Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

152 reviews

jayinbee's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I don't know if it was because I had too many spoilers or if it was the fact that I just finished the first book in a series and wanted to continue on with it but this came available from the library first or because I read another gothic novel recently and it filled the mood for a while but something about this one just didn't hit as well as I had expected. It was good- the shifting between reality and the nightmares/memories/hallucinations was eerie. The explanations for all the strange things were fine. The characters- especially Noemi- and the writing were good. I wanted to keep reading (even though I had a pretty good idea of how it would go from the start), but it just didn't capture me as fully as some similar books I had read. It was a good story and I was glad to see a happy ending but that was the extent of my emotions toward it.

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flamming_bluejeans's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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sonaea's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I really can't rate this book. One could argue for every single possible rating.

I really liked the first half (4+ stars) though there are a lot of problematic things in there (esp. in the later half) that aren't handled very well/believably (~2 stars).

At the start there's not a lot of plot but rather a lot of just the vibes of dark, creepy houses, though the plot picks up at about the middle. I was surprised by the solution to the puzzle as I did not expect
it to be some kind of supernatural thing going on, I actually thought the plants in the greenhouse were poisonous and the family poisoned the cousins
. What it turned out to be was a bit irritating at first but once I got over that, the rest of the read was quite enjoyable.
I really liked that Noemí is headstrong, intelligent and doesn't let people run her over. That made an interesting protagonist and the setting was quite nice too as I haven't read many books set in historic Mexico (though that wasn't really in the focus of the story).
I also liked how she slowly gets to know Francis and I think their relationship to each other is really interesting.

Also, I feared they wouldn't burn the house down but then they did so I'm glad, that was absolutely called for.

What could have used a bit more work is the pacing (at the first half of the book next to nothing happens, it's just all vibes and setting and only the slightest hints, while in the second half it's reveal after reveal). I would have liked that to be more stretched out in the book.
Also the action scenes at the end were not written like action scenes but rather just the same as the scenes about the setting (short descriptions, all the sentences about the same length, no focus on anything. There was next to no suspense in the writing. The only bit of suspense came from the plot though that wasn't a lot because
the way the book was set up, the way that books work, it was kind of obvious they'd make it out of it alive
). So that could have made the book a lot better.

!!! Also there are a LOT of pretty heavy topics in this book, some CNs would have been appreciated!!!

CN r*pe:
Also there are a few scenes where Virgil (nearly) rapes Noemí and that seems to have next to no emotional impact on Noemí?! At first I get it because she thought it was just a dream but then she figured out it wasn't and Virgil continues his doings?! So how the hell can she just act as if all that didn't happen?
That's a part where I think some character work would have been necessary. Her reacting shocked and then continuing as if normal really doesn't fit the situation.

CN c*n*balism:
also wth why is this mentioned in a side sentence and then just totally ignored? How does that not have any effect on the protagonist's psyche? I get that the psyche wasn't the center of the book (though why? Isn't Neomí actually really interested in that?) But the characters learn about that and it has literally NO IMPACT on any of their actions!

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celery's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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jjamieww's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-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? Yes

5.0

Honestly this was hard to review. It’s a well written book that evokes a lot of emotions. 

It had such gross imagery at times I would say “ew” instinctively. It was also very disturbing, and the amount of content warning I tagged is a little ridiculous. 

But it was a book that had me curious what was actually going on. It kept escalating as it slowly unraveled. I don’t normally read horror books but this book was such a scary concept combining so many different ways to freak you out. 

Genuinely terrifying 🍄🍄

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nmwolfe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was haunting and unsettling, but I found myself having trouble putting it down. There are so many facets to the story and I enjoyed them all — the way Moreno-Garcia conveyed and wrote this story was beautiful. I’m not a frequent horror reader, so parts of this book caught me by surprise and were pretty unsettling, but it all in all was a great story. 

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alexbrown's review against another edition

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2.5


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slavic_bookworm's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.25


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bee_thebee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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kiki94's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A majority of the story is spent detailing and building characters as well as the environment. It takes more than half the book for anything crazy to happen.
A great mystery, I found myself continue to read-- not necessarily for the story, but I needed to know how it ends. 
The ending is satisfying, all your questions get answered. 

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