A review by ceallaighsbooks
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

[Review from Sept 2020]:

“Open your eyes.”

I honestly can’t tell you if I thought this was a good or a bad book. 🙈 I felt strongly that it was bad and just as strongly that it was good at various points throughout the book. 🤷🏻‍♀️ That. Never happens. 😅

I think my main issue with the book was the writing style. When I read a gothic novel I want the elaborate, moody, dense, longwinded, atmospheric writing style that pushes you over the edge and into the abyss of gloom and mist and fog and doom, like, properly, you know? This just read a little too YA-y for me.

Also, the dialogue felt very off to me? Actually in the *same* way that the dialogue in Priory of the Orange Tree was off for me… This is definitely a thing with me. I need to zero in on what it is exactly about the dialogue in these books that bothers me because I don’t think that I quite know how to put it into words yet…

The dialogue also—which didn’t seem to match the characters? or maybe it didn’t communicate enough about the characters?, or maybe it was just the characters that I didn’t like? that didn’t feel fleshed out, multidimensional or “real” enough? Although this pertains mostly to the character of Virgil I think because in the end I liked Noemí a lot—she definitely improved throughout the story and I was glad that in spite of her eye-roll-inducing vanity she was never ditzy or intimidated and was extremely intelligent, even planning to go to university to study anthropology. I also liked the character of Francis although he sort of faded out at the end there… 🤷🏻‍♀️

The details of the plot were by far the best thing about this book though. It was super clever and interesting and totally unique and I thought Moreno-Garcia did an excellent job at tying all the details into the book’s overall philosophy and all the other themes going on in the story (eugenics, phrenology, colonialism, racism, sexism, patriarchy, capitalism, abuse, manipulation, family etc.). She covers a lot and does an excellent job. I also loved all the natural science used in the book—that’s a very effective, and surprisingly underutilized I think, theme in gothic novels. This would make an *incredible* movie.

The story itself was far more along the lines of a Lovecraftian sort of horror story that reminded me a lot more of Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour than Du Maurier’s Rebecca. There were really only a few parallels to Rebecca… there was a Mrs Danvers character… (view spoiler) and Virgil reminded me a little of Maxim at times and Ruth reminded me a little of Rebecca but not very much and tbh I probably wouldn’t have found any similarities if I hadn’t been looking for them.

Honestly I definitely don’t think there was enough to really connect the two books at all, and certainly not on the backcover by the publisher. 😬 That was really annoying *and* it kind of messed up my expectations for the book because Mexican Gothic lacked any of the atmospheric writing style that really made me fall in love with Rebecca and I had trouble adjusting my expectations to the style of writing that Moreno-Garcia used.

I did like all the allusions to other gothic novels though like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein. Dracula would have made for a good allusion too but that was never mentioned… 🤷🏻‍♀️ There were also a lot of references to fairy tales as well which I always love to see in a book. 👍🏻

I might still reread this at a later date when I’m in the mood for the kind of story this *actually* is and not the kind of story I thought this was going to be.