Mexican Gothic

This book engages you i want a movie now!!!! Parts were gross but you want to read more and idk how silvia does it but the sprinkle of love makes me blush like a schoolgirl love love love this book

When I closed this novel for good, I felt an immediate pang. Though the story disturbed me, I already missed it. It had wormed its way so insidiously and beautifully into my imagination that it hurt to think there wasn’t another chapter to devour, another act to get gorgeously, frightfully tangled up in. That there was nothing new to contemplate.If you are a fan of gothic fiction and haven’t yet read this contemporary masterpiece of the genre, please do so right now. Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia does absolutely “get it right,” as the Telegraph claims in the opening testimonials of my print copy.Everything is there—the driving arch plot of a single, modern, stubborn heroine out to defeat a seductive, all-consuming, patriarchal evil, even as she proves to herself her own depth and mettle. The enormous, isolated old house is perfectly neglected and rotting from within yet very much alive and grasping. The Doyle family is everything you can ask for in an antagonistic gothic clan—insular, incestuous, despairing in some cases, and depraved in others. The style and plot build beautifully in Moreno-Garcia’s pacing, beginning with a creepy setting and that odd, creepy family shackled to the past. It develops in small, simple details inserted here and there to suggest all is not right, despite the protagonist Noemi’s rational worldview. It builds in the surreal, fragmented, nightmarish dreams she begins to suffer, and finally drives the reader relentlessly through crises and a climax of literal events harrowing and developed enough to grasp that terrible potential fate worse than death within this cursed and controlling household. The ending, thus, if not entirely surprising, is fully cathartic, especially as love and perseverance win the day.Yet, brilliantly, Moreno-Garcia does not end this tale with unqualified optimism. There is a fear planted in the main characters, a foreboding seed of doubt—can one ever truly recover from trauma? Can one ever escape their nature, whether that nature is inherent and real or a misperception of the victim’s, ripe enough for a self-fulfilling prophecy? It is a resolution left open just enough to leave room for some wickedness and doubt, providing readers with a final, meditative shiver. It is also a resolution that pays respect to the depth and complexity of traumatic experience and how it might ultimately impact victims.Essentially, that’s what this novel is about—trauma. Specifically, the trauma of domestic captivity, for both women and men. For the female characters, that suffering manifests especially as sexual abuse by a sadistic patriarch (without being too difficult and graphic to read), supported by the terrible compliance of the matriarch. That is the essential horror—a real life one, tragically—that firmly roots this fantastic, speculative tale into our everyday world and makes it so awfully compelling, so terribly real.

This book suffers from telling instead of showing. It has excellent themes and the author clearly doesn't trust the audience to pick those up and infer. The prose is nice, the story is interesting. I enjoyed the mystery. But this could have been a modern classic if the author hadn't used the main character's inner monologue to explain away all the themes.

There are ghosts and then there are ghosts. The ones that wear bedsheets over their heads are much less terrifying than the ones left by the sins of our ancestors. Mexican Gothic is a fun romp through a trove of Gothic tropes, including a dark and gloomy house, an alluring yet dangerous man, a family with secrets, and things that go bump in the night. But it’s also a story about those other ghosts.

Atmospheric and Unique, but a Slow BurnMexican Gothic is a richly atmospheric novel that blends classic gothic horror with Mexican folklore and postcolonial themes. While I ended up appreciating the story, it took a while to draw me in. The pacing in the first half is very slow, and it wasn’t until about halfway through that the tension started to really build and the mystery became genuinely gripping.The protagonist, Noemí Taboada, is a refreshing lead—stylish, sharp, and unwilling to be underestimated. Her voice adds a much-needed modern spark to a story that otherwise leans heavily into traditional gothic tropes: a decaying mansion, eerie dreams, a mysterious family, and a sense of creeping dread.The setting—1950s Mexico—is both unique and vividly drawn. High Place, the family estate, is practically a character itself: claustrophobic, mold-ridden, and haunted by secrets. Silvia Moreno-Garcia does an excellent job of crafting a world that feels both lush and unsettling.That said, the novel’s horror elements take a long time to arrive, and the slow pacing in the early chapters might make it a challenge for readers who prefer a faster-moving plot. Once the reveals start coming, though, the story takes some bold, unexpected turns that definitely paid off.Final Thoughts:If you enjoy gothic fiction with a unique cultural lens and don’t mind a slower build-up, Mexican Gothic has a lot to offer. It’s eerie, strange, and ultimately rewarding—but you’ll need some patience to get there