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rachachisaur's review against another edition
The title feels like a bait and switch, considering there was nothing about this book to situate it in Mexican culture. You could have swapped out the main character’s ethnicity and the country it’s set in without impacting the story at all. Which is fine unless you’ve made that ethnicity part of the title.
I made it 3/4 through this book and got just past the big reveal and couldn’t force myself to go any further. The pacing is slow, the creepiness of the house is downplayed by how little Noemi explores or interacts with it, and the cast of characters have very tropey, limited personalities.
For someone who came to make sure her cousin was safe, Noemi interacts with her barely at all and doesn’t seem very concerned about what’s going on.
The pacing is slow and our “strong” female lead repeatedly lets herself get talked out of doing anything effective with very little effort required. The root cause of all the creepiness is heavy-handedly obvious from the very beginning and therefore not much of a mystery to keep you invested.
I also hate gothic horror that revolves around SA as it’s main running theme, so even if everything else had been well done I probably would have DNF’d either way.
I made it 3/4 through this book and got just past the big reveal and couldn’t force myself to go any further. The pacing is slow, the creepiness of the house is downplayed by how little Noemi explores or interacts with it, and the cast of characters have very tropey, limited personalities.
For someone who came to make sure her cousin was safe, Noemi interacts with her barely at all and doesn’t seem very concerned about what’s going on.
The pacing is slow and our “strong” female lead repeatedly lets herself get talked out of doing anything effective with very little effort required. The root cause of all the creepiness is heavy-handedly obvious from the very beginning and therefore not much of a mystery to keep you invested.
I also hate gothic horror that revolves around SA as it’s main running theme, so even if everything else had been well done I probably would have DNF’d either way.
eli_pharaon's review
3.0
Full review on my blog: https://theopinionatedbookworm.blogspot.com/2020/09/haunted-house-of-horrors.html
erintowner's review against another edition
5.0
Best book of 2020 hands down. If you like anthropology, mythology, fiesty independent but not perfect female characters, and burning the patriarchy to the ground, this book is for you. Lots of beautiful imagery and metaphorical writing. I love Gothic novels but sometimes they drag and the plot gets lost in the atmosphere, but this book clipped along at a good pace. And I have never viscerally wanted to punch a character in the face so much so you know the writing's good.
ETA: I have always loved the idea and symbol of Ouroboros and I loved that motif in the book.
ETA: I have always loved the idea and symbol of Ouroboros and I loved that motif in the book.
doritamat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
friskreads's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The writing was engaging as was the plot for the first three quarters but then it veered down a path that wasn't for me , more of a fantasy/magic path.
kiwi_00's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Incest, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual violence
bumble_abi's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Noemí dreams of becoming an anthropologist, but all her father dreams for her is a good marriage. So when they receive a disquieting, possibly deranged, letter from her recently married cousin, Noemí agrees to go to her to investigate in exchange for the promise of enrolment at the National University. But once she arrives at the crumbling and incongruously English house nestled among a hilltop forest, it becomes clear that whatever ails her cousin is more than a simple fever.
Let's start with what this novel gets right: it has atmosphere in shovelfuls, and the imagery deteriorates gradually, from grubby to gruesome to downright grotesque. The pacing is slow, but effectively so, winding up the tension like a jack-in-the-box. As far as sporror (that's spore-horror, or fungal horror) goes, this is by far the most graphic example I've read and richer for it's bold, disgusting choices. It benefits from a well-rounded heroine, although its villains perhaps lack subtlety.
I found the plot itself rather predictable, although I think this novel may have suffered from me having read T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead first, because the concept is strikingly similar. I think in general the 'old family, ruined house, dark arcane secret' plot can kind of only go one way, and this one had a frustratingly unsubtle case of Chekhov's cigarette lighter / oil lamp. I found the romance b-plot underdeveloped too.
I also think this book is let down somewhat by its title and cover. Yes it's gothic, but apart from the protagonist and setting, it's not actually very Mexican, with much of the uncanniness coming from the Englishness of it all. And yes, an argument can be made that perhaps a colonial legacy, the intrusiveness of Europe, is what makes a distinctively Mexican gothic, but it nonetheless feels unbalanced in that regard. The cover too, sells a genteel, romantic, perhaps subtly spooky story, not this full-throated, vile horror.
All in all enjoyable, but not without flaws.
Let's start with what this novel gets right: it has atmosphere in shovelfuls, and the imagery deteriorates gradually, from grubby to gruesome to downright grotesque. The pacing is slow, but effectively so, winding up the tension like a jack-in-the-box. As far as sporror (that's spore-horror, or fungal horror) goes, this is by far the most graphic example I've read and richer for it's bold, disgusting choices. It benefits from a well-rounded heroine, although its villains perhaps lack subtlety.
I found the plot itself rather predictable, although I think this novel may have suffered from me having read T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead first, because the concept is strikingly similar. I think in general the 'old family, ruined house, dark arcane secret' plot can kind of only go one way, and this one had a frustratingly unsubtle case of Chekhov's cigarette lighter / oil lamp. I found the romance b-plot underdeveloped too.
I also think this book is let down somewhat by its title and cover. Yes it's gothic, but apart from the protagonist and setting, it's not actually very Mexican, with much of the uncanniness coming from the Englishness of it all. And yes, an argument can be made that perhaps a colonial legacy, the intrusiveness of Europe, is what makes a distinctively Mexican gothic, but it nonetheless feels unbalanced in that regard. The cover too, sells a genteel, romantic, perhaps subtly spooky story, not this full-throated, vile horror.
All in all enjoyable, but not without flaws.
kassidee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Cannibalism
billpapas's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25