oooo this book right here was so goooood, I loved this was very very much the whole setting of this creepy little town and the Victorian gothic style mansion that our main character says in was so eerie and how the author described this book I was just amazed!!! the house this definitely gave me woman in black and the haunting of hill house vibes, which makes it feel so much more creepy.

the detail in the descriptions were very gruesome and grotesque at parts but that what's make this novel even more special and if you want a horror novel to work it definitely needs to have those moments that make you squirm or just have to put the book down!!!

one final though it that You definitely felt sucked into this book and felt like was actually the main character, the authors writing of this book was just so good and very excited to read more by Sylvia. I definitely need to check out her first novel.

I was really delighted to find that this Mexican Gothic novel was written very much in a style of the Victorian Gothic writers and not as a modern, fast-paced, gory horror.

Noemi travels to High Place, in the mountains, to go and see if her cousin Catalina is well and happy in her marriage. Catalina sent a letter to her Uncle, Nicole's father, in which 'she makes wild statements about her husband' and as her husband, Virgil, claims she is 'behaving in odd and distressing ways'. Catalina is set up as a very fanciful woman who believes in true love and fairy tales. Noemi is described as a socialite, however, we quickly realise is very down-to-earth and practical.

Both women have led very sheltered lives despite living in Mexico City as part of a wealthy, well-known family. Catalina was orphaned at a very young age and is older than Noemi. She has lived with Noemi ever since and despite a large age gap they are close, so it is only natural for Catalina's husband to ask for Noemi to visit. Her father wants her to go to see what is going on, since her father did not approve of the marriage, to try to avoid scandal.

The setting of High Place is very romantic like that of Wuthering Heights with a small village miles away from the house. The house is also up on a mountain with only a rustic track to connect them to the outside. Mist regularly descends obscuring the landscape and when it rains they are isolated.

The world Noemi steps into is very different and the contrast is marked, between the description of her life in Mexico City and this new world where old English traditions are kept going. Virgil's four aunt Florence runs the house with strict rules e.g. everyone must talk in whispers because the patriarch, Uncle Howard, is ill and voices carry. High Place is a Downton Abbey style, neglected house with servants who are seen but never speak. Nicole notes how the wallpaper is faded and mouldy. There are faded patches on the walls showing that paintings have been sold off and everything is weathered and worn.

Straightway Noemi find it strange that servants appear scared
to talk. No one is willing to tell her exactly what's wrong with her cousin. She is only allowed access to her cousin for a 30 minute visit is normally supervised by Florence or a servant so has little or no opportunity to find out what is going on.

The only bright spot is Francis who is Florence's, son and a very stark contrast to Catalina's husband Virgil, who is self-assured and confident, but not very likeable.

The story is well paced and extremely well written in the expected style of a Gothic novel. Thereare lots of secrets, whisperings with no source and pseudo hauntings in the night. Nicole takes us through her rational speculations for why she feels as she does in the house. That the walls are poisoned (Victorian mercury paint) or there's something behind the wallpaper reminiscent of The Yellow Wallpaper (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman). She sees an apparition of a bride in the night reminiscent of Mrs Rochester from Jane Eyre. But when she opens her eyes there's nothing there. She starts to sleep walk during vivid and disturbing dreams.

Expectations are that she, helped by Francis, manages to whisk Catalina back to Mexico City, Virgil comes after them and they all live happily ever after. But spoiler alert, this is not a Gothic novel this is a Gothic Horror novel.

There are good reasons Noemi feels unsettled and a bit freaked out, that Catalina presents as a slightly deranged woman .. you will have to read to find out why.

If you are disposed to be easily scared have the lights on very bright even during the day!

The author is extremely good at subverting our expectations and keeping you reading and wondering what's going to happen next.

That I was tiny bit disappointed when I got the actual reasons behind all of the events is only because I was set up by the author.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

“There’s people in the walls,” Catalina said. “There’s people and there’s voices. I see them sometimes, the people in the walls. They’re dead.”

Gothic historical fiction is a go to for me, particularly if it features a spooky house with a presence all of its own. The injection of horror into the mix can usually be hit or miss though, depending on the type of horror. I’m really not into slasher style horror, but if it leans more to the supernatural side of things, then I’m more inclined to enjoy it. On the hit or miss scale, this novel was a firm hit. It really did have all the right elements for this genre and in all the right concentrations too. Nothing was overdone: the atmosphere, the element of dread, the escalation of fear – all balanced with perfection.


