At once romance, horror, historical fiction, and an adventure narrative about war, Vampires of El Norte elegantly navigates a multiplicity of genres to deliver an engaging story that cements Cañas as one of the best new voices bridging the gap between romance and speculative fiction. It also proves that the sophomore slump is, at least in publishing, nothing but a myth.
A lush, supernaturally infused historical romance mixing vaqueros, vampires, and the Mexican-American conflict of 1846–48 ... Cañas delivers a horror novel full of expressive, sumptuous prose and enlightening historical details.
While the romance is an unquestionable centerpiece, Cañas does a fantastic job bringing the setting to life. She sketches out the life of a vaquero in small details ... A dramatic and well-rendered setting, a drizzle of animalistic vampires and an engaging story about two young lovers who want nothing more than the freedom and strength to be together in a world determined to rip them apart (sometimes literally).
Uneven ... Repetitions and vagueries turn a desperate flight from the colonizers into a clunky slog. All but Cañas’s most devoted fans can skip this one.
The book’s weakness is that it can handle only two of them at a time. It isn’t until the last stand that everything comes together, but it’s powerful when it does. Nena and Néstor, who are both point-of-view characters, are equally charming and infuriating in some of their choices. The side characters are not very well fleshed out, though they add to the sense of place. While perhaps not greater than the sum of its parts, the parts themselves are quite good.
