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A review by readingwryly
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3.0
Solid 3.5 stars for me. This was a good read! Overall, I loved the ambiance! Also, it’s a period piece. And my favorite period, taking place in 1950’s Mexico! I loved that I got a different perspective, culturally. We could dig deeper into The whole “euro invasion” aspect, but I’ll let that go for now.
I loved the spooky atmosphere! This truly is quintessential gothic. I actually loved how many times the descriptions made me grimace with disgust. I want to say this was gory..but it’s not. Not in the typical definition of the word. I’m having a hard time describing the creep factor, but it’s there.
On the negative side, I felt like the pacing was a little slow. There were a few times I had to hang in there, waiting patiently to see where the author was going with the plot. I love the overarching idea of “the twist”, but the buildup was too intense for the payoff. Also, I felt like the characters were more 2 dimensional than 3 dimensional. I will admit, I adored Noemi. But I wanted to not like her too.
Without going into too much of a rant, I want to like AND dislike every character. I think truly 3D characters have a way of showing you they are human. They can’t be completely likeable. And villains shouldn’t be completely despicable. They should have a slice of humanity that shows how they came to make the choices they make. In this case, I didn’t truly feel that way about any of the characters.
This story’s focus is the atmospheric gothic spook factor, and that is fully accomplished without a doubt. Overall, a good read, and something refreshingly different. I would definitely recommend this!
I loved the spooky atmosphere! This truly is quintessential gothic. I actually loved how many times the descriptions made me grimace with disgust. I want to say this was gory..but it’s not. Not in the typical definition of the word. I’m having a hard time describing the creep factor, but it’s there.
On the negative side, I felt like the pacing was a little slow. There were a few times I had to hang in there, waiting patiently to see where the author was going with the plot. I love the overarching idea of “the twist”, but the buildup was too intense for the payoff. Also, I felt like the characters were more 2 dimensional than 3 dimensional. I will admit, I adored Noemi. But I wanted to not like her too.
Without going into too much of a rant, I want to like AND dislike every character. I think truly 3D characters have a way of showing you they are human. They can’t be completely likeable. And villains shouldn’t be completely despicable. They should have a slice of humanity that shows how they came to make the choices they make. In this case, I didn’t truly feel that way about any of the characters.
This story’s focus is the atmospheric gothic spook factor, and that is fully accomplished without a doubt. Overall, a good read, and something refreshingly different. I would definitely recommend this!