(Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for my ARC!) This was such a moody, atmospheric read – almost dream-like, where you’re not really sure what’s going on. Ingrid gets a call from Mayra – her childhood friend (who she also had a crush on) – inviting Ingrid to spend some time at her new house deep in the Everglades. Ingrid impulsively accepts, but from the moment she gets there, things are… off. First of all, Mayra has a boyfriend she didn’t mention, and it’s actually his house. And the house is just incredibly mysterious, with seemingly endless rooms to discover and explore. It’s hard to tell whether it’s all innocent confusion, or if danger is lurking nearby. If you enjoy a story where the house itself is a character, I think you’ll really enjoy this one.

This was a strange read but I enjoyed it a lot. This is a story about high school friends that reconnect as adults meeting up in this weird house owned by Mayra’s boyfriend in the middle of nowhere. It gave me Mona Awad vibes, IYKYK. Some of the transitions from present to the past were hard to catch as there were no clear breaks in the writing, but it wasn’t too hard to keep up with.

It was a very slow burn but, in the end, everything was tied up nicely (it did not leave me with any questions), and I was thoroughly shocked at the ending, I was not expecting one of the main characters to make that decision. Also, I was thrown off by the old diary, but it did help tie everything together at the end.

My favorite parts were the cultural references and the Spanish spoken throughout the books and I also loved the true portrayal of friendship. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I hope to read more from Nicky Gonzalez in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez is a strange story. Ingrid gets a call from her childhood friend Mayra, inviting her to spend the weekend with her at a house she rented. The house is deep in the Florida Everglades, hard to find and mysterious. When Ingrid finally arrives, she finds that they have the company of Mayra’s odd boyfriend, Benji. The longer that Ingrid is in the house, the less she remembers of her life and the less she can tell how much time has passed. Parts of this story were enjoyable for me. It was kind of nostalgic, taking me back to times when I lived in FL. I know a lot of the places mentioned. It is a slow moving story. I wasn’t creeped out by it. I was mostly confused. I got behind on my ARC reads, and this is one I should have read awhile ago. It’s not very long, so if you are into atmospheric friendship stories with an odd twist, this could be worth it for you. 3/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me access to an advance copy of this book. Publication date July 22nd, 2025. This review will be found on Instagram, StoryGraph, and Goodreads indefinitely.

⭐⭐.5
💀

This one was definitely odd. And don't get me wrong, I love a good, weird girl book. But Mayra didn't quite hit those notes for me. It's timid on the horror scale, and more bizarre and slightly creepy. The first 60% chugs at a snail pace in my opinion, and it takes quite a long time to get the "weird" stuff. The flashbacks and the choppy writing style is what ultimately became the downfall of this novel. I will say there are a couple of scenes in here that I thought were genuine WTF moments (que creepy Ben) and gave me hope that the novel was going ramp up, but it never really crossed that bridge. It edges that line of slightly creepy novel to just a story about a toxic best friend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had a really hard time getting into this book. It was so incredibly slow for me. Which sucks, because i like a slowburn as well as the next person. The atmosphere was great. Also some of the lines in this book really got to me, such as, "I was breathing inside of a great forest that was breathing, too. I was alive. The childish notion that a seed might land in my lu gs and a tree would grow from it comforted me as I watched Spanish moss sway from the long arms of oaks."

Ughhh. I feel bad but this book was just absolutely not for me. A toxic frienship, a weird dude, and a haunted house? Or an alove one. It just felt a little disjointed and would randomly jump from one scene to another. I also just didnt understand the significance of the journal entries.

Beautiful writing, but it just really couldnt keep my attention.

Whoa. What did I just read? Ingrid gets an invitation to visit her ex-best friend from childhood, Mayra, who has, since the day she left town, treated Ingrid simply like a part of her ugly childhood she left behind. Ingrid revisits old memories of the two together, and each tidbit the reader gains of the dynamic between the two I'm left wondering why Ingrid puts up with Mayra. She's awful. Ingrid decides to accept Mayra's invitation and heads toward Mayra's boyfriend's family home in the swamp. Gonzalez has done a beautiful job creating the creepy atmosphere. But things get really weird at the house and a little disjointed. I mean really, really bizarre...

