A review by gladiolus17
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

adventurous dark 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

I liked how the MC breaks stereotypes with being both beautiful and smart, and I also liked that she was strong-willed, because that moved the plot. 


I enjoyed the integration of mushrooms in the novel, because it made the ghosts plausible, and was also a device that I haven’t seen in gothic novels before.

As well, since this novel was about genetic purity, I appreciated that Noemi’s Spanish helped in saving her. It was her own heritage, “inferior blood,” that could get past the evil in the house.

My only complaint was that the book was a little heavy-handed with the eugenics in beginning. I know that this was an important point to the plot, but I felt that it could’ve been introduced in a more subtle way. When it came up, I felt as if the writing was trying to signal the reader that Howard was the bad guy in an overly-direct way.

As well, maybe I just skipped over this in my audiobook, but I wasn’t sure what the point of Noemi’s wrist-rash was!
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