“There’s heavy places. Places where the air itself is heavy because an evil weighs it down. Sometimes it’s a death, could be it’s something else, but the bad air, it’ll get into your body and it’ll nestle there and weigh you down.”


This novel is not all just chills and thrills though. There was a very credible storyline relating to female agency within its historical era. Set at the beginning of the 1950s, in Mexico, Catalina and Noemí are both at the mercy of the men in their lives and their experience, and that of the women who haunt this house, highlights the limitations on being not only a woman, but a woman with money, particularly money that your father holds the purse strings of or that your husband has intentions for. There is a special kind of danger for a powerless woman who comes with a big dowry. The exploration of this vulnerability seems to work best in gothic fiction, particularly, The Woman in White, comes to mind, and this novel taps into that same vein, just with a shot of horror to amplify the effect.


“And the first woman, she thought a horror had befallen him, that an evil possessed him, but the other one, she knew this had always been him, under the skin. I feared evil long ago. I feared him.”


This is kind of a story about eugenics gone mad, and while the way it all plays out is definitely supernatural, and therefore, only credible with the use of imagination, I couldn’t help but feel a certain pull of dread with this focus. History is of course littered with examples of where eugenics have directed certain actions, and while the events of this novel could never actually unfold within the context they are imagined, the premise upon which it is built is only all too real. Selective breeding to preserve bloodlines; it makes you shudder to even read that statement, doesn’t it?


“This house had been built atop bones. And no one had noticed such an atrocity, rows and rows of people streaming into the house, into the mine, and never leaving. Never to be mourned, never to be found. The serpent does not devour its tail, it devours everything around it, voracious, its appetite never quenched.”


I’m really very keen to read more from this author. She has great vision and imagination and her ability to evoke atmosphere is second to none. The way she created the house in this novel was extraordinary, it had a life of its own, the presence of a character in itself. The supernatural aspect to this story was also wholly unique, and again, this is testimony to the author’s imagination. The melding of this supernatural side of the story to the historical setting and those pertinent and thought provoking themes I mentioned above, all point to an author of note, one whose work I’d certainly like to become more acquainted with.



Thanks is extended to Quercus (via NetGalley) for providing me with a copy of Mexican Gothic for review.

A chilling and brilliant horror story, 'Mexican Gothic' transplants the classic British style haunted house into the Mexican highlands in 1950. It sounds like a strange idea but it works so very well in practice. The point-of-view character is Noemi, a wealthy young socialite from Mexico City, who receives a disturbing letter from her cousin Catalina at the start of the novel. Catalina had married an English expatriate and moved away to live at his remote estate. Now Catalina seemed distressed - even mad - so Noemi heads off at her father's bidding to find out what is going on. She finds a strange, lonely mansion isolated in mists, with silent servants, hostile inhabitants, and the nearest village full of murmurs about curses, hauntings and terrible past events. Will Noemi be able to unravel the situation and rescue Catalina or will she too fall victim to the curse of the house and family?

This is a perfectly paced and utterly absorbing novel. Noemi is an excellent heroine - believable and very likable. I could entirely empathise with her and willed her to succeed. She is the perfect combination of strength and realism and reminds me of Marian in 'The Woman in White'.. The novel builds up gradually, with a rising feeling of strangeness and unease growing throughout the first half, and a more dramatic second half that is very hard to stop reading.

The characters are well drawn and full of ambiguity - you find yourself doubting them and changing your mind again and again, as the psychological thriller messes with your perceptions of the situation. The descriptive writing is very good - I'm a reader who often skims or even skips descriptive passages, but these deserve to be read and set the scene with chilling accuracy. It should carry a warning about reading late at night - you'll find yourself jumping at shadows - but likewise it's far too gripping to wait for daylight.

Overall this is a masterfully written and very enjoyable novel, if you don't mind your books a bit scary. A great choice for lovers of ghost stories, Gothic fantasy, and psychological thrillers. I will definitely be adding Moreno-Garcia's other books to my 'read next' list!

