Book Review: “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Jul 1

Håfa adai and welcome to spooky season, my favorite month of the year! Throughout October 2024, I will publish reviews for works of horror, suspense, and the supernatural. My fourth spooky pick for the month is Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Horror bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Noemí Taboada is a young, beautiful, and confident debutante living in Mexico City. Sure, she has many suiters, but she’s in no rush to pick a partner. She’s more interested in advancing her studies and possibly pursuing a graduate degree in anthropology. She’s ready for the next semester to start when her father receives a cryptic and alarming letter from her newly-married cousin Catalina. It seems as if Catalina is losing her mind. Although reluctant at first, Noemí puts her studies on hold to travel to High Place, a manor in the Mexican countryside where Catalina now lives with her husband Virgil Doyle and his family.

Noemí immediately feels like something strange is going on in High Place. The once-booming silver mining town is impoverished and nearly abandoned. The Doyle’s remain strictly isolated within their dark and gloomy manor, seeking only the assistance of an English doctor who pays home visits instead of seeing the local doctor in town. Howard Doyle, the patriarch of the once powerful family, keeps prodding Noemí with antiquated questions and comments. Catalina is practically kept locked up in her room. And Noemí is experiencing terrible nightmares.

Important Trigger Warning for Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic depicts sexism, racism, violence, and sexual assault. These themes are mostly essential to the setting and story. If these are themes that cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

My Thoughts on Mexican Gothic: 5 stars!

Mexican Gothic is set in 1950’s Mexico. We start off with a glimpse of the lively social life of Noemí Taboada in Mexico City. The reader quickly learns about Noemí’s family’s wealth and success before Noemí is notified that she must travel to a remote mountain town to see what is going on with her recently-married cousin. From there, the reader is taken to a spooky and spacious yet stifling estate in a now nearly abandoned former silver mining town. Silvia Moreno-Garcia masterfully creates vivid environments throughout Mexican Gothic that are beautiful, creepy, and sometimes gross.

Mexican Gothic is told from the third-person narrative following closely behind Noemí Taboada. The story structure follows some classic tropes of gothic horror writing—a strange letter, a dark and mysterious manor on a hill, a creepy man and even creepier older man—to poignantly present themes as relevant today as they were in the 1950’s: classism, sexism, racism, colorism, colonialism, and abuse. It portrays the daring and bravery borne from love for and responsibility to family.

The principal cast of Mexican Gothic consists of several characters: cousins Noemí and Catalina; the Doyle’s of High Place (Virgil, Lizzie, Frances, and Howard); and High Place. Although they are cousins, Noemí and Catalina could not be more different in personality. Noemí is confident, spirited, and head strong yet realistic. Catalina is sensitive, demure, and non-confrontational yet fanciful. These difference do not cause them to clash. Instead, they seem to compliment each other quite well. As a side note that has absolutely no weight on this rating category, I adore the names Noemí and Catalina.

Many of the themes present throughout Mexican Gothic are touched upon in interactions between Noemí and the various living members of the Doyle family. Virgil, the husband of Catalina, is controlling and intimidating. Howard, the patriarch of the remaining Doyle estate, stubbornly clings to antiquated notions of racial purity and static gender roles. Virgil’s sister Lizzie is rigid and overbearing as she enforces the rules set in place by the Doyle patriarch. And Frances, possibly the only tolerable Doyle, gives the reader hope that maybe this family has some redeeming qualities.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia does an eerily fantastic job of creating High Place as a character in its own right. The spooky and seemingly abandoned mansion on the hill is a commonly used stage in horror writing. High Place is a dark, brooding, and sinister keeper of secrets that inspires ailments and nightmares in its occupants. Mexican Gothic follows a common plot-driven formula in horror writing where events have been unfolding before the characters arrive on the scene. That being said, the individual players of the story, consisting of over a half dozen people and a manor, each bring unique perspectives or contributions to the story.

My overall rating for Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic is 5 out of 5 stars! I truly enjoyed reading this book. So much so that I bought the audiobook, went through the story again, and even gifted a copy to one of my closest friends. The intensity of horror in this book is not very high. Although I would have loved for it to have more intense horror, I can appreciate that the low-level horror makes it great for those who are either dabbling in horror or those who are not okay with high-level horror. I can see myself rereading this book and buying more copies to gift to others.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 28 October 2024