This will be a simple review: I adored this book. I devoured it, and it left me wanting even more. Silvia Moreno-Garcias's new novel is an absolute gothic masterpiece. As every good gothic novel must, "Mexican Gothic" tells a story of both love and terror, weaving a tale that is simultaneously hopeless and hopeful with a healthy dose of the supernatural, and deftly addresses class, racism, and culture. This story is packed with characters who carry a tangible presence, some of whom are immediately relatable and lovable, and others who irk and discomfit with startling effectiveness. Get ready for "Mexican Gothic" to immerse you in the beauty of the Mexican mountains, and then plunge you into the dark, Victorian nightmare of High Place. Fans of Shirley Jackson and the Bronte sisters will adore this stunning, unique take on gothic literature.

The title tells it all - Mexican Gothic. It is an excellent example of the gothic creepy house in a remote exciting setting. It takes place in the late forties or early fifties, before women have the right to vote in Mexico. The heroine is spunky, independent and clever but working within the constraints of her time droid and society. The author tells a riveting tale that is both true to the gothic archetype and original. Enjoy!

This book was a little slow to start but once things got going, I was hooked. I thought the time period and setting were fresh and interesting, and I loved Noemi as a character. The secondary characters weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked, but that worked for the context of the story.

The writing itself is really what shines: the descriptions are lush and vivid and the eerie atmosphere of the house is incredibly well done. I very much regret reading this one home alone at night!

It is so seldom that I come across something that feels refreshing and novel in horror that I'm always surprised when I do. "Mexican Gothic" fits that bill entirely. Set in the 1950's in rural Mexico, Silivia Moreno-Garcia has managed to take a typical haunted house tale and turn it on its head.

Noemi is a young upper class woman living in Mexico City during the 1950's. When her father promises to support her aims for a master's degree in anthropology in return for a visit to check on the welfare of her newly married cousin, Catalina, Noemi accepts and takes a train out to Catalina's new home in rural Mexico. In a crumbling mansion on a nearly inaccessible hillside, Catalina is deteriorating both physically and psychologically under the care of her new husband's family. What starts out as a story of a creepy house and a sick cousin quickly takes a turn for the horrifying as clever Noemi starts to put the pieces together behind Catalina's illness.

Deeply unsettling and simultaneously gripping, I highly recommend this book for horror readers who enjoy historical horror, gothic or southern gothic literature/themes, a good haunted house story, or the writing of Joe Hill, the current king of creative horror.

This book took me way back to my early teens and the love of all gothic romances. Suspense and intrigue had my heart racing and kept me reading Mexican Gothic when I should have been doing other things. 5 *****

I will always read anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. She is one of the most eclectic authors I have ever read, managing to write skillfully in a variety of genres. Will buy for the library, and recommend.

WOW!!! I finished this book yesterday and needed a full 24 hours to process it before I went ahead and wrote a review. In that time frame, I raved about it to my friends, yelled about it on twitter, and followed my roommate through the house while singing its praises. I can't easily articulate just how much I loved this book. I immediately marked all of Moreno-Garcia's other books as "to read."

Noemi is a clever, mercurial debutante from Mexico City who just wants to enjoy all the pleasurable things in life while also maybe being an anthropologist or a famous pianist. This needs to be put on hold, however, when a frightening and rambling missive arrives from her newly married cousin Catalina. At the urging of her father, and in exchange for the chance to go to University, Noemi must travel to a rotting Victorian mansion in a rural mountain town to investigate. I was sucked in from the first! Noemi is such a wonderfully deep protagonist and made of much sturdier stuff than the standard wilting gothic heroine stereotype. She's a very welcome departure from the expectation.

This was a page-turner, and I was loath to put it down even to eat. I was forced to, however, because the book is so absolutely tense and at times outright uncomfortable to read in the best of ways. If you enjoy gothic horror, this is a must-read.

Everyone dismisses Noemi as a flighty socialite, but she has a backbone of steel. When her cousin Catalina sends a nearly incoherent letter alleging horrifying conditions in the home of her new husband Virgil Doyle, Noemi goes to investigate. High Place is a world away from her glittering life in Mexico City: the house is a moldering wreck, the Doyles are harsh and cold, and the nearby villagers share tales of murder and madness. Noemi's only ally is Virgil's frail cousin Francis, who helps as much as his overbearing family allows. Soon the toxic atmosphere of High Place begins to erode the boundary between waking life and nightmare.