This book will catch you with its plot to change it upside down and and somewhere completly different! You won't be prepared for this.
But, oh my, it is so worth it to go through this fascinating book.
Hauntng of Hill House meets Sherlock Holmes meets Nancy Drew.
This book is brilliant!

Horror Fiction: 2.5/5
Gothic Fiction: 3/5
Historical Fantasy: 1/5

Overall: 2/5

Blurb: 'Great Idea turned into a snoozefest'. The novel had great potential but I might as well be reading 'Waiting for Godot', because for the first 65% of the novel...NOTHING HAPPENS. And when it DOES happen, its most cliché turn of events ever. One after the Other.

Instead of combining the two words, Silvia focused on 'Mexican' part first half and 'Gothic' the next, and readers are left with a good but unjustified ending. There are plotholes as big as doors of 'High Place'. This novel would've been much better had it been a novella instead.

Synopsis: Meet Noemí, Miss Know-it-all and Suave Princess who is tasked with assessing whether her cousin is well in her mansion far away in wilderness. She goes to High Place, where the only thing High is the vertical height on which it stands. We have a Sleezy Husband of the cousin, Virgil; Bitch Aunt Florence, Slimy Grandfather Howard and pipsqueak son of Florence, Francis. They are treating Catalina, the cousin, or so they pretend. Something is amiss in this High Place and its upto Noemí to find out. Will she be able to find out in time? And when she does, will she be able to escape with everyone she holds dear? The answer comes after 300 pages of agonizing reading in this latest Gothic novel.

Language: It switches out between Dream and Reality and Trance. Writing is very convoluted which makes it harder to follow, and sometimes its downright lazy.

Strength: Actually making us hate the despicable characters and make us wanna puke at times. So the Horror is nailed down.

Weakness: Everything Else. Boring for first 65%, Cliche Ending, Plotholes and general annoying stupidity of characters.

Why to Read: If you loved Silvia's previous works, love Gothic novel to the core and like good ending

Why not to Read: if you don't want your time wasted for nothing OR wants to read something new and creative and loves good writing.

Takeaway from Novel: Never marry someone without a proper background check. Especially when they live in an isolated mansion on top pf a hill which oozes and molds.

If I could rate a book only by the cover, I'd give Mexican Gothic 5 stars because the cover art is stunning. Alas, I can't do that because I didn't love it as much as I expected. It was too slow, nothing really happens for a good 70% of the book. I couldn't connect with the main character either and some gothic/horror aspects of the story felt a bit too weird. It's a pity because I loved Gods of Jade and Shadow and I was excited to read this one.

DNF at 26%, very much to my surprise.

I have read a couple of other books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and based on those books I trusted the author to give me a third-act save that would make a sometimes harrowing journey well worth it. But to me, the journey in this book wasn't that interesting. Vaguely sinister, decrepit house belonging to uptight, rude foreign (English) family, rumours of a curse, sloooow build... not really what I was looking for, from this author or in general.

I think you probably need to be a fan of the Gothic novel to appreciate this, and I'm not.

After Gods of Jade and Shadow, I was like: I will read anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and here we are.

A strange letter from her cousin sends Noemi to a distant house on the Mexican countryside. Out of place and surrounded by oddities, both the town and those in it, she's determined to discover who or what has caused her cousin's distress. The people try to control her every breath, the house invades her dreams with bloody visions, it's a whole thing.

It's intriguing, disturbing, unsettling, and ugh, I am a wimp for horror and creep but I just love the book. Luckily for readers, it's easier to take a step back and leave High Place. Recommend.

I adore tense stories. I loved Daphne du Maurier’s, "Rebecca", so I jumped at the chance to read and review an advance copy of Mexican Gothic. It promised tension, and let me tell you, it delivered.

Noemi Taboada is a twenty-two year old glamorous socialite who agrees to visit her cousin, Catalina, after a letter claiming that Catalina’s husband, the mysterious Virgil Doyle, is trying to poison her. Set in 1950’s Mexico against the backdrop of a crumbling, old mansion, Noemi attempts to investigate Catalina’s illness under the watchful eye of the Doyle family, and perhaps, even the house itself…

Mexican Gothic is a sumptuous gothic fantasy with serious style and bite. I lost myself in High Place, lit by candles and full of silver, and its cemetery “with a romantic aura”. Genuinely eerie and unnerving, I was immersed in its dark and sinister undertones and the layers upon layers of divine tension. This is a story to be savoured to the last drop.

