Rating this at a 2.5 likely makes this review an unpopular opinion but I am quite bamboozled by the overwhelmingly positive reviews of this book. Also, I'll give a TW for rape and incest, as I didn't know that was in this book and was quite shocked!!!

I'll start by saying that the plot of the book isn't bad, it's just that the overall story and writing strikes me as extremely unremarkable. I found myself skipping through paragraphs and skipping pages ahead to see if it would get any better. Also, the story is called Mexican Gothic and is set in Mexico. Someone else said this in their review but basically if I hadn't been told that information, I would never have guessed that that's where the book was set. Most of the main characters were (I think) from England originally? So the majority of the story focuses on an English family who lives in the mountains around a Mexican village. The whole story had a Victorian England type feeling that I think detracted from Noemi's character and her heritage.

As I mentioned before, there is both rape and incest in this book. When I picked this book up, I read "spooky house" and thought that this would be about a creepy, almost alive house similar to The Haunting of Hill House. It's not that. The creepiness factor here comes from the cult-like incestuous abuse and the talk of rape throughout. I did not see this coming and was quite thrown off when I read that. This may just be a personal gripe but I don't think stories need that kind of trauma thrown in to further the plot. This book would have been GREAT in my opinion if it was about a possessed, demonic house that grew mushrooms throughout it and used the mushrooms for mind control. That is spooky enough in and of itself! The added layer of trauma and abuse just didn't sit well with me, and I truly don't think it furthered the plot of the story in any way. In fact, it detracted from the plot in my opinion.

The only redeeming quality I can find is the character of Francis. He was great and I enjoyed Noemi's interactions with him. But other than that, I didn't enjoy the book.

listen...I'm conflicted here and I'm going to tell you why. Keep in mind, I could have these feelings about this book due to the fact that I just finished a masters degree and my brain is tired of lofty academic texts, but this book for me seemed to be a bit too theoretical. The author was caught up in a deep analysis of Pessoa's major works and I didn't expect that from a book I believed to be a biography. Granted, Pessoa is a highly complex and enigmatic literary figure but I think the major events of his life were masked by the author's own analysis.

With that being said, the poetry at the end of the book is fantastic. Pessoa (and all his iterations) is a highly gifted writer. His words are beautiful and I am looking forward to reading a collection of poems from him that I bought with this book.

kurtz is mad problematic.

the issue with this book is how small the print is. i’m already losing my vision due to law school generally, and this print simply makes it worse.

other than that, solid explanations of things. not a bad textbook just could be better.

what a treat this was.

this was my favorite textbook this year. i’m not going to rate it 5 stars bc it’s still a textbook.

this is the best textbook i’ve had in law school. fisher does an exceptional job explaining the concepts and cases that supplement the FRE. i wish he could write all of my textbooks.