Rave Review: "Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Horror, romance, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, thriller

Back Cover: "After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind."

Read Time: 5 days

Rating: 5 stars

Review

In maybe the first twenty percent of the book, I thought it would be predictable. A Mexican girl goes up to the mountains to rescue her cousin from the colonizer family the cousin married into, and the people there are overtly hostile. Obviously, they're trying to trap her there forever.

But then things got creepy. The hyper-realistic dreams, the slow descent into madness...it was brilliant. The revelation of the history, of who Howard Doyle is, the truth of the mushrooms and finally the source of Howard (and Virgil's) power was so brilliantly told and so compelling that I completely forgot my early gripes of how predictable the basic plot was.

And in the end, it wasn't too predictable. Yes, the Doyles are clearly trying to trap Noemí, but the why is the crazy thing. I will say that I wasn't surprised that Francis was the new vessel for Howard instead of Virgil (in fact, as soon as I learned that the vessel had to be an adult, I wondered how old Francis was because he was the clear candidate over Virgil).

I will say that the revelation of how the gloom works or what it is surprised me, but I'll hand it to the author, the foreshadowing (in the form of the statue to Agnes, the first wife who died early) is there.

And I'll be honest, I'm glad the three of them (Noemí, Catalina, and Francis) escaped High Place and the gloom. And while their relationship might be founded on shared trauma, Noemí and Francis do seem to care for each other and their relationship was built up through most of the book.

Honestly, I just really liked the book. I wouldn't be surprised if some time in the future, I upgraded this to an all-time favorite.

Edit: upgraded this much sooner than I expected, but again - I just really loved this book.