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A review by pinkmalady
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
initially, i was on the fence about whether or not to pick up this book at all. i was vaguely interested in the plot since i'm a huge horror fan, particularly of gothic horror, and had heard many positive reviews by people i tend to have a lot of taste in common with, but i just hadn't quite heard anything about it that piqued my interest enough to actually check it out. i bit the bullet after seeing one of my friends rate it highly and considering that the plot is, on a fundamental level, up my alley.
after reading it, i kinda wish i hadn't pick it up, or, at least, that i hadn't bought it instead of getting it from the library. if i would've known about all of the mushroom/fungus business present in it, i definitely wouldn't've picked this book up; it's a personal squick of mine.
the comparisons to 'crimson peak' are very accurate. i love that movie! and this book treads a lot of that same ground in terms of plot, characters, and themes while adding its own commentary on racism, eugenics, and white supremacy, and making the themes of colonialism more explicit in the text. it isn't a 1:1 copy of 'crimson peak,' but the comparison is apt. something could be said about how both are re/deconstructions of gothic horror as a genre in general, and took inspiration from a lot of the same sources (like 'wuthering heights'), so of course there would be similarities. but sometimes it really struck me sometimes just how much they have in common. they both use a lot of the same tropes, themes, and cliches, however, 'mexican gothic' tends to do it much more messily.
i was most interested in the political commentary (especially on prejudice) in this book, but most of it fell flat or was left relatively untouched upon. the central metaphor/allegory that is used for colonialism/abuse of power is clever enough on its own and actually pretty effective! sometimes it was a bit too heavy-handed, but i think at its core it executes the criticism/intermingling of colonialism, racism, familial trauma, and abuse fairly well. the parts about ruth and agnes especially hit in that department.
i hated most of the mushroom shit, though. conceptually, it works! but in actuality it's just so much more gross-out than thought-provoking. that is one of my biggest take-aways: this book was more disgusting than scary. i've heard so many people hail this book as 'terrifying,' but, personally, it was just kinda super fucking gross and nasty. and NOT in a good way. in a repulsive, it-made-me-want-to-put-the-book-down-every-other-chapter way. it relies so much on gross-out body horror and sexual violence that it kinda takes away from the power that both of those ideas have relative to the plot and its central themes. those things could've added to the story in some more moderation or better execution, but, as is, it just disgusted me. once again, mushrooms/fungus is a squick of mine, but even i could see that when it did work in this book, it really does! but a lot of it was just vile to have to sit through. i almost DNF'd this book several times on that alone.
a more rudimentary issue i have with this book is that the prose comes off as amateurish in its attempts at sounding 'deep' or intellectual. there are so many moments of inane redundancy and over-explanation that it made me roll my eyes and wish i could cut these sentences up myself in editing.
this book is barely 300 pages and it managed to feel like an eternity with its meandering. the pacing is dreadfully slow for the first two-thirds, but it does pick up in the final third and get much, much better, but i shouldn't have to sit through two-thirds of a shitty book to get to its good parts. so inconsistent! so frustrating!
the only character i came away from this book especially liking was Noemi, and even her meandering frustrated me to no end. her status as an upper-class lady, modern woman, and socialite of color contrasted against the Doyle family's old-timey whiteness, on paper, is interesting as hell, and is the real heart of the book. the book doesn't expand as much on it as i would have liked despite taking its sweet time for over half of its length. most of it is reserved for witty 'gotcha' quips or references about relatively surface-level race politics. i understand it wanted to leave a lot of the bigger conversation to subtext/allegory, but it kinda pissed me off how surface-level a lot of the explicit discussions were. i wish it would've gone harder, basically, but that is kind of a me-thing. so much of the book is so heavy-handed, but it still managed to feel shallow in the end.
this book is so up my alley in terms of set-up and themes (mushrooms aside), but it let me down time and time again. i only finished it because by the time it got really shitty, i was at the half-way point and figured i might as well finish it to add another book to my log, and in hopes that it'd get better, and it did! briefly, during the third act, i started to enjoy it, but it was 200 pages too late for it to affect my final opinion all that much. the final chapter also pissed me off. it tries to comment on the trauma of the fallout of the events of the book, but, once again, it falls apart in its shallow attempts as deepness.
