are grotesque entities devoid of any humanity.

How specific and concrete Cañas writing style is throughout Vampires of El Norte helps a world come to life in the reader’s mind. There are hues of historical romance fiction, gently stained with the shadowy undertones of dark fantasy. While some people may find frustration in how little of a role the vampires play on the main stage of the story, die-hard fans of vampire fiction and dark romance will list Vampires of El Norte as a new favorite.