A mesmerising tale that filled the hole Crimson Peak left in my life and then some. I adored this book from start to finish- Noemi Taboada is a fantastic heroine, flirty and confident with an unapologetic flightiness and love of fashion that you don't see too often. I love that it was the things that made her repulsive to the Doyle family- her smoking in particular, and her propensity for flirting- that helped to save her. I loved her relationship with Catalina, and with Francis.

Writing-wise, I LOVED the absolutely merciless ratcheting of suspense as Noemi spends time in the High Place, and the very organic nature of the haunting that combines tricks of perception with deeply visceral descriptions of decay and ruin. Ina time when I wanted to e anywhere but stuck in my house, reading Mexican Gothic transported me utterly. Highly recommended.

Mexican Gothic is a delightfully dark, creepy and flawlessly paced novel which is so suspenseful, captivating and so skilful, I’m in awe. The novel follows Noemí, a beautiful and quick witted socialite who is tasked by her father to find out the truth behind a bizarre letter sent by her cousin Catalina. In the bid to win his approval and freedom to attend the National university, Noemí accepts the task gladly. However, when she gets to High Place and meets her cousins new family, strange things keep cropping up, an odd set of rules, a buzzing coming from the walls, sinister nightmares and pulsing wallpaper…

One of my favourite things about this novel is the foreboding and dark atmosphere which is so incredibly rich and well crafted. From the first chapter I was hooked and I enjoyed the level of detail immensely; from the descriptions of Noemí’s clothes, to the foreboding landscape of High Place, it’s grounds and the interior of the house. Garcia is so skilled in the way she is able to create such a strong ambience and in such a succinct way, which is so effective. I especially enjoyed the way the passage of time is depicted in the novel, everything at High Place feels like it has lost it’s splendour and been ravaged by time and calamities which enhances the morose atmosphere. As a whole the novel feels very cinematic and I could picture it being an absolutely stunning film.

As well as the atmosphere itself lending itself so well to the Gothic feel and genre, the characters are also so well suited to this story. I think Noemí is a great choice to be the protagonist, she is underestimated by everyone around her due to her youth, beauty and perceived ‘flightiness’ but this underestimation works to her advantage as she unravels the mysteries of High Place and the Doyle family. There’s this one really great passage after a conversation with her father, where Noemí resents the fact that a woman is only thought or allowed to be one thing in society. There is no understanding that multi faceted women exist and you can be interested in parties and fashion and still be intelligent and academically inclined. I thought there was some great examination of social attitudes towards women at the time and some great character work there.

We have Virgil, Catalina’s husband who is cloaked in mystery and seduction, who begins to have a keen and undue interest in Noemí. Virgil is literally like a serpent, and anytime he was on the page I was on edge and could only breathe a sigh of relief once he was gone. I was also majorly creeped out by the ageing patriarch of the Doyle clan, Howard, trust me you have to read the book to see why, just trust me on this one. On the flipside, we have cousin Francis, who is shyer and more bookish, he is also the only member of the family who treats Noemí with kindness and is sympathetic to her cause. I liked that we had these male characters all being such diametric opposites to each other despite being from the same family, it was so interesting and made some points about toxic masculinity and privilege.

As well as representing this toxic masculinity and privilege, Moreno-Garcia also manages to touch upon racial inequality and colourism within the novel. The Doyles are preoccupied with race and genetics, in fact there is a particularly uncomfortable and fraught conversation about eugenics and a dig against Noemí’s darker complexion. There’s also the fact that the Doyles refuse to learn or speak Spanish despite settling down in Mexico which reinforces their ignorance and lack of regard for Mexico and it’s people. This ties in to the larger narrative in a VERY powerful way which makes it all the more important that the author chose to include this thread.

I really don’t want to include spoilers in this review so I’ll refrain from going into details but I really liked the way the story progressed and how perfect the pacing was. For me, pacing is always a big issue and it was done SO well here. I liked how bit by bit the truth of what’s going on is revealed and while I predicted some elements of the story, there were others which I didn’t expect at all. I think readers will be thoroughly creeped out, grossed out and sufficiently terrified so take from that what you will. I’m a fan of horror / thrillers through and through and even I was on the edge of my seat, scared to see where it would go.

Overall, I can’t speak any more highly of Mexican Gothic and Silvia Morena-Garcia’s writing. I can say with confidence that this is already one of my favourite books of the year and I implore anyone who is a fan of historical fiction and the gothic genre to check it out. You will not be disappointed.

*Review will be posted on my blog closer to publication time*

ARC provided by NetGalley.

The cover and the synopsis of the book had my attention right away and needless to say I expected to be sucked in from the very start however I felt like it took ages for the story to start and in the end it never got as spooky and scary as I had imagined. My own fault I suppose

I liked some of the characters and absolutely despised the rest of them all for good reason.

I read it in 2 days because I kept waiting for the good part to start.