Thanks fo Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I struggled with this one.

I’m all about books set in Florida lately, and this was supposed to be a thriller, but I got to like 90% and had no idea where this was even going.

I guess the ending is sort of a thriller? But most of this just felt like literary fiction focused on Ingrid and Mayra and their past friendship. A lot of this novel is flashbacks. Benji, Mayra’s new boyfriend, is SO weird, but that’s intentional. There was this one part where he’s cleaning a window and he does something that will haunt me forever. 🫠

Anyway, I just didn’t really get the ending…I feel like it needed to be developed more. There was some good stuff here, it just lacked some direction. The scenery was a huge strength, I felt every outdoor scene. So that means there was some good writing here, just needed some work in terms of storytelling. I’d definitely try another book by this author in the future.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I had high hopes for this book, but I felt like it was trying too hard to be like Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and fell short.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

5 / 5 ⭐ A new favorite!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for my advanced reader copy.

A different kind of gothic haunted house story. Like I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid meets Black Swan.

Ingrid hasn’t seen her childhood friend Mayra in years. One day Mayra hits Ingrid up and asks her to come to her boyfriend’s summer house with her. As Ingrid and Mayra reflect on their past together, Ingrid starts to feel at home again.
The story was engaging and I did not find it typically predictable in the way most novels are these days. The way in which the plot unfolds was new and fresh yet familiar.

The characters were so visceral and believable. Even side characters from Ingrid and Mayra’s past felt real. I very much enjoyed Gonzalez’s prose. You know how most modern novels leave nothing left to be desired? They give you everything and nothing at the same time. Gonzalez’s writing takes me back to high school English class, when we studied classics. Gonzalez does not tell the reader how to feel, listen, or understand. She gives the reader everything and more.

This story reflected on women friendships and how that relationship affects our growth and development.
The story kept my interest from page one. I wish I could read this all over again without knowing what happens. The setting was lush, vivid, and immersive. A classic southern gothic, I felt like I was in Florida reading this as I sat in my sweater in my cool apartment in Chicago.
I enjoyed Mayra from start to finish and I was pleased with the ending. This is a great book for someone who wants to enjoy a “spooky” read without feeling scared.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC! I thought this was just ok. The premise sounded really interesting, but the execution fell a bit flat. It was pretty boring in my opinion until about the last 30 pages or so. It is supposed to be a horror novel, but ! did not find anything in this scary, but rather weird.

I really enjoyed Mayra. It was a delicate balance of the unsettling morphing into creepy and dangerous. Some parts you can't tell what was actually happening or if it was all in Ingrid's mind. Time doesn't play by the rules, days seem much longer. Ingrid doesn't know how long she has been at the house with Mayra. The house infiltrates visitors, making them lethargic and content so they never want to leave. Mayra, never happy where she ends up, doesn't want to leave the house. Flashing back to their teenage years to see how Ingrid and Mayra grew into the women they are today and how they ended up in the house - Mayra's boyfriend. Toxic adolescent female friendships are so interesting. You both think the other is so much cooler while simultaneously trying to cut them down.

Mayra is the story of two friends who grew up together, grew apart when one went to college and the other stayed in their hometown. Now, Mayra and her boyfriend have invited Ingrid to their vacation home in the Everglades. It's a hard-to-find house with no cell service, but it is a chance for Ingrid to reconnect with Mayra.

Unfortunately, the book did not quite work for me. The weird aspects of the house did not come up until late in the novel. Once they did, I really liked them, but it felt like that section was really short. I do think that the story will work for other readers. It was just not a huge hit for me.

Thank you to Random House for my copy of MAYRA.

This book was so dang interesting but not quite up my alley. I couldn't get into it.