Lovely writing, the author builds a lavish backdrop for her gothic tale in the estate house, High Place. I could really feel the chill, the crushed velvet furniture, the darkness of the halls, and the smell of an old house. Noemi travels to High Place to visit her cousin, newly married into the Doyle family, who has fallen ill. In true gothic horror, we must discover what is making Noemi's cousin ill, can anyone be trusted, and will Noemi succumb to the same darkness? Noemi, despite a wealthy, socialite upbringing, is tough and endearing. Her dialogue is always fun to read as she definitely says what she wants when she wants to. I thought she was a heroine to root for.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's gothic horror novel leaves the reader transfixed. The slow start builds an eery, creepy atmosphere that will haunt the readers dreams. For fans of House on Haunted Hill.

This is a riot! Haunted house story filtered through an <i>Annihilation</i> lens with a little Alice in Wonderland thrown in for good measure. Pretty socialite Noemí Taboada's father receives a disturbing letter from a cousin and sends his daughter on a visit to see for herself just what Catalina meant when she wrote, "I bar my door but still they come, they whisper at nights and I am so afraid of these restless dead, these ghosts, fleshless things." Moreno-Garcia does a lovely job evoking clearly the cold of the High Place, the weirdness, Noemí's disorientation; is the family Catalina married into eccentric or do they have sinister motives? Why is there always a mist too thick to see through outside, why aren't the servants allowed to talk, what happens when the rains come and the only road to town washes out? The writing is lush and beautiful and just so very creepy. Whatever your expectations of where this book might take you, you're almost certainly wrong and I think that's delightful.

Thank you @delreybooks and @netgalley for my review copy of MEXICAN GOTHIC, available on 6/30!

Set in 1950s Mexico, this atmospheric gothic suspense novel will chill you to the bone. Noemí Taboada is a fierce, stubborn socialite who lives life on her own terms. When her newlywed cousin sends her family an extremely unsettling letter, Noemí travels to a faraway city to check up on her. Noemí arrives at High Place—an eerie, crumbling mansion haunted by a history of murders and tragedies.

Noemí’s cousin, Catalina, is clearly not in her right mind and appears extremely ill. Her husband and in-laws are an unpleasant, disturbing bunch controlling her every move. Noemí realizes she must escape this dreadful house with Catalina and never look back but it’s proving impossible to leave. She must use her wits to unravel the mystery of the house and its magnetic pull. Noemí has no idea what she’s getting herself into.

I was reading along thinking this was just another gothic mystery and let’s just say that I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected turn of events. Things got WEIRD in the best way. It had ghosts, romance, mystery, villains, supernatural/sci-fi elements, heroes and heroines. This was a magnificent reimagining of the classic gothic novel and I loved every second of it. I highly recommend this book for fans of gothic horror and sci-fi!

I chose this book because the description reminded me a bit of Rebecca (which I love) and it was to a certain extent.

Noemi is a beautiful debutante from Mexico City. Her father sends her to check on her cousin Catalina, who after her wedding, went to live at High Place, an English Manor in the Mexican countryside. What she finds there is at first very odd. She soon finds out there is something much more sinister at work.

The beginning of the book was like a slow burn. You know something's going on but can't quite put your finger on it. Then "the twist"! And good luck putting the book down after that. At one point I had to lock my husband and daughter out of the room I was in so I could finish in peace. While I guessed a few things I'm going to be digesting this book for quite some time.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

In Mexican Gothic, author Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes the slow burn of this genre and turns up the heat. Set in the 1950s, Noemi is a free spirited society woman whose lively social life is interrupted when her father sends her off to check on her newly married cousin Catalina.

Catalina's letters to her family showcase a steady decline in her spirits and possibly her sanity due to living at the immensely isolated manor known as High Place with husband Virgil Doyle, heir to a silver mine that's seen better days.

Noemi is honestly concerned about her cousin before taking the trip and her dread increases upon meeting the Doyle family, whose cold manners and casual bigotry mask an even greater threat to both women. Despite what the Doyles may think of her, Noemi is more than a match for this mysterious folk and their sinister homestead.

