Book Review - Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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Noemà Taboada's is the life of the party. A wealthy socialite, she loves her modern life and all the men she's stringing along. With her red lipstick firmly affixed she feels like she could tackle anything the world can throw at her. Everything changes when she gets a letter from her cousin Catalina. Catalina is recently married and is convinced that her husband is trying to kill her. Noemà and her father worry that the once wealthy Virgil Doyle only married Catalina for her money and is now going to get rid of an inconvenient wife. Therefore it is up to Noemà to suss out the situation. She packs her bags and heads to High Place. The home is high in the mountains and shrouded by mist. It feels as if she's stepped back in time to a forgotten world where they can't even rely on the electricity and instead live by candlelight. The household consists of four Doyles and Catalina. There is Catalina's husband Virgil, and his father Howard, and Howard's first cousin Florence, and her son Francis. Florence rules the house with an iron first, but Howard is the power behind the throne. But the one thing they all seem agreed on is that Noemà should be allowed to see her cousin as little as possible. They hope they can dissuade her and she'll leave them alone. They obviously don't know NoemÃ. When Noemà can finally speak to Catalina her cousin begs her to seek out a healer, Marta Duval, in the small village of El Triunfo. Catalina says that despite what the family physician says, this medicine is the only thing that can help her. It helps her right into a seizure and Noemà is banned from seeing her cousin. But not that that concerns her too much, as she's started to have ghostly dreams and is sleepwalking. She's befriended Francis and along with information she has dug up it all points to the Doyles being dangerous. She decides she must leave. She can return home, get her father, and return for Catalina. Only the Doyles say she is not allowed to leave. She is to stay. She is to marry Francis. She is going to be one of them now.
The first, and in my mind, most important aspect of a good Gothic novel is location. If you get the location right it's hard to mess up the rest. Mexican Gothic nailed the location. High Place has oodles of Gothic atmosphere. There is this wonderful Crimson Peak vibe that just engulfed me and made me want to stay. I could picture every nook and cranny of that forbidding and compelling house and felt like I was there. Much like Daphne Du Maurier, Silvia Moreno-Garcia has created a memorable place and therefore Mexican Gothic is one of those rare occasions when I don't throw up my arms in protest when comparisons are made to my favorite Cornwall obsessed author. And yet... For once the location just wasn't enough... For me I think Mexican Gothic suffered from too much hype. Summer of 2020 it was THE BOOK everyone was talking about and recommending. Every online book club was reading it and it was flying off the shelves. Perhaps this was just because we hit the book club phase of Covid? I've been in a book club for years so I didn't experience this phase of the pandemic. Because while I enjoyed the book I didn't love it. But who knows, this could change, much like my opinion of Crimson Peak. I did not like that movie at first and learned to appreciate it in time once I got over what I expected it to be and accepted it for what it was; a Gothic love story, not Gothic horror. This here also has the love story elements and the horror elements, but oddly, despite the Gothic trappings, I felt this adhered more to magical realism. I mean, yes, we could even argue that we have science fiction elements similar to The Expanse, but I'm sticking to my guns with magical realism just because of the feeling from beginning to end. And as for the "villain" of the piece, the fungus amongus? I saw where she was headed too early and I didn't find it compelling enough for me to care about how it played out. That last act needed another polish because it felt too cobbled together and disjointed making me even more disinterested. But a real solid first act! Too bad it didn't last.
You know the one good thing about this pandemic is that people are reading more than ever. They are also watching television shows more than ever in an attempt to binge the virus away. Personally getting an excuse to stay inside and do what I love to do best is like a gift. If it wasn't for lots of personal chaos and the sheer panic about what the pandemic could do, well, 2020 would be a good year instead of the worst year. Ever. Seriously people, we think things are bad? Things could get so much worse so use those new empathy skills you've acquired while reading and help to change this situation by wearing a mask and voting. End rant. Though if you're not wearing a mask know I'm SO judging you as well as avoiding you so the rant is ever ongoing in my head. So while I'm sure all these books people are currently reading will soon be heading into production as our next binges there were so many great books turned into series in the last year that one month wasn't enough to cover them all. Because I really couldn't do it in one and hey, we've all been watching more shows, so no judgment from me on your viewing habits and I hope the reverse is true. So here's to books in whatever form, paper, celluloid, digital, streaming, what have you. Here's to shows that I've enjoyed even if I have a bit of a genre itch from the supernatural to the superhero and the Emmys seem incapable of believing in genre TV. Though that might change this year with the inclusion of What We Do in the Shadows and The Mandalorian! We'll just have to wait and see! 
So what is A Hiatus Happening, it means a hiatus is literally happening... I'm taking a little break from blogging. And by little I mean I'll be back next June. I promise! I already have theme months planned! As you curse and gnash your teeth over the semantics that a "little break" shouldn't be as long as a year, consider this blog is ten, so I'm only taking like a ten percent break... I've kept this blog going for ten years with all the upheavals life has thrown at me and I thought, what with more life changes on the way, taking a step back for awhile would be the best for my sanity and my sleep schedule. Plus I kind of want to dive into whatever book I feel like without regard to any schedule and read new books right when they come out, which my blog prevents me from doing as often as I'd like. But this doesn't mean my blog is disappearing into the ether, in fact I'll technically still be blogging... I'll still be doing my "Tuesday Tomorrow" posts, as well as reviews of new books by favorite authors, there's a new Lauren Willig and Lisa Lutz coming out this year after all! And I can't skip January's best reads of 2019... So it's kind of like the blog is going on the back burner to simmer to only come back sweeter next year. I will still be on social media discussing books on 