I would recommend this book to thriller and horror lovers I guess. It isn't my most read genre so that could be another reason why I didn't love it.

All in all an entertaining enough story but could have done with a bit more happening.

After receiving a disturbing letter from her newly wed cousin Catalina, Noemi is sent by her father to investigate the mysterious goings on at the enigmatic High Place mansion. Set against the backdrop of misty Mexican countryside, Noemi soon finds herself embroiled in secrets and lies hundreds of years in the making.

This starts off very slow, with an atmosphere that creeps up on you gradually, as we follow Noemi from her decadent life in the city to the Mexican countryside. There's monosyllabic staff members, an isolated delapidated house with hidden secrets and even a couple of graveyards to help create this subtle overall feeling of suspense and tension. The pacing at the beginning is almost none existant, as nothing really happens for a good 60% of the book as the writing tries to focus on building this atmosphere and setting the scene. It takes a long time, and isn't always effective - at some points during the early stages I was tempted to set this aside because nothing was moving forward. We have Noemi having stilted conversations with High Place's inhabitants and visiting a couple of townspeople. That's it.

All of the people within High Place are also incredibly odd and unlikeable, including Noemi herself. She's perceived at the start as a vapid party girl, flighty in her persuit of men and changing ambitions. She's determined to exert her opinions on Catalina's husband Virgil and his sister Florence, undermining their rules within the household, while manipulating son Francis into doing her bidding. I will say that her character development does get better, particularly towards the end of the book, it just takes a long time to get there. Admittantly it helps that Virgil and Florence are awful, irredeemable characters.

Now we come to the last third of the book. I'm still not entire sure what I read in the last 30%. It got weird. And a hell of a lot more interesting than your bog standard gothic historical fare. After we get a big reveal and back story the tone and pacing of this completely changes. It gave me definate The Lie Tree vibes, with a subtle science fiction twist. It was completely unexpected, and welcomed, as the plot picks up immeasurably as the stakes get higher and higher for Noemi and her cousin. I can't help feeling however, that this is two completely separate books that struggle to mesh well together and more could have been done to integrate the tone of the latter half into the beginning. It's disjointed, and that's unfortunate as I enjoyed the last section of this so much more than the start.

Go into this blind, and go in expecting a slow build of atmosphere to a weird and truly bizarre ending. It's historical, but it's also really not, and I kind of love it for that.

Mexican Gothic takes gothic and spins something unique. It has the creepy house, the weird family and the secrets that no one wants to reveal, but it also incorporates unique body horror and commentary on eugenics to make the atmosphere just that little bit more unnerving. There were parts of this book that genuinely had my stomach turning but none of the more intense subject matter felt gratuitous. Every horrifying inclusion is there to feel threatening and increase tension and weave a wonderful, cathartic story about this family's intense privilege, arrogance and greed.

Noemí is a great protagonist. She is set up as a lackadaisical party girl but as she's thrust into this steadily threatening situation, her stubbornness becomes her greatest asset. She's at war with a family who doesn't want her there but also won't let her leave and watching her become... essentially the Final Girl in a horror film was so entertaining and satisfying. She's an unlikely character to see in gothic literature and I really liked that she narratively felt like the thorn in this family's side. I kind of adored her.

The standout of this novel is the atmosphere. It's powerful in most novels and necessary in a gothic one and it does nothing but succeed here to make you feel unsettled. I thought specifically Noemí's dreams felt genuinely creepy; they're almost nonsensical and very sensory. There's a threat in them, one that increases as Noemí spends longer in the house, that builds tension so when it finally snaps you can't put the book down because there's not an appropriate place to pause. The incredible tension propels the book into an absolutely fantastic, climatic final act that had me reading with my mouth hanging open for most of it. I know Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing is hit or miss with some, but I found it very beautiful in this. It mixes simple and descriptive very effectively so the house and the surrounding property is incredibly vivid, as well as weaving the gruesome and the beautiful aspects of this setting together to create a truly discomforting sensation while reading.

Overall fantastic introduction to not only the author but the genre. If you're not squeamish and you don't struggle with certain content, this book is a thrilling and deeply unsettling story that's about far more than just a creepy house.

The book that wins this years award for best title that describes exactly what the book is. This is a Mexican Gothic horror which feels like a response to Del Toro's Crimson Peak - fine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia says, you love Gothic horror, but why not set it in Mexico, its a super goth country? And by chapter two the job is done. Mysterious creepy mouldy house, ancient colonialist ancestors, sickly cousin, everyone in the local town says it is cursed. And so we gleeful ride on the mine cart (there is an old mine here, so the local workers can hate the old family), into full on gothic excess. And I cannot complain, there is something about seeing a decent writer flex their muscles on an exercise, wringing as much atmosphere out of its stock elements which perhaps have been given a Mexican twist - but not to the degree they need it. As Moreno-Garcia has identified, there are core aspects of the modern Mexican identity which are intensely gothic. Which, when you consider the book barely scratches Catholicism and nary mentions the Day Of The Dead, is remarkable.

