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

Dec 01, 2022 Trin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020s, fiction, horror, historicalfiction, mexican-lit

I liked the ideas behind this book more than the execution of the book itself. The familiar tropes and set pieces are all there, and on a symbolic level Moreno-Garcia does a lot of interest with them (it's the colonialism, stupid) but on a storytelling level...not so much. Especially in the soggy middle, which is just scene after scene of Noemí having vaguely spooky dreams and the asshole gaslighty family being assholish gaslighters. Things did pick up a bit in the climax for me -- I enjoy a pul ...more

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Aug 23, 2020 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal, psych-psych-psych, r2020-in-2020, horror, lotsa-buzz, era-mid-20th-c, fantasy-and-sci-fi, fiction, historical-fiction

This was wonderfully atmospheric, with beautiful writing and a classically Gothic plot: Rebecca meets The Yellow Wallpaper. The story was fun: spunky girl goes up against an evil house.

As she moved closer, the hum grew stronger.

It was behind the yellow drape. Noemí raised a hand.

“Don’t,” Catalina said. “You don’t want to see.”

Her fingers touched the drape, and the buzzing became the beating of a thousand frenetic insects against glass, the sound of a swarm caught inside her head, so str

This was wonderfully atmospheric, with beautiful writing and a classically Gothic plot: Rebecca meets The Yellow Wallpaper. The story was fun: spunky girl goes up against an evil house.

As she moved closer, the hum grew stronger.

It was behind the yellow drape. Noemí raised a hand.

“Don’t,” Catalina said. “You don’t want to see.”

Her fingers touched the drape, and the buzzing became the beating of a thousand frenetic insects against glass, the sound of a swarm caught inside her head, so strong she could almost feel it like a vibration cutting through the air, and she lifted her head.

Don’t look.

The writing delighted me, I was gripped by the story and couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I was SO gripped by the story that I had to stop reading at one point or I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, because I was so sucked in to the gruesome imagery. But I was also a little disappointed.

I found the foreshadowing was a bit too heavy handed, which eliminated any of the mystery in the plot - I was hit so hard by the foreshadowing that I always knew what was coming, I never had that "gasp!" of surprise moment that I was hoping for. (view spoiler) I was hoping for a more open-ended story, where we were left wondering "did that really happen? or is it all in her head?" so I was a bit deflated when it was all spelled out for us. (view spoiler) The characters all fell too neatly into: good, or evil. There was no in-between, no one evil who felt regrets, no one performing evil tasks with a good heart. Everyone was one or the other.

Noemí is a well-educated and well-read young woman of 1950, fluent in both English and Spanish, so it was odd that she never once mentioned The Yellow Wallpaper (which would have been a 100 year old classic by 1950) or Rebecca (which would have been a recent publication). This wouldn't have bothered me, except for the frequent mentions of other classics, such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, some anthropology texts, and the various fairy tales. (Fairy tales get mentioned A LOT - it started to feel rather repeatey, like a cheap way to give the story a fairy tale feel.) I found it weak to rely so heavily on past texts & stories to set the scene. Same goes for dream sequences: I'm never a fan of dream sequences, and there were quite a few here. ...more

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Feb 18, 2023 Eli Warner rated it it was amazing

Tell you what, between this and The Last of Us, I’m done with mushrooms for a while.

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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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Sep 13, 2021 Kate rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: age-adult, horror, audiobooks, 2021

Noemi travels to the home of her cousin Catalina, who since marrying into the wealthy Doyle family has been uncharacteristically distant, but has recently sent a letter that causes Noemi concern. Noemi is suspicious of the family, who Catalina in her letter claimed were trying to poison her. The crumbling house begins to creepy into Noemi's nightmares, and the terrible secrets the family has tried to hide.

I'd heard such good things about this book that I found myself disappointed. For me, it was ...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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