Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Mexican Gothic - Mexikói rémtörténet

I blasted through this in like 2 days LOLOL I was so hooked. I looooved Noemí as a main character, I loved that she's a girl who knows what she wants and just wants to have fun. I liked that she could be sassy when she wanted but also knew when to tone it back, and I thought that her strong-willed, curious personality lended itself well to a mystery novel.

I wasn't expecting the romance, but it was soft and sweet and I loved watching her go from her usual flirtiness to wanting to be more careful and honest. The only part I didn't like was

how passive Francis was during the scene where Virgil and Francis' mom force her to kiss Howard Doyle as part of getting her to "join the family"

. It made me feel icky to read that bit, and I felt like Francis was let off a little too easily by the narrative for that. Otherwise, I really liked the parallels that were drawn between Francis' situation and the fairytales that Noemí was familiar with through Catalina (there was one part where Noemí explicitly drew the connection of her being like a prince to save the princess that I thought was cute).

I honestly had no idea where this book was going to take the whole haunted house and weird, offputting family trope, but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to what I expected. I loved the idea of basing horror in

mushrooms and fungus

, and while the truth about the Doyle family was horrible and disgusting, it worked well with the theme of

eugenics and racism

in a way that didn't feel gratuitous or shocking just for shock's sake.

I don't usually look at book reviews or content warnings in advance of reading so I didn't expect the sexual assault scenes, but they weren't graphic and were very clearly intended as part of the horror (which, they succeeded at!!! I was extremely creeped out!!!) I also thought part of the horror was in Virgil attempting to turn Noemí against herself by pointing to her sexual desires as evidence that she "really wants it". Those scenes were more difficult for me to stomach than the general mushroom grossness but, at least personally, they didn't feel shocking for shock's sake either.

Content Warnings

noxa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

kcarney86's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

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