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A review by littlelionslibrary
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4.0
TW:// sexual assualt/non-consensual contact/body gore/incest
Set in 1950’s Mexico, this story follows Noemi Taboada through her harrowing attempt to bring her cousin home from the historic Doyle home, High Place.
I really enjoyed this book! The structure and pace of this story were almost addictive. I couldn’t stop consuming it once I started, and I was entranced; I found the prose to be almost poetic in it’s flow. Moreno-Garica uses this story to shine a light on the very real issues of the 50’s from colorism, classism, colonization, and rampant racism. I keep bouncing between 4 and 4.5 for this one just because I could see where this story was going from very early on. It’s not that the story is predictable, because it isn’t, it was just very transparent in it’s weaving. This story was also horrific in a way that I was not expecting; the traditional “Horror” aspects that you think of when you think of this genre were few and far between, but the topic of eugenics and the way Noemi was treated both disgusted and horrified me. There was also a body gore aspect that made my stomach turn, as I’m very sensitive to it. There were many times where I found myself wanting to yell and scream and reach into the story and take Noemi and Catalina out of their nightmare. I was frustrated, unsettled, and captivated. It was a beautifully written Modern take on Classic Gothic Horror.
Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone looking to make their skin crawl!
Set in 1950’s Mexico, this story follows Noemi Taboada through her harrowing attempt to bring her cousin home from the historic Doyle home, High Place.
I really enjoyed this book! The structure and pace of this story were almost addictive. I couldn’t stop consuming it once I started, and I was entranced; I found the prose to be almost poetic in it’s flow. Moreno-Garica uses this story to shine a light on the very real issues of the 50’s from colorism, classism, colonization, and rampant racism. I keep bouncing between 4 and 4.5 for this one just because I could see where this story was going from very early on. It’s not that the story is predictable, because it isn’t, it was just very transparent in it’s weaving. This story was also horrific in a way that I was not expecting; the traditional “Horror” aspects that you think of when you think of this genre were few and far between, but the topic of eugenics and the way Noemi was treated both disgusted and horrified me. There was also a body gore aspect that made my stomach turn, as I’m very sensitive to it. There were many times where I found myself wanting to yell and scream and reach into the story and take Noemi and Catalina out of their nightmare. I was frustrated, unsettled, and captivated. It was a beautifully written Modern take on Classic Gothic Horror.
Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone looking to make their skin crawl!