Mexican Gothic

 Book Title: Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Date Started: July 28th 2021

Date Completed: August 7th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Mexican Gothic was a lot of fun. Overflowing with Del Toro vibes (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, even a little The Devil's Backbone), it's tense and atmospheric, clearly a love letter to classical gothic tales. But Moreno-Garcia adds a brilliant twist of setting the story in 1950s Mexico and spinning the genre on its head for a more modern audience.

As its namesake suggests, this book is a perfect gothic tale at the start, though it becomes more horror towards the end. The tone, that we may have been pretty familiar with, turns slightly weird as it spins on the classic genre into slightly more modern sensibilities for its reveal and resolution. While this wasn't unsatisfying, I can't help but feel some tonal notes could've been adapted from the gothic horror and incorporated as well. For example, I wish we'd got a bit more ghosty action. Most of the plot is Noemí arguing with the family her cousin has been swept away to and whom she is trying to her rescue from. The ghost bits are fantastic, but few and far between in the end.

That being said, the story instead focuses on Noemí herself more than necessarily the mystery. And Noemí rises to the challenge; she's the perfect balance of fierce, glamorous and smart. The rest of the characters are sometimes fitted a little too conveniently around her to create tension for her temperament, but it's still enjoyable to watch a female character as fashionable and fascinating stand up to bullies.

I think where this book falls short is the fact we just don't get to sink our teeth into the mystery as much as I (and others, from what I've read) would've liked. It's a fascinating and compelling idea and the moments of surrealism and ghosty terror as great, but they're crowded in amongst arguments and wandering around and dialogue upon dialogue. All of it is soundly structured and realised, I just wanted more.