I adored Noemi who is a strong-willed, flighty, stubborn heroine reminiscent of Holly Golightly. The contrast with her romantic cousin Catalina is like night and day. The Doyle family; the ancient Howard, enigmatic Virgil, strict Florence, and shy Francis, fit this world like a glove and add layers of complexity. Mexican folklore and culture, from Chinas Poblanas to the quaint El Triunfo, and references to old fairytale stories flesh out the narrative and made this a joy to read.

Mexican Gothic is an opulent eldritch fantasy; feminist to its very core. It terrified, repulsed and delighted me and genuinely inspired a something-is-in-my-room nightmare. I simply adored it.

If ever there was an award for most succinctly descriptive title, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia would be a deserved winner. This darkly atmospheric, lushly written Gothic horror set in Mexico starts at a slow burn but steadily ramps up the tension and darkens the mood leaving the reader as trapped as the central character, unable to put the book down.
While there are echoes of classics like Rebecca ,The Yellow Wallpaper and Jane Eyre, the horror element adds another dimension and makes for a truly chilling and at times genuinely unsettling book.
In 1950's Mexico sassy socialite Noemi has nothing more pressing to worry about than which outfit to wear to her next social engagement and how to avoid pressure from her rather more traditional father who thinks its time for her to settle down. When she receives a garbled and disturbing letter from her recently married cousin, Catalina, begging for help and implying that her husband is poisoning her, Noemi travels to High Place, the remote estate where Catalina now lives with her husband's family. From the outset she feels that something is very wrong, from the rather chilly welcome to the library filled with books on eugenics and the strict house rules that seem designed to isolate her as much as possible , and when Catalina's husband starts to show an almost predatory interest in her she begins to believe that something is really wrong. The family's refusal to consider psychiatric treatment for the clearly unwell Catalina is another red flag , and Noemi becomes determined to get her the help she clearly needs. Little does Noemi realise that she is in real danger herself, even when her dreams begin to fill with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally is the younger son of the family, Francis, who seems keen to help but is still reluctant to share the secrets of the family's past. As that secret is revealed in the second half of the book, the true scale of the danger she faces shakes Noemi to her core.
I cannot overstate how much I loved this book. Noemi is a wonderful character, full of sass and determination, and the perfect heroine for this story- and what a story it is, full of darkness, perfectly thought out and beautifully written. The author does a wonderful job of building the tension throughout the book, and created a wonderful cast of potential villains , meaning the reader never quite knows who to trust and is constantly kept on edge. The horror elements are beautifully blended into the story - at first I was worried that they would take me out of the story and make it less believable, but that never happened, instead I found myself being gripped even more.
One final note of appreciation for that beautiful and vivid cover, the rich and vibrant colours are both eye catching and a wonderful representation of the writing within.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This was a brilliant story, properly gothic and the villain’s gaslighting was soooo chilling. I really bought into the main characters frustration at the Doyle families behaviour when they turned around and said she was the problem (sounds very familiar at the moment). The prose was like slipping into a pool of cool water, gorgeous and just what I needed to read in the shade of the last, hot week.. Definitely one for fans of Laura Purcell.

Think gothic haunted house mystery mixed with a dash of creeping horror, or 'The Silent Companions' by Laura Purcell with a dose of Jeff VanderMeer's 'Annihilation.'

The pace, tone, setting and characters worked perfectly for me, I appreciated the main character's sass and agency and apart from a few nail biting moments I rarely felt she was a damsel in need of rescuing.

