OMG! I had no brain right now! The author stole it! I wish she would have put some bravery into my heart because I think I’m not gonna sleep at least for a week and I already brought back Christmas ornaments and enlightened house (I don’t have any idea how much electric bill will coast next month but I’m sure my husband will have the worst scream crying experience of his lifetime.)

This book is insanely terrifying, spin-tingling, horrifying, mind blowing, eyes popping, tear jerker (nope it’s not emotional, you cry like a baby because you realize you just pissed your pants when you were reading it and you’re dying from humiliation! I’ve been there!), paranoid, a dangerous dancing between Mexican folklore, horror stories and Darwin’s theory of natural selection. You want to throw the book and start running outside from your house. ( I took 5 tours around Sunset Boulevard at the rush hour and was saluted by angry drivers’ flipping birds but I didn’t care! Running gave me endorphin and adrenalin I needed.)

Here is the eerie, ominous, petrifying plot of the book: Noemi is sent to High Place after her father gets an awkward and suspicious letter from her cousin Catalina, recently got married. The letter implied that she’s suffering from a mental illness or there’s something really wrong about her husband Virgil’s mansion. So Noemi goes there to check her cousin’s medical condition and learn the truth hid behind her letter.

But as she takes a few steps to the house, she feels that something is really really wrong about the place : she’s introduced to Virgil’s family resembles us Manson Family meets Adam Family. Yes, they’re completely weird, living by strict rules, having marriages in family, covering the house’s walls with deceased brides. And there is a big tragedy still affects the soul of the house: a daughter kills her family members and commits suicide.

So as a normal person, Noemi should cry for help and run as soon as she meets that eerie people, including control freak, demanding Florence, flirting and nasty Virgil, the maids who act like they swore to silence and don’t forget about Howard reminds us of long time zombie extra of Walking Dead ( I think he’s soul-mate of woman in bath in Shining!) And only normal person of the family is naïve, artistic, shy son of Florence: Francis who loves to talk about fungus.

I’m not gonna give much spoiler but this riveting, heart shattering, blood freezing, scary book has so many alerting elements including ghosts, sleepwalking, violence, bloodshed, disgusting and extreme vulgarity. It’s so different from the first book of the author but if you ask my opinion that did I enjoy it? Of course I truly did! I tested my pain endurance levels. I screamed a lot and I was flabbergasted, speechless at some chapters. And ending, yes it’s volatile, blasting but also satisfying.

This means… here comes another gazillion five stars. But quick note: when you’re reading this book, don’t try to eat your mushroom pizza as like I did. I don’t like to write what happened to me afterwards…

This is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO twisted, unexpected, gory, exhilarating! I don’t know a sequel comes after that! But if author decides to write it, I’d be happily to consume it without thinking a second!

Sooooo much special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine for sharing this fantastic ARC and making my wish come true in exchange my honest review. And I personally congratulate Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this heart throbbing, extra ordinary book.

I loved this on so many different levels: the creepy foreshadowing, the atmosphere (!), the insane but also completely satisfying twists and revelations, and the consistent feminist undertone throughout the entire book. With this last, I loved that we got stuff on the more micro level (ie, Noemi's observations of basically every male character's nonsense) and also on the macro level (ie, that basically everything that happens is because of white male power run amok). There were so many great details, and the atmosphere is pitch perfect and incredible. I almost want to read the book again right now just for the scenes of Noemi walking through the graveyard.

I did think that there was some clumsy writing here and there (though mainly in the beginning, before the book finds its' footing in High Place), but honestly my main problem was Francis. His relationship with Noemi just didn't ring true to the rest of the book for me. But even thinking of my issues with him, there's too much good in this book not to recommend it. It is, again, a pitch perfect gothic novel, but with all the satisfying asides and observations I wish had been in the genre to begin with. If you're into creepy manors, creepier families, chilling dreams, and witty protagonists (and mushrooms!), this is your summer read.

I NEVER do creepy and this is it. Very well written and being set in the 1950s gave a very specific atmosphere that was effective. This is a book to keep your eye on. Great descriptions, fleshed out characters. I'm going to definitely be going back into Moreno-Garcia's backlist as well as keeping up with her future novels.

I was very excited to read this book and was extremely let down. This book is about Noemi, who is sent to check up on her recently married cousin who sends a bizarre letter from her new home, High Place. When Noemi arrives at the house clearly something isn't right. She spends little time with her cousin (which I thought was odd), the family and servants in the house act bizarre, and Noemi has disturbing dreams while visiting. However, Noemi just kind of goes with the flow and does little to try to figure out what is going on. When the "twist" of this book was revealed it completely lost me. The writing was not good enough to keep me engaged and for the last 3rd of the book I just wanted it to end. I would not recommend this book for someone wanting a new spin on a classic gothic tale; I think it is more suitable for fans of horror.

A perfect example of the gothic mystery, with an updated sensibility that will appeal to the modern reader! Our heroine, Noemí, is a Mexico City socialite in the 1950s. She is practiced at the social whirl, and seems to enjoy her frivolous lifestyle, but there are signs that she yearns for something more for herself. When her father receives a desperate and disturbing letter from her newly-married cousin, he asks Noemí to go check on her, in exchange for permission to seek a master's degree. Noemí sets out for the remote house where her cousin is now living - a grotesque and rotting mansion, built in the English style, on dirt imported from England, by the colonialist, eugenicist family she has married into. The descriptions are lush and the atmosphere is creepy as hell. I loved every minute of it!

This book is an intense, beautiful monster of a novel. Moreno-Garcia's gothic plot is as sharp as a razor and twice as dangerous. Like any good terror, I couldn’t look away. Lush and lyrical writing makes this a vivid, seductive read. The gothic framework is PERFECT for the faded Mexican mining town setting and Noemi is as sharp, stubborn and vividly painted gothic heroine as one could ask for. (Bonus: the dresses! I loved how unapologetically feminine Noemi was to boot.)

I'm never looking at mushrooms the same way again, just sayin'.

Let me start off by saying that I love gothic novels. I love the atmosphere, the way the characters act. The supernatural element that sometimes is or isn’t. Which meant that I was honestly so excited to get my hands on this book.

Mexican Gothic had all these elements and I was suspicious of everyone right off the bat. Noemi is a young woman who lives in 1950’s Mexico and enjoys the parties and how the world is changing. However, when her father receives a disturbing letter from her cousin, claiming things about poison and ghost, Noemi and her father make a bargain. Noemi leaves for High End, her cousins home to find out what's truly wrong, but once she gets there, the place isn’t anything like she expected.

I feel like there were red flags all over the place and I was at the edge of my seat the entire time wondering how she wasn’t connecting all these dots. Then something would happen and suddenly I was thrown off track and I didn’t know if I was right anymore. Noemi was a stubborn character, and she just knows that something is happening here, even if she doesn’t know what. I love the fact that she wasn’t backing down to the family her cousin married into.

A family that way that was just so wrong. I kept coming to conclusions about every single one of them the more I read. Each one more outrageous than the last, but honestly, I just wanted answers so badly. In the end, this book made me feel so many emotions, anger being the main one. Once I was getting to the ending, I could feel my blood boiling from how angry and upset everything was making me. That only really speaks about the author and how much of an amazing job she did writing this book.

Really appreciated the unique storytelling - the book felt very atmospheric and definitely untilized gothic tropes well.

Imagine if the fear and madness in The Yellow Wallpaper or the eerie unease of a du Maurier novel actually had supernatural roots. That is what Moreno-Garcia gives us in Mexican Gothic. The novel moves deftly from traditional gothic to gory horror without feeling forced. I really enjoyed this book. It would translate well to the screen!