Ooky-Spooky Perfection | Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Title: Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published: June 30, 2020
Genre(s): Horror
Page Count: 320
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

It’s 1950, and bored socialite Noemí gets dragged home from a glitzy Mexico City costume party by her stuffy father. He has a job for her: go visit her cousin, Catalina, who’s been sending odd letters after hurriedly marrying the son of an Old Money silver mining family. Noemí goes, expecting that her dreamy cousin might have just read Wuthering Heights one time too many.

Except: Noemí is not counting on the reality of High Place, a moldering Victorian mansion with its own private cemetery. Nor is she expecting the chilly-yet-smug reception from cousin’s strange new family, or the odd rules they live by. Noemí only came to report back to her father about Catalina’s wellbeing—a short visit. But the days stretch on, and something about High Place just doesn’t feel right. And it’s more than dust and mildew.

Mexican Gothic is a stunning, ghastly book. I loved it. Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s attention to detail is exquisite; her prose is perfectly creepy, and she knows just how to keep her readers suspended inside the terrifying world she creates. This is Gothic horror done to perfection, from the first page to the last.

As with any good Gothic, so much of this novel’s success rides on its setting. High Place is a grimy, dilapidated old ruin with enough ghostly echoes and cursed family portraits to match the very best. The fact the no one expects to see a Victorian-style British mansion in the midst of rural Mexico just adds to the feeling of wrongness. Noemí, with her chic manners and modern lifestyle, is immediately cast as the outsider amid the white-draped furniture and gloomy library. Catalina, her cousin, claims the house can speak and interact with its inhabitants. Is that true? Is there such a thing as a haunted house? (Noemí doubts it.) But maybe there’s more to Catalina’s feverish ravings than a young woman who’s momentarily lost touch with reality. Something seems to be happening at High Place.

And if it’s not High Place itself, then maybe it’s the Doyle family? They’re certainly more than a little odd. And what about their mute, decrepit servants? Or the misty-shrouded graveyard, covered in soil brought directly from England nearly 100 years ago? Might there also be something wrong with the silver mines? What terrible pandemic killed all the miners so long ago? Why do the locals look upon High Place and the Doyles with so much suspicion?

These questions unravel endlessly, each hitting pitch-perfect beats in a hypnotic masterclass of horror writing. Moreno-Garcia knows just how to tease her readers with answer, then confuse the truth with even more ambiguity. Like Noemí, the mysteries of High Place sucked me in, and I could not be satisfied until every single secret was brought to light.

(And the truth was, uh…A Lot.)

What I loved about Mexican Gothic especially was how, even amid the classic notes of a familiar genre, the author never lost the cultural touchstones of Mexico, of her protagonist’s mestizo heritage, or of what the Doyles—white, opportunistic European settlers—represented in the larger scheme of things. These themes are subtly woven through the narrative, and the twists of the plot perfectly accentuate issues of class, ethnicity, and gender. After all, suppose Catalina’s new husband really is abusing her—what recourse is there? In 1950, women in Mexico could not even vote.

Horror is darkest where it latches on to the ugliness of reality. Mexican Gothic is perfect because it uses the somewhat fantastic vehicle of a haunted house to examine the history of of a nation, the oppression of a sex, and the fear of dying. This book is eerie, delicious, and decadent. Also, to put it plainly: it’s just absolutely good fun.