after reading it, i kinda wish i hadn't pick it up, or, at least, that i hadn't bought it instead of getting it from the library. if i would've known about all of the mushroom/fungus business present in it, i definitely wouldn't've picked this book up; it's a personal squick of mine.
the comparisons to 'crimson peak' are very accurate. i love that movie! and this book treads a lot of that same ground in terms of plot, characters, and themes while adding its own commentary on racism, eugenics, and white supremacy, and making the themes of colonialism more explicit in the text. it isn't a 1:1 copy of 'crimson peak,' but the comparison is apt. something could be said about how both are re/deconstructions of gothic horror as a genre in general, and took inspiration from a lot of the same sources (like 'wuthering heights'), so of course there would be similarities. but sometimes it really struck me sometimes just how much they have in common. they both use a lot of the same tropes, themes, and cliches, however, 'mexican gothic' tends to do it much more messily.
i was most interested in the political commentary (especially on prejudice) in this book, but most of it fell flat or was left relatively untouched upon. the central metaphor/allegory that is used for colonialism/abuse of power is clever enough on its own and actually pretty effective! sometimes it was a bit too heavy-handed, but i think at its core it executes the criticism/intermingling of colonialism, racism, familial trauma, and abuse fairly well. the parts about ruth and agnes especially hit in that department.
i hated most of the mushroom shit, though. conceptually, it works! but in actuality it's just so much more gross-out than thought-provoking. that is one of my biggest take-aways: this book was more disgusting than scary. i've heard so many people hail this book as 'terrifying,' but, personally, it was just kinda super fucking gross and nasty. and NOT in a good way. in a repulsive, it-made-me-want-to-put-the-book-down-every-other-chapter way. it relies so much on gross-out body horror and sexual violence that it kinda takes away from the power that both of those ideas have relative to the plot and its central themes. those things could've added to the story in some more moderation or better execution, but, as is, it just disgusted me. once again, mushrooms/fungus is a squick of mine, but even i could see that when it did work in this book, it really does! but a lot of it was just vile to have to sit through. i almost DNF'd this book several times on that alone.
a more rudimentary issue i have with this book is that the prose comes off as amateurish in its attempts at sounding 'deep' or intellectual. there are so many moments of inane redundancy and over-explanation that it made me roll my eyes and wish i could cut these sentences up myself in editing.
this book is barely 300 pages and it managed to feel like an eternity with its meandering. the pacing is dreadfully slow for the first two-thirds, but it does pick up in the final third and get much, much better, but i shouldn't have to sit through two-thirds of a shitty book to get to its good parts. so inconsistent! so frustrating!
the only character i came away from this book especially liking was Noemi, and even her meandering frustrated me to no end. her status as an upper-class lady, modern woman, and socialite of color contrasted against the Doyle family's old-timey whiteness, on paper, is interesting as hell, and is the real heart of the book. the book doesn't expand as much on it as i would have liked despite taking its sweet time for over half of its length. most of it is reserved for witty 'gotcha' quips or references about relatively surface-level race politics. i understand it wanted to leave a lot of the bigger conversation to subtext/allegory, but it kinda pissed me off how surface-level a lot of the explicit discussions were. i wish it would've gone harder, basically, but that is kind of a me-thing. so much of the book is so heavy-handed, but it still managed to feel shallow in the end.
this book is so up my alley in terms of set-up and themes (mushrooms aside), but it let me down time and time again. i only finished it because by the time it got really shitty, i was at the half-way point and figured i might as well finish it to add another book to my log, and in hopes that it'd get better, and it did! briefly, during the third act, i started to enjoy it, but it was 200 pages too late for it to affect my final opinion all that much. the final chapter also pissed me off. it tries to comment on the trauma of the fallout of the events of the book, but, once again, it falls apart in its shallow attempts as deepness.