Book Review: Mexican Gothic

For Day 4 of 13 Days of Spooky Books Countdown, I recommend Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

I’m always drawn to books where someone goes to an eerie, isolated location and then weird things happen there. Noemí is an educated woman in 1950s Mexico and her life is still controlled by her father. When her cousin Catalina reaches out with a desperate letter, Noemí heads to the mountains to help Catalina, who fears her eccentric husband.

In the process, Noemi steps into danger herself. Everything about the isolated house in the mountains, High Place, is giving off weird vibes. And also everyone who lives there seems distant and strange. The book is overall creepy and suspenseful. It feels multigenre: Gothic horror suspense mixed with historical fiction.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a very unique book that was unnerving. The setting was so immediate and atmospheric and there is definitely more horror elements than I usually read, but it is subtle too.