I don't usually note favourite quotes but this one is a gem: ["So I'll be wed in the Church of the Holy Incestuous Mushroom?" she intoned. "I doubt that's valid." (hide spoiler)]

I loved this as much as 'Gods of Jade and Shadow,' Silvia Moreno-Garcia is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and I look forward to reading more of her novels.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

A gothic horror story set in 1950's Hidalgo, Mexico is a new and exciting idea in itself, but this book was surprisingly and satisfyingly individual at pretty much every turn. All the familiar elements- creepy old building, unsettling occupants, strange occurences, dangerous secrets, hidden symbolism- were present and utilised. But, although the comparisons to Rebecca, Jane Eyre and Crimson Peak are warranted, Mexican Gothic stands by itself; a new take on old ideas. The latter parts that reveal the real horror behind the mystery (that I won't detail further to avoid spoilers) were the main source of my enjoyment, and fans of all things dank and dark and morbid will likely feel the same.
I really liked the multi-layered Noemi as the unlikely protagonist and rescuer. Again, she was refreshing- a departure from the well-known gothic heroine trope. Polished and straightforward, she contrasted the murkiness of the setting and the vagueness of, well, just about everyone else!
There were just a couple of things that held this book back for me. I did feel a few times that some sentence structures were a bit halting or odd-sounding and threw off the flow, but I felt the same thing when reading Gods of Jade and Shadow, so perhaps the author's writing style just isn't my preference in those instances. Lastly, although Mexican Gothic is plenty eerie and grim, I would have loved it to have a heavier atmosphere, a bit gloomier (and longer, with more description of the setting) would have been perfect for the subject matter! But what stands out overall, just as it did in GoJaS, is the manner of phrasing during the occasional introspective moments -lyrical and gorgeous writing!
Thank you very much to NetGalley, Del Rey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The mystery and the hidden aura was maintained throughout the book. The ghost and the paranormal stuff was not overwritten. A perfectly unique and crisp writing style. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even at the ending it will leave readers wanting for more. Though it was scarry at times but I absolutely loved it. Though I still wonder, did our protagonist get her wish fullfilled?
A perfect, mystery, thriller combination.
I recommend this to every soul breathing and not.

Review to be published 3 weeks before the book is released.

Thank you, to NetGalley and Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books for providing me with an eARC for my honest opinion

This was a very nice break from all the fantasy book I usually reach for. I when in very intrigued but the synopsis but didn't know who horror/thriller book will sit with me. And it turned out I really enjoyed it.

After this book, I will never look at mushrooms the same way again...

Things I liked:

-Atmosphere. The author managed to paint a vivid Gothic filled with mystery and anticipation atmosphere.
-The writing was nice easy to go through and I hallway appreciate that.
-The main character, Naomi. She is strong, stubborn, feisty with the right amount of femininity. I think the author manages to find the right balance between those two qualities,
-It was gorry and disgusting in places but the writer put the right amount of it. It didn't felt like she was trying too hard to shock her reader just for the sake of it, it was just what was needed.
-There was a twist I was expecting that never came and I like that! That was a twist for me. I kept thinking where the story was going with some characters and I was completely wrong. This novel proved me wrong in so many ways.
-[Spoiler] Francis. I admit I was constantly waiting for the twist where it turns out he is also a bad person but... I was wrong... He was an honest sweet and carrying man and I really liked him.
-[Spoiler] I like that between all the horror there were some tender moments and romance, that I didn't think were honest but... I was wrong...
-[Spoiler] I was expecting the ending to be your classic "They think they got away but they didn't! Tan Tan tan!" but actually it ended in a nice complete way and I found myself enjoying that.

Things I didn't like:

-I haven't read a lot of horror book but when I was a teen I watched a tone of horror movies. And I really didn't see anything new. Old creepy man, the mentally (or maybe not) sick woman, ghosts and haunted, in a way or another, places and pretty much every horror/thriller recipe that is known.
-Many dream sequences. I understand that it was nicely tied into the story and well explain but sometimes it felt like it was the only way to give us, and the main character, hints on what is going on.

I really enjoyed this book and I'll keep an eye on the author future releases.

Calling all fans of literal titles! Yes, this book has a Mexican setting and yes, it is Gothic in genre. This turned out to be a tantalising combination and a nod to the knowing tone that author Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes: "Noemi stepped inside the bedroom and regarded the ancient four-poster bed, which looked like something out of a Gothic tale."

Mexican Gothic is a homage to the great Gothic stories, you'll pick up vibes of Dracula, The Fall of the House of Usher and lots of direct references scattered throughout: "She recalled that Mary Shelley had rendezvoused with her future husband in a cemetery: illicit liaisons by a tomb. Catalina had told her this story, just as she had gushed over Wuthering Heights."

