Mexican Gothic in What's the Name of That Book???

Oct 12, 2020 karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: death-is-not-the-end, icky-sex, tastes-like-people, october-is-spooky

oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best horror 2020! what will happen?

THIS HAPPENED:

CONGRATULATIONS, WINNER! goodreads choice awards best HORROR 2020!

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SPOOKTOBER COMIN' AT YOU LIKE

this is not so much a reinvention of the gothic novel as it is a game of pin the crazytown tail on the classic gothic storyline.

and it is beautifully done.

if you’re a fan of gothic novels, whether they be the The Castle of Otranto or the Rebecca kind, you’ll dig the first 2/3 of this ...more

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Sep 06, 2020 Kate Wutz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, own

I just finished this book and feel as though I held my breath through the entire last quarter. This is...the words that come to mind are brilliant, triumph, masterpiece. Just read it, right now (if you don’t mind horror, because WHOO BOY—but it’s so lyrical and beautiful in an awful, terrible way, that I didn’t mind it).

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Mar 04, 2021 Emma rated it liked it

Mexico, 1950: Noemí Taboada, 22, leads an easy, it sometimes boring, life as a glamorous debutante. Her biggest concerns are usually which men to dance with each night, how many dresses she can wear in a day, and convincing her father to continue paying her college tuition instead of urging her to find a husband.

Noemí's predictable life is upended when a frantic letter arrives from her cousin, Catalina. After a whirlwind courtship and marriage, everyone assumed that Catalina was living happily i Mexico, 1950: Noemí Taboada, 22, leads an easy, it sometimes boring, life as a glamorous debutante. Her biggest concerns are usually which men to dance with each night, how many dresses she can wear in a day, and convincing her father to continue paying her college tuition instead of urging her to find a husband.

Noemí's predictable life is upended when a frantic letter arrives from her cousin, Catalina. After a whirlwind courtship and marriage, everyone assumed that Catalina was living happily in the Mexican countryside on her husband's family estate. But her letter hinting at poisoning, menace, and other threats suggests otherwise.

Although she is an unlikely rescuer, Noemí is certain she can get to the bottom of things once she gets to Catalina. Even unflappable Noemí doesn't know what to make of High Place when she arrives. The once-stately mansion is nearly derelict, mold creeps along the walls, locals won't make the trek up the mountain path to the estate, the family lives in isolation.

Catalina's alluring but menacing husband dismisses the contents of the letter and seems determined to block Noemí's access to her cousin. Worse, Noemí catches the eye of the family's ancient patriarch who is uncomfortably interested in the purity of his family line.

Uncertain of who she can trust, not sure if she can believe her own senses, Noemí will have to rely on her own wits to unearth High Place's dark secrets and try to get herself and her cousin out alive in Mexican Gothic (2020) by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Mexican Gothic is a standalone horror novel filled with all of the lavish descriptions and ill-defined menace readers familiar with gothic horror will appreciate. Written in close third person, the novel follows Noemí as she comes to High Place and begins to discover the estate's long-buried secrets.

Moreno-Garcia uses masterful pacing to amplify both the tension of the narrative and High Place's menace as Noemí comes closer to the truth. The first two thirds of the novel are very gothic and very creepy with a tightly controlled story. The climax, and explanations, take a dramatic turn with an outcome that feels more like the plot of a 1950s B horror movie as the elements behind High Place's depravity continue to pile up.

Horror and supernatural elements work together to unpack the sinister truth behind High Place but readers should also be aware that the novel includes instances of sexual assault, gaslighting, body horror, cannibalism, emotional abuse, and incest.

Mexican Gothic is a genuinely scary if sometimes bizarre story. Lavish descriptions, deliberate prose, and a singular heroine make this book a standout in the genre.

Possible Pairings: The Wildling Sisters by Eve Chase; The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi; Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff; The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, Crimson Peak, Mother! ...more

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Apr 29, 2021 Sarah Funke Donovan rated it liked it

Shelves: novel-novel, sci-fi-fan, solveit, 2021-books

This escalated quickly into a eugenics-fueled horror show. Not quite as satisfying as Gods of Jade and Shadow.

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Jan 16, 2020 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Imagine if the fear and madness in The Yellow Wallpaper or the eerie unease of a du Maurier novel actually had supernatural roots. That is what Moreno-Garcia gives us in Mexican Gothic. The novel moves deftly from traditional gothic to gory horror without feeling forced. I really enjoyed this book. It would translate well to the screen!

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Oct 09, 2020 Marigold rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: latino-latina-voices, scary-stuff, read-during-pandemic, 2020-i-m-over-you, wanted-to-love-but-didn-t, gothic, gr-awards, fiction-2020-2030, bipoc-writers, kindle-read

Three and a half stars. I'm writing this review several weeks after reading the book but here goes.

Unlike many other reviewers, I was involved in this story from the beginning, and found it a quick and absorbing read - I read it in one day! But - I was also aware of a few issues I had with it as I went along.

I was expecting more 1950s atmosphere and more period Mexican atmosphere. What I got: a classic Gothic novel that after the very beginning, might just as well have been set in 19th century Three and a half stars. I'm writing this review several weeks after reading the book but here goes.

Unlike many other reviewers, I was involved in this story from the beginning, and found it a quick and absorbing read - I read it in one day! But - I was also aware of a few issues I had with it as I went along.

I was expecting more 1950s atmosphere and more period Mexican atmosphere. What I got: a classic Gothic novel that after the very beginning, might just as well have been set in 19th century England. That's how the residents of High Place, the Gothic house central to the novel, live. High Place is a folly of a house, built by an English silver mining baron who wanted to live so English-ly in Mexico that he brought English earth over for the garden.

The book begins with heroine Noemi and her father receiving letters from cousin Catalina at High Place, begging for help, saying her new husband Virgil is poisoning her. They naturally wonder about her physical and mental health and eventually Noemi goes off to High Place to see what's what. There she finds Catalina is supposed to be suffering from an illness, likely TB. Virgil and the family won't let Noemi see much of Catalina, who they say is receiving "treatments" and in need of much rest. Here the novel abandons Catalina, who's obviously a plot device for getting Noemi to High Place. The rest of the story focuses on Noemi and Francis, the delicate and sheltered younger son of the creepy patriarch.

The talk about eugenics at the dinner table, the nightmares, the creeping rot everywhere, the "yes there's a cemetery", the questionable village characters, it's all good stuff and scary enough, and there's a lot of pretty gross Gothic "fantasy" about, um, mushrooms, and it definitely propelled me along. I don't know if I'll watch a TV/movie version - which I hear is coming - because there's some pretty disgusting scenes and that's not my thing at all in the visual world.

I liked the story arc for Francis's character. Noemi is supposed to be a sassy, educated young woman who likes to party, but over the course of the novel I felt like she became just another damsel in distress, with occasional flashes of perkiness.

I feel like this book could have been GREAT, but it was just good! But if you like scary books, and you're maybe less picky than I am, you might love this one. ...more

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Jun 08, 2021 junia rated it it was amazing

I realized i was holding my breath until this book ended.

It's so deliciously scary and a really good book and interesting era and science and a little predictable but fantastical enough to not.

I blame this book for my bad performance at work tomorrow.

Great ending.

Shivers. ...more

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