(Thank you, publisher!)
This was useful. I really recommend this if you don't understand the story or to any people!

A great kit for a better and guided discussion, while also giving an insightful view on the novel & the author!

I loved it! I saw a lot of reviews complaining about things that are indicative of gothic romance, so I think if you don't enjoy the slow pacing, strange responses to a horror setting, and general camp of gothic romance, I imagine they won't enjoy Mexican Gothic. But if that genre is your jam you might love it.


Mexican Gothic was one of my most anticipated reads in 2021. I'm already a big fan and collector of vintage gothic romances, so I was excited when I heard about a contemporary release in the old style and I got the chance to view it from the viewpoint of a Mexican author. I'm a bit ashamed to say I can't name a single Mexican author from my reading list so this was a good introduction to the setting and voice. Mexican Gothic did not disappoint on any fronts - it held true to the old camp of women running from spooky houses, instant romance with a brooding rich guy, things going bump in the night, and mysterious and murderous secrets that may or may not be paranormal in nature. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's now become an insta-buy on my shelves!
To add on, the Book Club Kit provides some interesting background and insight into the setting of Mexican Gothic, and comes with some gorgeous paper dolls of Noemi. I had mine printed on a thick card stock so they can adorn my shelves!

Brilliant guide, will be using it for my book club discussion of this book next month!

I was looking for this exact thing to help lead my book club to a great book reviewing session and this ticked all the boxes. Highly recommend

This was a great little book for after reading the Mexican Gothic.
The discussion questions really made you think about the book and reflect on a few things.
I personally absolutely enjoy when authors include a playlist for a book. It sets the atmosphere and the mood of the book.
There is also a Naomi Taboada paper doll included which can be cut out and assembled. So, I think that might be great for people that enjoy arts and crafts.
All in all, I think this little booklet is probably great for a book club and could spark some interesting discussions about the book with the questions.

I hated this book, I just could not get in touch with the characters. tHE pLOT WAS FILLED WITH HOLES AND JUST WASNT A VERY GOOD BOOK IN MY OPINION

It was perfect to know more about the author and the story of the book.
Make you feel part of the world of noemi, even the playlist helps a lot.

This was a good kit with plenty of content and activities. It was interesting to see the different outfits for Noemi as it gave more of a feel for her character and style - giving visuals you only usually get in screen adaptations! That being said, while the outfit cutouts were an interesting addition, they're a bit time consuming so not something I would usually go for.
The author's letter was insightful and a good way to start the kit and the questions were a mix of predictable (but good!) and book-specific. The illustration of the family seal also looked amazing!

This is a great resource to accompany the book. Thank you for making it available, this is going to come in very useful.

No Just NO! This was so boring! Don't read it! Not even scary! I know I am the unpopular opinion here but nothing happens in this book! I wish I would have DNFed it!

Rating: 3.5 (rounded down) / 5

Okay, so this book was going along great until....it very much wasn't.

*groans deeply in disappointment* Okay, so maybe it's my fault for expecting that a modern-day author could possibly get a Gothic novel done right, but when the title itself has the word "gothic" in it, you expect that they will have, right?

The setup, to give the author credit, is great, and maybe even 70% of the novel is exactly what you'd expect of a good Gothic: old mysterious house, old mysterious family, shadows, darkness, nightmares, a lack of answers, fog, a cemetery, a complicated history of murder and corruption, faces leering at you and strange whispers and a darkness, all that jazz. Check, check, and check! For a while, I thought that the author got the Gothic novel down perfectly, as it reminded me a lot of Clermont or The Mysteries of Udolpho.

*sighs* But then...it just gets balls-out weird and disgusting, and the supernatural-fantasy elements just ruin everything that was good and exciting about it before. Totally ruins the vibe, atmosphere, etc. (I was this close to tossing the novel aside then and there, but since I had less than a hundred pages left by this point, I figured "what the hell" and rushed through reading the rest of it in the hopes that it was all a dream or something, but alas, it is not.)

I honestly don't know what was going through the author's head in writing this story the way she did, and if I didn't know any better I'd say she'd taken some "magic mushrooms" of her own when writing this. Alas though, when you put the story together all in all, you'll see that her intentions were to take the direction that she did since the beginning, but that just makes it all an even more tragic waste of good writing and setup based on the direction that the plot takes. Forget a trainwreck ending via a crash--this is a trainwreck ending via a slow, disgusting decay.