I strongly feel that this engaging tale of terror should be a must-have for your TBR this and any season. Moreno-Garcia has a wonderful flair for reinventing those tried and true story lines to create amazingly awesome new worlds of literary wonder that any reader of fantasy and fear ought to appreciate.

A gorgeous Gothic novel full of the traditional elements of the genre, expertly handled and made interesting and new again. Moreno-Garcia gives readers a lot of hints throughout, but while they were obvious it never felt too heavy-handed. Her use of characters who can communicate in both English and Spanish, keeping non-Spanish speakers from understanding, was a good device, but would have been far more powerful if she'd replaced Spanish with an indigenous language to further emphasize difference and the eugenicist beliefs of certain characters.

This was a really enjoyable read that utilized tropes of gothic literature in ways that really worked for me, and had its own creative moments as well. I wasn't blown away by the prose (or the dialog, for that matter) - but the characters were compelling, the story was engaging, and the setting lived up to the pretty high expectations I was bringing in. A pretty quick read for me. Not sure if my library patrons would go for this one, as it had a little bit of a YA feel (aside from the graphic almost body-horror passages). I'll have to give it some more thought before deciding if this is one I want to buy for my library, but I'd be very happy to do so if I get any requests from patrons.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia can write! Her stories are compelling, impeccably written and full of complex, well-rounded characters. They are also unbearably suspenseful and so engrossing that they are impossible to put down. On the one hand, I wanted to enjoy the descriptions of The High Place, the Manderlay of “Mexican Gothic.” On the other, I needed to find out what was going to happen to Noemí. She’s a socialite from Mexico City. As the novel is set in 1950, she’s expected to marry, even if she dreams of becoming an anthropologist. So her Dad sends her to The High Place to find out what’s going on with her cousin Catalina, who has been sending desperate and very weird letters. When Noemí gets there, she finds that there really is something very strange going on with Catalina’s hubby and his family. Noemí is smart and resourceful, so it’s very easy to like her and root for her. The title is very fitting, as there are long, dark hallways, fog and even a cemetery. Noemí finds it harder and harder to keep her sanity and Moreno-Garcia takes themes and ideas from du Maurier, Poe and Lovecraft, and makes them her own. She has become one of my favorite authors and this is one of my favorite novels this year.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine -Del Rey!

MEXICAN GOTHIC by silvia moreno-garcia took me on a wild trip to High Place, a once beautiful but now deteriorating villa in the mountains on the outskirts of Mexico City. Noemí, a socialite from the city, goes to visit her cousin, Catalina, after receiving a frantic letter from her. Catalina married into the Doyle family, moved into the creepy manor, and has fallen suspiciously ill. Noemí immediately feels uncomfortable the second she steps into High Place - the Doyle’s are far from friendly and the house looks and *feels* like it’s rotting. she starts to have nightmares that quickly intensify and terrifying visions during the day. how is she supposed to help her cousin if she too is starting to lose her grip on reality?

my only qualms were wanting more from Catalina. she felt very two dimensional for the majority of the story, but somewhat redeemed herself towards the end. i also think this would have been equally as captivating without the love story that sometimes felt a little awkward. and finally, i wish there was a little more mexican culture in here - i think there was a pedro infante reference and then doctor camarillo eating his torta, but other than that ???

anyways. i still thoroughly enjoyed this. moreno-garcia is a masterful storyteller. i love books that treat the setting like a character and that’s what shined the most in this incredibly spooky thriller. if you’re a fan of suspenseful family dramas, ghost stories, and shaking ur head and continuously thinking, “wow, white ppl are crazy,” then this book is for you.

This is science fiction written in the feel of an old-fashioned gothic, but I'm not a science fiction fan. The description of the book doesn't indicate science fiction, so I was surprised when it veered in that direction - I wouldn't have selected the novel if I'd known. So to be fair, my opinion of this story isn't relevant - I don't read enough science fiction to say whether this is a good one or not. I didn't care for the plot, but what do I know?

I do think it's fair to say that the writing was a little distracting. I am not sure whether this was originally written in Spanish, but I wondered. There was a feeling something may have been lost in translation as far as sentence structure, word choices, and especially the fact that there wasn't much nuance to the text. ((Note, I did receive an advance copy, so it's possible that the text could be edited before it's published.)

What a wonderful book. It lures the reader in, leaving us guessing and never quite sure of whom of the characters we should trust. Lush, vivid setting and language made this the perfect read. Well done.