Two friends reconnecting at a very remote house in the middle of the Florida Everglades with no cell signal? Nothing can go wrong, right? Ingrid is convinced by Mayra, her childhood friend that she has lost touch with, to join her at a remote house and spend some time together. Ingrid agrees and heads out. What follows is a bunch of weird.
The atmosphere that Gonzalez creates rich and unsettling. Gothic in nature and an absolute slow burn. As soon as we get to the house we are plunged into that unsettling feeling and it only gets worse as the story progresses. And it stays strange, with strange bits sprinkled through, enough to make you go "WTF" but not enough to really understand what is happening.
At its core, its a story about female friendships, those obsessive ones that we can form, that shape who we become and sometimes make us forget who we are, or can make it hard to actually find ourselves.
While the atmosphere was great, the pacing felt uneven at it took a while for it to really get going. If you are not a fan of slow burn or character driven stories, I would maybe skip it. I had moments where I couldn't stop thinking about it (which I think had to do with the atmosphere, as I am a huge fan of stories like this). This is a strong debut and I look forward to seeing what else this author can do. Solid 4 stars from me.

If you want Florida Gothic, Mayra delivers. If you want a story about all the weirdness of early-life friendships, particularly when they are either maintained or rekindled later in life, Mayra delivers that as well. If you want a story about a weird, creepy house in the middle of the swamp, Mayra has got you there too. This book has a little bit of almost everything.

Ingrid is invited by her childhood friend/obsession Mayra to visit her at a home deep in the Florida Everglades. Mayra, who she at one point describes as “kind of a wild animal.” The many flashbacks to Ingrid and Mayra’s pre-teen and teen years seem to indicate that Mayra may not be the only one with Big Feral Energy – Ingrid is a little strange herself. Like a lot of very close female friendships that develop during that time of life, they’re maybe a little bit obsessed with each other – although frankly, I suspect that Ingrid is a bit obsessed with Mayra, and Mayra is also maybe a little obsessed with Mayra. But she also might be just a little bit sad and insecure. It’s so tough to tell with kids.

So, anyway – she decides to go. Only, when she gets there, it’s super weird. First of all, it’s not a vacation home like Mayra made it seem. It belongs to Mayra’s boyfriend Benji. Who is also there. And he’s like a golden retriever had a baby with a robot or something. He reminds me of Chad Radwell – that’s actually who I pictured as Benji if I’m being honest.

Anyway, Benji is weird. And the house is weird. And both Mayra and Ingrid are kind of weird. It’s a real Weird Fest. And the atmosphere is both well developed and, you guessed it – weird. Florida is an odd place (I say this as a former long-term resident). So all this weirdness really feels like a fit to me. And things get progressively weirder. The final culmination of all this weird was not at all what I suspected, and I absolutely loved it. It felt appropriately…weird (I’M SORRY I LEGIT CAN’T THINK OF A BETTER DESCRIPTOR RIGHT NOW. IT’S EARLY).
Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Come for the creepy vibes, stay for the truly interesting deep dive into the strange obsessiveness of juvenile female friendship.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book. Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez was a mysterious, dark, gothic, horror story with gripping characters and a twisted plot! Great read for someone who enjoys the dark side of someone's own mind, how their world can turn against them, and who loves a kind of dark magic and feeling of otherworldly powers that are fighting against the main character.

Engaging but uneven—Mayra’s story shines in parts, though the pacing and tone felt off at times.
Was saving this story for October but lost interest in this story the longer it sat on my shelves

This was aiming for a specific type of creepy but really just missed the mark. Too many unnecessary flashbacks to full teenage moments that really brought nothing to the story. The journal was an odd touch and the ending entry didn’t sit well. To me the story was just all over the place.

This was such a chaotic, fun, fever dream of a book. I'm a big fan of gothic literary horror set in far flung places (like a swamp!) and this one really scratched that itch while making me question what exactly was going on. At times, the vibe was almost similar to House of Leaves, in the way the house just appeared to change and grow, and affect people. It's not a terribly long read, so it's a great book to pick up to scratch that itch for something gothic and manic that's not gory.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Born and raised in the Sunshine State, I love a Florida Gothic tale! Set it in the Everglades, even better. I really enjoyed this debut novel from Nicky Gonzalez.

Mayra is a slow burn of a story that really excels at setting an atmosphere and deep diving into character development. It is a story about the power of our early friendships and the risks we will take for them. I loved the swampiness, alligators, mysterious journal, the strange remote house, and the story does get weird in the second half. But it is primarily a story about Mayra and Ingrid and their complicated relationship growing up in Hialeah and through to the present day and circumstances.

I look forward to future work by Nicky Gonzalez and recommend this book for lovers of character driven stories with horror elements.