From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

Mexican Gothic

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Start date: January 15, 2021

Finish date: February 15, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads Discussions

Why we're reading this: January 2021 selection for Minority Authors Theme.
[close] January 2021 selection for Minority Authors Theme.

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last updated Jan 18, 2013 07:12PM

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What Members Thought

Jun 14, 2023 Kathy Jo rated it liked it

Shelves: the-wanna-read-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The start of Mexican Gothic reminded me a great deal of the original Dark Shadows television series. In the series, we followed Victoria Winters, the kind and innocent protagonist who was largely naive of the mysteries and evils lurking unseen around every corner. As a young person watching, I remember being perpetually on edge awaiting either a jump-scare or some revelation in the mysteries. The series storytellers were masterful in holding us on a precarious and delicious edge without releasin The start of Mexican Gothic reminded me a great deal of the original Dark Shadows television series. In the series, we followed Victoria Winters, the kind and innocent protagonist who was largely naive of the mysteries and evils lurking unseen around every corner. As a young person watching, I remember being perpetually on edge awaiting either a jump-scare or some revelation in the mysteries. The series storytellers were masterful in holding us on a precarious and delicious edge without releasing us or satisfying our determined desire to ferret out the as-yet untold secrets. Silvia Moreno-Garcia achieved this same feat early in Mexican Gothic. I was enraptured.

Rather than satisfying my desire to "know" or holding me further on that lovely gothic edge of tension, the story took an unexpected and, to me at least, an unfortunate turn. The latter half of the story revealed the mystery alright. And it turned out to be some blend of The Last of Us and Stranger Things. There were some obvious allusions to Poe too, though even this fell more flat than flattering. Where the book's first part kept me engaged and wanting more, the latter left me wishing it was over with. Character development yielded to the grotesque in an apparent albeit failed effort to shock the reader. Rather than shock and awe, I felt boredom and disgust. The only reason I pushed through instead of relegating it to my DNF list was to honor my commitment to be prepared for our upcoming book club discussion.

In trying to fathom the author's motivation in this type of shift, it seems she didn't quite know how to navigate the latter part of her story. Or perhaps she had a lot of seed ideas without knowing what to do with them, so dumped them all at the end. More likely, perhaps, is that she simply didn't know how to end it and wanted to get the dang thing over with as much as I did.

The book held such promise. What a grand rise and fall. For what it's worth, I sincerely wanted to tell you something more flattering. ...more

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Jun 03, 2021 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club

3.5*

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Dec 30, 2021 Laura (booksnob) rated it really liked it

Shelves: literature, book-of-the-month, diverse-books, 2021

I put off reading this because its labeled as horror. I don't think I would define it as such. Its a great Gothic mystery full of twist and turns and I really liked it. ...more

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