A review by sophiesometimesreads
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was my first experience with a horror book, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt as I don't have anything within-genre to compare to. I was surprised that I wasn't as scared as I expected to be, though the book was atmospheric and eery and creepy, and I did quite like that. This is not a negative against the book, just a diversion from my assumptions of the genre.

I had a good time with this book. I enjoyed the overall plotline and the characters were intriguing, though many were unlikeable (as they were supposed to be). The resolution to the mystery component was not what I expected but made sense in context of the story, and a few things I'd noticed in the earlier story tied into it.

The main way in which this book fell down a bit for me was in the pacing. The first two thirds were pretty slow, and we took a long time to get little snippets of information and hints towards what was going on. In saying this, I was still intrigued enough to keep reading and I'm glad I did, as the last third was really interesting. I just wanted a little bit of the pace of the last third in the rest of the book.

The actual style of writing, though, was really good and I enjoyed how atmospheric Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing was, I'd definitely be open to picking up one of her books again. I'm also intending to read more horror books in the future. I'd heard this book was a good introduction to the horror genre and I agree with that statement, so if you're looking to dabble in horror then this book could be a good place to start!
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