What’s the book? Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
How dark is it? Maybe a deep cloudy gray. Major haunted house vibes, family secrets, several sort-of-graphic rapey bits.
Is it good? On a scale of 1 to 10 ghosts. Solid 6/10 ghosts. I’d bump it up to 7 if you’re really into atmosphere.
Noemi Taboada is a bit of a party girl. She’s not into anything bad, she just loves being young and enjoys all the excitement 1950s Mexico City has to offer. She’s in college and loves school, but she has no idea what she wants to study or who she wants to be when she grows up. Of course, this is the 1950s, so her parents want her to settle down with a nice boy from a good family. Noemi wants to settle down someday with a nice boy, too, she’s just not looking to do that anytime soon. She might even want to go to grad school first.
Noemi’s dad is not in love with the grad school idea. Some of his objection is basic 1950s sexist stuff and some is a healthy suspicion that grad school is just another passing fancy. Really, Noemi changes majors almost as often as she changes boyfriends. Still, he loves his daughter and wants her to explore her options. He’ll pay for grad school if Noemi agrees to take a trip up north and visit her cousin.
Cousin Catalina was an excited newlywed last time Noemi and the family saw her. After a whirlwind romance, she married the handsome Virgil Doyle and moved up north to his family estate and silver mine. When her letters slowly stopped coming, everyone assumed she was busy with her new life. But Noemi’s dad has just received a very disturbing letter. Catalina seems to be sick, paranoid, not making much sense. The Doyles insist everything’s under control and their family doctor is taking care of everything but Mr. Taboada is not so sure. If Noemi went up for a friendly visit, she could check up on her cousin and maybe even convince the Doyles to bring her to Mexico City for a second opinion.
This quick trip ends up being way more than Noemi bargained for. The Doyle family is simultaneously very boring and very creepy. Their silver mine is defunct and they’re slowly running out of money. They live in a once-grand manor house that everywhere shows signs of dirt and decay. It’s also very damp and moldy and none of the family seems to care anymore. Everyone is sour and silent and looks down on Noemi; they’re an Anglo family (most of them refuse to even learn Spanish despite living in frickin’ Mexico) who really believes in eugenics and racial purity, so Noemi’s mestizo coloring fails to impress them. Well, except for the family’s aging patriarch, who has a grudging admiration for her strong constitution. Their disdain was already bad, but disdain plus creepy fascination? No thank you.
The only one nice to Noemi is Virgil’s sickly younger brother, Francis. Francis is about the opposite of the type of guys she’s usually into but he seems sweet and with Catalina barely coherent most of the time, Noemi doesn’t have anyone else to talk to. He also seems to be the only family member who’s bothered to learn Spanish, which makes it easier to pump Francis for information without fear of eavesdroppers. As the two develop an awkward friendship, Noemi learns more about the family’s history but comes no closer to understanding what’s wrong with her cousin.
To be honest, not much happens in this book in terms of plot. I can’t say much else about it without spoiling the few plot points there are. Instead, this book relies heavily on spooky gothic atmosphere and a deep sense of mystery. These carried me through the book–I was aware that not much was actually happening but I enjoyed the creepy house and family so much I was enthralled anyway. The ending is also quite dramatic and action-packed, all the more jarring because of the slow buildup to that point.
I also enjoyed the characters a lot. Noemi was young and flighty in an endearing way; she never felt dumb or vapid, just inexperienced and totally unprepared for this weird crisis she’s stepping into. Francis is also endearing, clearly used to being ignored and pushed around by his family and, until he meets Noemi, entirely resigned to it. He’s clearly got a crush on this sparkly city girl but it’s more helpless and adorable than creepy. As the book progresses, Francis becomes more and more likeable while his charming brother Virgil becomes more and more gross and creepy. Their contrasts were a delight to follow.
I picked up this book because I read Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate a while ago and liked it. That story was solid while also teaching me a bit about the Mexican film industry. This story is also solid (even better than Silver Nitrate in some ways) while again drawing on aspects of Mexican history I could stand to learn more about. The story explores race relations and colonialism in ways that enhance the drama and tension of Noemi’s situation without bogging down the story. It was excellently done. If all my history classes included horror novels, I’d probably remember a lot more about it.
Darker Books 