Mexican Gothic by Sylvia-Moreno Garcia
Publish date:June 30, 2020
Genre: Gothic Horror, Mystery
Trigger warnings: Body horror (including rot, decay, and transformation), Gaslighting and emotional manipulation, Sexual assault / coercion (non-graphic but present and disturbing), Incest / inbreeding themes, Psychological abuse and control, Suicidal ideation and past suicide, Drugging / non-consensual sedation, Claustrophobia / confinement, Racism / colonialism themes, Death and decomposition imagery
Short description:
In Mexican Gothic, a glamorous socialite is summoned to a decaying mansion in the Mexican countryside to check on her ailing cousin — but what she finds is a house steeped in rot, secrets, and something far more sinister than ghosts. With creeping fungi, twisted family legacies, and nightmarish visions, this gothic horror novel reimagines the haunted house story with a lush, terrifying flair.
This book had me at “glam rich girl vs. haunted mansion.”
I loved the way this book was written — simple but vivid, super easy to follow, and atmospheric in that “I’m-never-sleeping-in-a-mansion-again” kind of way. Not gonna lie, the ending gave off teleserye energy and I wasn’t 100% into it, but the ride getting there? Is a-ok.
Mexican Gothic was probably one of the best books I’ve read this year. Okay, I’ve been in a reading slump (as always), but this book was one of those wonderful works that inspired me to get up and do some more reading. I gave it 4-point-something stars (5, rounded-up) for making me enjoy the horror-gothic genre. Although it felt more like a romance book at the end, but whatever.
It follows the story of Noemi Taboada, a glam, rich kid (tbh, sana all??) living her life freely in the city – partying, hanging out with friends, drinking, smoking. His father received this weird letter from her cousin, Catalina who married a man from the countryside. Catalina talked about how his husband was poisoning her, she talked about ghosts, spiders, snakes, and everything creepy. Noemi’s dad suspects Catalina should be needing a psychiatrist so just to be sure, he convinced Noemi to visit the countryside and check on Catalina. Noemi went, though when she arrived, Catalina’s new home felt creepy and old and weird. She stays in the mansion got her discovering the truth behind the house they call the High Place, and the scary background and history of Catalina’s new family. As for the romance I was talking about? Ah, Noemi found herself a new boyfriend, one of the members of the creepy High Place fam.
I know, my summary sounds nonsense and a bit of cliche, but trust me, you’ll love the book. (Or don’t. IDK about you. ???!) Mexican Gothic won many awards including the best choice for horror fiction on Goodreads in 2020 where I found it. I am a big fan of horror movies (or not really, I mean I know horror movies are baduy, but I enjoy watching them) so I thought why not try horror books as well? If you thought of Stephen King, yeah I’m collecting his books, too!
Mexican Gothic is just well-written for a light read. Words are easy to understand (and if you are not very confident about how wide you vocabulary is, an ebook reader with dictionary function is a great friend) the story flow is not confusing and in fact described well that your mind will surely automatically imagine the scene leaving a memory as if you watched it – which is nice especially for written horror stories.
It also highlighted the struggles from the 1950s which are now boredom killers of 2021 – the old library and hundreds of torn books now can be downloaded in a device, the written letters you’d need to deliver via the post office now can just be a text away, the inaccessible healthcare (although still a challenge in most provincial areas) now can be done via tele-consult already.
I loved the book, in general. I really enjoyed the story except the ending. I don’t have a bitter heart, but it just reminded me of the re-told fairy tales that should be having a happy ending but the author was like “I need to give this some kilig so more people will like it” kind of teleserye endings. But the important thing is I enjoyed the book and I’m giving it 4.5 even 5 stars.
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