I enjoy playing the 'tick-the-Gothic-conventions-off-the-list' game when reading Gothic books. It sort of makes me fizz with anticipation when the lead character is summoned to a sinister, isolated house with a suspicious past. Does that happen here? Why, yes.

We're transported back to 1950s Mexico where we meet Noemi Taboadas, a popular socialite. She is fascinated with anthropology and wants to study it at university, but her parents are far more keen for her to marry a man from the right family. She is the strong, feminist before her time that wonderfully drives this book.

When Noemi's father receives a disturbing letter from her recently-married cousin Catalina, Noemi is dispatched to Catalina's new home, High Place, in the remote village of El Triunfo to see what's wrong with her... Noemi knows little about her cousin's new husband, the mysterious Virgil Doyle, so endeavours to find out more.

So, once Noemi arrived at High Place, what could I tick off the Gothic convention list? Well... the electricity doesn't work so they rely on candles for light (tick), there are rogue mushrooms, mould and fungus growing throughout the house to give a damp, unwelcome atmosphere (tick), there is a cemetery attached to the creepy house (tick), mysterious deaths of miners that worked for the Doyle family (tick), Noemi has lots of inexplicable nightmares (tick), the townspeople believe the Doyle family are cursed (tick), the family patriarch, Howard Doyle is inexplicable old and very sinister (tick). Yes, Mexican Gothic is a veritable feast of conventions! And that's what makes it so brilliant. It's taken its theme and run with it.

This is by far the most gruesome contemporary Gothic novel I've read so far. I know that there is an element of gore in the genre, but I'm not a huge fan of horror books and some parts of this book skimmed very close to the horror line for me. I will say this though, it conjured up some vivid scenes that will be etched in my brain for a while to come. They didn't feel excessive either - very much a necessary (if gory) part of the story.

Interestingly, Mexican Gothic didn't end up taking me down the narrative path I thought I was going on, which mades it a very entertaining read. Definitely add to your list if you love a clever Gothic tale.

Sometimes the title of a book tells you everything you need to know about the content, but in the case of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic it's hard to know whether the author is making self-conscious allusions to the genre of the Gothic Romance novel and repurposing it for a Mexican setting or just getting wrapped up in an unoriginal play through the genre's conventions with no new ideas to offer. Either way, whether it seeks to be original or not, whether you think it's original or not, it certainly delivers on plenty of Mexican Gothic.

At the centre of the horror about to unfold (might as well set it up with an suitably ominous opening) is Noemí Taboada, wealthy young socialite in Mexico City in the 1950s. Flighty but stubborn, enjoying life and not quite ready to take anything seriously, least of all earnest young men, Noemí is summoned by her father with an urgent request. Her cousin Catalina has been acting strangely and has sent a rambling letter to Señor Taboada talking about ghosts and claiming that her husband has been trying to poison her, but the medical diagnosis is that she appears to be suffering from tuberculosis.

Taboada has never been happy about Catalina's marriage to Virgil Doyle, an attractive man but a bit of a cold fish who Catalina married much too soon after they first met. Little is known about Doyle or his family's background other than they once ran a successful mining business in a small provincial town, which now appears to have fallen on hard times. Taboada wants Catalina to return to city but her husband is objecting, possibly afraid he will no longer have access to his wife's money. Securing a promise from her father that he will allow her to go to university instead of spending her time looking for a husband as he thinks she ought to do, Noemí reluctantly agrees to go to country to see what the truth of the matter is.

It's soon apparent that the glory days of the formerly busy mining town of El Triunfo are long gone, as indeed are the former splendours of the Doyle estate, the High Place, a fading Victorian construction of European design perched in the mists up a road that is barely passable in bad weather. With its chandeliers and dour portraits of ancient family members hinting at close to incestuous relationships, a family curse, a creepy patriarch, an unreliable electric generator that means everyone carries candles and candelabras and a cemetery out the back haunted by shadows… well, you get the picture. Aside from Mexico it's a typical location for a Gothic melodrama where the lady of the house is held prisoner suffering from apparent madness.

