Mexican Gothic was a dark & rich tale filled with rot, cyclical violence, and a protagonist who never stops pushing back & fighting. 

Noemí is a chic & stubborn socialite, spending her days at parties while hoping for her father’s permission to study anthropology at graduate school. She loves her life in the city, but when she receives a very strange letter from her newlywed cousin begging for her help, Noemí heads off to the countryside. 

The town is isolated, the house is strange, and her cousin’s new family is even stranger. Noemí won’t back down, but when she starts getting uneasy visions and the walls feel like they’re closing in, she has to fight for herself and Catalina. She starts to unearth the dark history of High Place while doing her best to avoid its seduction and escape with her life. 

Noemí’s characterization is so sharp, and she’s a great character to root for. She is flawed, but I found her deeply loveable. She’s incredibly self aware and acknowledges her weaknesses, but it’s clear that she’s smart and savvy and not the type to give up. The one stumble with her is that we were often told about Noemí’s past and her qualities before experiencing her stubbornness and cleverness through her current actions. She’s determined to rescue every single person in distress, and we didn’t need any level of handholding to figure that out as readers.

There’s an obsession with circularity here, and we’re watching cycles of pain and trauma - seeing our villains cling to old rotting and withered life instead of embracing change and growing with the world. Colonization and eugenics are explored as living, breathing, insidious rot. And the cycle is infused with new pain each time it laps back around. 

I’m always drawn in to stories that blend true, realistic horror with supernatural elements, and this was no exception. I actually would have loved more building horror and tension – it felt like we jumped from zero to one hundred really quickly. It went from nothing is wrong/it’s definitely just my imagination to here is exactly what’s wrong and I’ve got to escape in just a chapter. 

I did adore the descriptions of the home and grounds and family members. You really sit in that sense of grossness and morbidity. I could almost smell the rot through the pages, and imagine the uneasiness of the rooms and how ‘off’ the family and staff were. 

The ending felt a bit abrupt to me. I would have enjoyed slightly more of a conclusion and to witness the survivors return to where it all began, but with a refreshed perspective. I’m also not totally sure I believed Francis’ arc, considering his life and upbringing in the home. 

Overall, though, this was a fantastic, spine-tingling read with rich imagery. Definitely my favorite of the SMG books I’ve read so far. It’s vivid and disturbing and darkly clever. 

CW: body horror, death (child), murder, incest, racism, violence, classism, sexism, sexual assault, gore, confinement, gaslighting, cannibalism, pedophilia, infertility, miscarriage, eugenics, epidemic, colorism, chronic illness, slavery, xenophobia, vomit

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