I come away from the story feel disappointed and dirty because of all the fungus. *shudders* I think I'll be taking a bath soon and rushing towards another book so as to put this one behind me. If I ever pick it up again to read, maybe I'll be more lenient in my second reading because I'll know what to expect but, for now, I feel disappointed and disinterested as only a disgruntled reader can. NEXT!

This is an awesome resource that I will be looking at in hopes to have a book group discussion on this title! Thanks Netgalley and Silvia Moreno-Garcia!

Thank you NetGalley for this book for review.

Firstly, I thought this was the actual book which was a misread on my part. However, this book is perfect for people who are part of a bookclub or are wishing to start one and don't know what should be discussed about a book, this could be used as an example.

It does pose good questions and is perfect for anyone who wishes to have Mexican Gothic as book club pick.

Unfortunately for me as I haven't read Mexican Gothic yet (I thought this was the actual book) I didn't get anything from this.

- thank you netgalley and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

i thought this was the book itself, but that was my problem for not reading correctly :(
i really wanna read this book!

I requested this book, thinking the actual book would be included in the kit. It is not - it is purely a kit to discuss the contents of the book, with some extras in it.

The kit includes a list of 9 discussion questions, which are so open that it seems they do not really challenge the reader to go into depth on the story or themes. As I have yet to read the book, I might be speaking out of turn.

I did really like the additional content which provides more backstory to the characters, and especially appreciated the playlist that the author included based on the book!

Sadly I misread and thought this was the title apposed to the book club guide. I wish to read the title than come back to the book club questions as to not spoil the book for myself.

Was super excited for this book, as I’ve heard so many nice things about. This is definitely brought the rating down, because entering this book I had expectations. Sadly I personally didn’t enjoy but I see how people would!

It's a great book. The premise was amazing. The cover was even more amazing. SO I dug into this book and I waited for it to pick up. I waited, and turned another page and waited....and waited...... Finally I turned to my fellow reviewers at page 200 to see..umm does this pick up? They said yeah wait for it...Okay so it did pick up- at page 250. So the last 50 pages of the book was crammed full of weirdness.

Noemi is living the good life. She is living off daddy's dime and a socialite in Mexico City. Her father makes it clear that she needs to do him a favor and head out to a remote estate that her cousin Catalina is living with her recently acquired husband Virgil. He wants her to check in on her because- well it appears she has lost her mind. She is sending letters home of people living in the walls, claims her husband is poisoning her among other bizarre statements. Sounds intriguing right??? Well I thought so too. I was all in...

Yet when Noemi gets to the estate she is hardly allowed to spend any time with her cousin. She is not allowed to freely roam around or do anything she wants. So why doesn't she just leave? Or take her cousin? Instead the first 250 pages was spent with her mulling around the house and having vivid nightmares. Sure it was creepy but there was no plot. I failed to connect to ANY of the characters because, there just wasn't enough information put forth about them. Trust me, I can take weird. I LOVED Ninth House! I would have given that book 10 stars if Goodreads would let me. That was dark, creepy, weirdness and I loved it.

Personally for me, this book took just too long to take off. When it finally did, it felt like a ton of stuff was jammed into the last 50 pages. It was so bizarre and out there- it just wasn't for me. Don't let my review sway you because there are alot of fantastic reviews out there about this one.

I read this book for my own entertainment, and I really enjoyed it. I don't think I've ever read anything like it -- it's a horror novel that does an excellent job in delving into issues of colonialism, class, race, and gender in a way that is compelling, thought-provoking, and disturbing. It shines a light on the disturbing aspects of colonialism in a different way, one of which is at times metaphorical. This book is plot and character driven, and both are well developed.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a novel with strong female leads and is starting to dip their toe into horror novels (as its not too scary). I also think this could work well in a literature class that looks at colonial/postcolonial literature of the Americas, Mexico, or the Latinx Diaspora.

Interesting, Almost like a behind the scenes feel to it. Also answered a few questions.
Note: This is not the actual book