With heavy referencing from Dracula, The Fall of the House of Usher and a whole range of Edgar Allan Poe works, SIlvia Moreno-Garcia really leaves no Victorian Gothic novel unmined, overtly referencing Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, but also referencing The Yellow Wallpaper as an indication of madness. With hallucinogenic mushrooms found growing on graves in a damp misty cemetery and fungi perhaps causing chemical reactions and nightmares, it's hard to know whether to take Mexican Gothic seriously or as a parody. The only difference is it is all transposed here to Mexico in the 1950s, but even that feels contrived with all kinds of dubious rationale for it looking like a damp cold Victorian Gothic mansion where they speak English as their first language and keep up European customs, even going as far as shipping the earth over from their homeland. Hmmm, let me think what that reminds me of...

There's an attempt to give Mexican Gothic a bit of character and depth through the subject of eugenics and social anthropology related to the maintaining of family traditions and to historical cultural differences between the white and native population of Mexico, with some Freud, Jung, mycology and perhaps a little Mexican Day of the Dead imagery thrown in. The writing however isn't particularly strong enough to bind this all together in any meaningful way and the patching together of ideas and imagery from every Gothic horror imaginable is deeply lacking in originality. Despite this Mexican Gothic certainly delivers on the expected dark thrills as it develops towards a suitably bloody and ludicrous conclusion.

eARC provided by NetGalley , thank you to NetGalley , Quercus and Jo Fletcher books.

1950’s Mexico is brought to intense life with this dark Gothic story, creepily atmospheric and broods like a dark noir fiction but so modern and elegant. Beautifully done!

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Standalone
Publish date: 23rd June 2020
Adult – Historical Fiction – Gothic- Fantasy – Horror – Paranormal

What’s it about?

Noemí Taboada is an educated, (slightly selfish) independent, willful and stubborn socialite. Her father receives a letter from Noemi’s newly-wed cousin, begging to be rescued from being poisoned. Something is clearly wrong and her father makes her a bargain - if she goes to investigate, Noemí can study for her master’s degree in Anthropology.

After arriving at High Place (the countryside family mansion) Noemí is even more determined to find out what is happening to her cousin. The house is quiet (unlike her) and there are many rules.

Her cousin’s husband is menacing and unfriendly. His father is strange and seems to be obsessed with her. And the house itself is invading her mind and giving her visions of death and blood. Her only ally seems to be the family’s youngest son but he is shy and hiding secrets.
As she digs deeper to uncover the truth she realizes the family is hiding secrets of madness and terror. Will Noemi be able to leave High Place at all?

What do I think?

This book is everything it told me it would be it’s a MEXICAN GOTHIC – spoiler alert.

This author has an amazing gift -I was immediately transported in Noemí ‘s world (why is Noemí so damn likable!?) without feeling exhausted or overwrought by the language. The prose is direct and imaginative but without feeling heavy or overdone in details as many historical books can get. From the start of arriving at High House you are overcome with a sense of dread, and with Gothic horrors’ this is exactly what you want to feel throughout.

It’s a slow burn sort atmospheric novel and includes dream sequences which some people might not like. I would have loved a bit more action in the first half of the book as the pace only picks up within the last 40%. But when it does pick up, it takes turns you would never have dreamed of!

The gorgeous characters and elegant writing kept me reading against my will so that I could unravel its secrets until late at night. I did wish it was slightly faster moving with more action but overall a stunning read – I will be reading more from this author.

Who will like it?
Anyone that loves Gothic horror novels or new to this Author. Her writing is brilliant!

I will post my review on Amazon, Goodreads and to my social media/review accounts, closer to the publication date or on the publication date as specified by the publisher.

When she receives desperate letter from her newly-wed cousin Catalina, Noemí goes to High Place, a decaying mansion in the Mexican countryside and the ancestral home of her cousin’s English husband. After strange events start happening around the house, she must uncover the family’s ancient and disturbing secrets.

I loved this! I’m a big fan of Gothic Horror and one that is set in 1950’s Mexico sounded so intriguing to me.
The novel starts with a creeping atmosphere and sense of mystery. Silvia Moreno-Garcia does a great job subtly weaving in really unsettling details into the story. I spent the majority of the book desperately wanting to know what was going on with creepy, eugenics family and their evil, mouldy house and I was equally delighted and disturbed with the conclusion.

I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot or the mystery but I will say that Mexican Gothic is a well-written Gothic novel with a likeable main character and a rich, atmospheric setting.

Perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier , Wuthering Heights and Crimson Peak.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a copy of this book early!