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A review by clockworkchapters
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3.0
About the book:-
Noemi Taboada is a young socialite who lives in Mexico City in the 1950s and enjoys flirting a little too much. One day, while she is at a costume party, her father calls and demands she come home right away to deal with an urgent family situation.
Noemi's father has received a very disturbing letter from Catalina her cousin. Catalina who has married a mysterious man named Virgil Doyle a year ago but she hasn't been seen or heard from since her marriage.
Catalina's letter consist of disturbing information about ghosts, voices and mysterious creatures in the walls of decaying house. This makes Noemi's father suspicious and he asks Neomi to visit her cousin as a bribe in exchange for him to finance her further education.
Doyle family and their ancestral home is full of mysteries and dark secrets.
My thoughts:-
Neomi's character is very vibrant and well developed. She is the obvious protagonist who is on a mission to unearth Doyle family secrets and save Catalina at any cost. At first Neomi is shown as shallow and flighty but as the story progress her character is well developed. The other characters were not as impressive they serve a purpose but I found them underwritten in some way or the other. The Doyle's are very eccentric bunch and are a great source of substance in the story.
Another good detail in the book is the motifs which are often scary and creepy. The back story about the Doyle family history is very disquieting and unsettling.
The story moves in slow pace and I got frustrated with the characters and especially Neomi when the most obvious conclusion takes her too long to realise. The romantic sub plot between Neomi and Francis was not impressive. Most of the book is not even scary, creepy and disturbing yes but not enough scary. I expected bit more from the book and it had the potential. There are some triggers and disturbing themes like intermarry, eugenics and assault.
Overall it was a average read but the story has potential and worth reading if you like horror gothic genre.
Noemi Taboada is a young socialite who lives in Mexico City in the 1950s and enjoys flirting a little too much. One day, while she is at a costume party, her father calls and demands she come home right away to deal with an urgent family situation.
Noemi's father has received a very disturbing letter from Catalina her cousin. Catalina who has married a mysterious man named Virgil Doyle a year ago but she hasn't been seen or heard from since her marriage.
Catalina's letter consist of disturbing information about ghosts, voices and mysterious creatures in the walls of decaying house. This makes Noemi's father suspicious and he asks Neomi to visit her cousin as a bribe in exchange for him to finance her further education.
Doyle family and their ancestral home is full of mysteries and dark secrets.
My thoughts:-
Neomi's character is very vibrant and well developed. She is the obvious protagonist who is on a mission to unearth Doyle family secrets and save Catalina at any cost. At first Neomi is shown as shallow and flighty but as the story progress her character is well developed. The other characters were not as impressive they serve a purpose but I found them underwritten in some way or the other. The Doyle's are very eccentric bunch and are a great source of substance in the story.
Another good detail in the book is the motifs which are often scary and creepy. The back story about the Doyle family history is very disquieting and unsettling.
The story moves in slow pace and I got frustrated with the characters and especially Neomi when the most obvious conclusion takes her too long to realise. The romantic sub plot between Neomi and Francis was not impressive. Most of the book is not even scary, creepy and disturbing yes but not enough scary. I expected bit more from the book and it had the potential. There are some triggers and disturbing themes like intermarry, eugenics and assault.
Overall it was a average read but the story has potential and worth reading if you like horror gothic genre.