The pacing is great, as the the core character development of our flighty lead who goes from disinterested, to intrigued, to engaged to trapped in the four quarters of the book. And the tales it parcelled out properly for you to have the mystery of what is going on (and the degree to which it is supernatural or not) teased gently until we get to our grand gugnol ending. It is not rewriting the genre, but it is doing some clever things about what the gothic horror and big house identity is within one of the oldest (and oldest independent) colonial countries in the world. Highly recomended

As gothic as gothic can be. A haunted house, a curse, tragedy, and paranormal elements but still with roots in the real world. I loved Mexican Gothic as a whole. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing style is as graceful as ever, and the story plus setting drew me in immediately. Noemi has just enough flaws to be loved and her attraction to Francis comes naturally.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a super creepy read and it would be perfect for a Halloween readathon.

"Open your eyes."

'Mexican Gothic' is a beautifully crafted work of gothic horror. The writing is exquisite, the images created eerily beautiful, and reading it makes you feel uncomfortable yet unable to look away. It feels both original and a tribute to novels of the past - it could have come straight out of its 1950s setting. An absolute triumph of imagination and wordcraft.

The protagonist, Noemi, is a Mexican socialite, living a life of balls and luxury in Mexico City. Her father - the owner of a large dye company - would like her to marry, but Noemi is too busy having fun to consider anything so serious. However, when her father receives a worrying later from her newly-married cousin Catalina, Noemi finds herself sent to a crumbling mansion in rural Mexico where nothing is quite as it seems.

It's the imagery which makes this book. Moreno-Garcia weaves pictures which are simultaneously grotesque yet stunning and never quite confirms what is real. The reader is kept detached from the characters, not allowed to fully understand them or what they're thinking - but rather than making the characters seem underwritten, instead it maintains the air of mystery and illusion. The plot twists and turns, and the reader is invited to make up their own minds as to each characters role and motivations. Even at the end, some things are left unexplained - this is not the sort of book which needs to be tied up in a neat little bow.

If you like mystery, and horror, and books where nothing is as it seems, this is the perfect book for you - but maybe don't read it after dark.

Having enjoyed a couple of Moreno-Garcia's previous works, I was keen to explore a Gothic tale from her in Mexican Gothic. Overall, I wasn't disappointed. The story and characters caught my interest from the first chapter and held it until the end, and there was a fun twist in the story that I hadn't seen coming, but which worked very well and added a fantastical element to what I thought would be a straightforward family-secret drama. There was plenty of action, suspense and mystery throughout and the reveals were nicely handled. Recommended to fans of Gothic fiction. 4.5 stars.

(Review will go live on my blog, Goodreads and social media on 16 June 2020.)

Well where do I start? Mexican Gothic is an awesome creepy novel. If you love creepy you’ll love this.

The author is extremely talented, she has managed to write a mysterious novel that keeps you gripped the whole way through.

I really enjoyed the characters, finding out the history surrounding the gothic mansion, and it’s strange inhabitants. I love how Noemí finds all the strange rules infuriating, and isn’t scared to question them.

Please go and read this if you love plot driven stories, with intrigue and creepiness.

In ‘Mexican Gothic’ Silvia Moreno- Garcia has created a darkly beautiful epic that I just about devoured in an afternoon. Noemi is living the life of a rich, carefree socialite when her father receives a worrying letter from her cousin Catalina in which she claims she is being poisoned. Noemi is sent to make sure she is receiving the help she needs, but she quickly discovers that Catalina’s new family home, High Place, harbours dark secrets, and that it may never let her leave.
‘Mexican Gothic’ is perfectly paced, building a slow but steady sense of dread. Moreno-Garcia’s writing is highly descriptive without ever feeling excessive, and in High Place manages to achieve the rare feat of creating a location that feels as alive as any one of the characters, without it seeming cheesy or contrived.
As for the characters themselves, I was completely entranced by Noemi, whose mixture of confidence and uncertainty rang entirely true. The Doyle family are fascinating and horrifying in equal measures, with the gentle and strangely tragic Francis becoming a particular favourite of mine.
I really enjoyed ‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’ it for me ‘Mexican Gothic’ surpassed it. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Thank you so much to Quercus and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

A fun modern gothic that is self-conscious of its intertexts (The Yellow Wallpaper, The Fall of the House of Usher, Rebecca, amongst others) as it reinscribes the gloomy house, the cursed family, with eugenics and capitalist exploitation. It gets a bit bonkers and the pacing isn't quite right as it drags then suddenly speeds up, but it's an entertaining page-turner. Gorgeous cover, too!

Chilling and horrifying novel about two cousins and a dilapidated mansion, the generations of family that dwell within, and the secrets that bind them all together. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.