Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Mexican Gothic

Man, I don't know. I just didn't like it. Looking at it as a piece of literature outside of genre, the characters were boring and had poor development. The story wasn't very captivating and was poorly paced. The romance felt forced and unnatural. However my primary disappointment was that, as a horror novel, it was appallingly not scary, horrific, or tense. Every beat felt so formulaic and predictable that I never felt the intensity or urgency of the story. I felt bored throughout the whole story, and at the end I felt just ambivalent about the characters as I did in the beginning. I'm no horror connoisseur because I'm pretty easily scared. But this was a miss all around.

Content Warnings

theblerdnewsletter's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The last book I read of 2020 was Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Honestly, I couldn’t have timed it any better. I’m not often caught off guard by books (their endings, plots, etc.), in fact the last time was so long ago I forgotten which book it was, and Mexican Gothic caught me completely by surprise. At first Noemí seems vapid and annoying and I put the book down several times because of this. Then High Place (what they call their home) and it’s white inhabitants are horribly racist—I mean spouting-eugenics-as-actual-science racist—and High Place a reflection of their miserable existence. But then something magical happened; magical and horrific. My partner asked me “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” multiple times while I was reading it because I’m sure I was making awful faces. The ending and the reason why the High Place is the way it is… well, you’ll have to read it won’t you? Honestly, giving you a proper summary would ruin the suspense! Silvia Moreno-Garcia did something uncanny and completely unexpected. One thing I will tell you is it’s a horror book, I thought it was a fantasy sort of novel. It is not. Bear that in mind when you read it. I’d say it’s for people over 15, since there is a brief (like maybe a paragraph) attempted r*pe scene in it and another scene that makes the reader (or at least me) extremely uncomfortable. If you need the page numbers to skip over, please let me know.

Content Warnings

greycells's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

princesspeachry's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

catsy2022's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Rating: B+

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was really intrigued by the genre fusion, but it sorely disappointed me. I suppose there's a case for the author saying something by differentiating whether a character was "good" or "evil" based on whether or not they spoke Spanish, but I really didn't feel the Mexican part of Mexican Gothic particularly stood out to me. The first chapter introduces this really interesting urban historical Mexico, and then we immediately pivot to the middle of nowhere and never return to that setting.

I found the character development to be weak and I was not convinced by any of the close relationships, including the romantic one. I was put off by how drawn-out the lead-up was for just a few teeny itsy-bitsy action scenes. The horror elements echo the likes of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation and Rory Power's Wilder Girls. I intend to read Authority next and I recently finished Wilder Girls, so it could be over saturation, but I just didn't find any of the descriptions of the Gloom to be as compelling as comparable descriptions in these other novels.

I think this all sounds very negative, but the writing itself is solid and the premise is interesting. It reads a lot like YA except for a few random R-rated bits. I just feel like it's been done before, and better.

Content Warnings

_nsamimi's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

More...