I'm so sad to say that this one didn't hit the mark for me. I was so excited to read Mayra, as a big fan of Southern Gothic books. It just felt kind of messy, to be honest. There were a lot of questions with no answers. I felt like the conclusion wasn't really a conclusion at all.

With that said, the atmosphere was written very well. It also had strong character development. Sadly, this just wasn't for me.

Eerily atmospheric and hypnotic are the perfect descriptors for this debut lit fic/horror novel about two estranged best friends who are reunited for a house party weekend at a Florida Everglades mansion that is more than it seems.

I loved the complex exploration of female friendship, the subtle queer/lesbian undertones of their relationship and the creepy but not over the top Florida setting to this story. Great on audio narrated by Frankie Corzo, who is one of my top fav narrators.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and to @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review! Recommended for fans of authors like Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

This book started off strong and I really enjoyed learning about the characters and their friendship. I also loved Benji's character. The setting was nicely described and made for a scary premise. However, the plot felt a bit disjointed, hard to follow at times and the ending felt a bit anti-climactic. It definitely felt creepy and I could see this working well as a movie, especially with some jump-scare moments. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

3.5 stars rounded up

I would call this literary horror. Mayra is a slow, eerie novel about messy friendship, identity, and queer desire set in the swamps of Florida.

Ingrid hasn't heard from her former best friend in years, ever since she left their Cuban-American neighborhood in Florida for an Ivy League university. But when Mayra calls to invite her for a weekend stay at an isolated house in the Everglades, she agrees to go. What she finds is a strange and disorienting house owned by Mayra's new boyfriend - a man who tries to be the perfect host to the point of overstepping boundaries at times. The novel weaves between past and present, the complicated relationship between the women, Ingrid's repressed desire, and the things that separated them. The last part of the book is strange and dreamlike, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I received a copy of this book for review via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This book was amazing and I loved the writing style a lot. I had a lot of fun reading it and want to get a physical copy for my shelf. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Overall Story/Book: 1.5/5
Narration/ Audiobook: 3/5

This book was a let down. For such a short read, it dragged on and on. I kept picking it up and restarting it with the hope that maybe I was just missing something. After the third attempt, I came to conclusion it wasn’t me. While I did finish the book, i felt underwhelmed and disappointed. The ending of this book is by far the best part and it still felt disjointed and misplaced from the pacing of the rest of the book. While I hoped for a more haunting story, I still felt this was an intriguing concept that ventured into the surreal of desire, memory, and friendship. Sadly, the premise that hooked my interest and curiosity wasn’t pushed, or explored, to the fullest. This read ended up being a waste of potential that took way too long establishing its gothic surroundings that it forgot it had a story to tell.

Still grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for this egalley!

Mayra is that feral, histrionic girl that parents do not want their daughter to be friends with. Ingrid is a shy, mild child hoping for a friend to come along. When Mayra is the new girl in seventh grade and approaches Ingrid with a compliment (“you’re kind of a rocker, huh?”) and an offer to share the music on her mp3 player (“I have some stuff you probably haven’t heard. It’s pretty hard.”), the tone is set for their friendship.

While Southern Gothic is already a genre, it’s not quite specific enough for this story of all-consuming friendship set near the Everglades. It’s Florida Gothic and the setting is as vital to the story as the characters are. This book epitomizes the phrase “no plot, all vibes.” Swampy, sinister, sultry vibes.

It’s easy for a quiet girl to lose herself in a friendship with a strong personality. Mayra’s friendship consumes and obscures Ingrid’s whole world and the two are inseparable until Mayra moves away, seeking something bigger and better out of life. A decade later, still in their hometown of Hialeah, Ingrid remains haunted by memories of her old friend. One day, Mayra calls and invites Ingrid to stay with her at a house deep in the Everglades. Ingrid resists for a moment but soon finds herself following the cryptic directions her friend provided.

Once Ingrid arrives and reunites with Mayra, the novel begins to descend into a fever dream. The two friends explore the eerie, sweltering swamplands surrounding the strange house Mayra has been living in with her boyfriend, Benji. The house is an oasis and Benji is the perfect host, but it all feels slightly disorienting and not quite right to Ingrid. Distracted by the hazy discomfort of memory as she navigates this new Mayra who is both intimately familiar to her and changed by their years apart, Ingrid begins to lose track of both time and reality.

To summarize the rest of the plot would be very challenging and would also ruin the slow burn journey into surreality. I was skeptical about the supernatural tinge to the second half of the book and was unsure how the author was going to manage to wrap things up, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised by the book as a whole. This is a remarkable debut novel that made for a highly atmospheric read at the height of summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to be an early reader of this title, available now!

I went into this novel completely blind and didn't know what to expect at all. What it turned out to be was an at times too slowly paced, but still mesmerising exploration of a difficult friendship with added gothic horror vibes mostly throughout the last few chapters. Ingrid gets a call out of the blue from an old friend, the titular Mayra, and decides to spend some time with her in an eerie manor in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone reception and Mayra's kind of strange boyfriend surprisingly hanging around, too. There are a lot of flashbacks to Ingrid and Mayra's teenage years, with the added intrigue of both of them having rather different perceptions of the events. Also, Ingrid slowly keeps forgetting a lot of things, which sets up the gothic twist later on.

I liked the book for the most part though I felt it was, despite being rather short, still a bit too meandering until the last few chapters when the narrative starts jumping around wildly. It begins as a study of a toxic friendship and ends in a fever dream. I liked a lot of what was there but always felt like something was missing.
Still, solid 3 stars read, especially for a debut!

this was so eerie! the way the story built and grew more consuming and disorienting, much like the setting, was really fun. i thought the ending was a bit anticlimactic but honestly that may just have been because of how much i enjoyed the book!

Mayra is described as “an eerie, hypnotic debut about friendship, desire, and memory set against the sultry backdrop of Florida’s swamplands”, and I completely agree.

If you are a lover of wonky houses that feel slightly sinister (think: Monster House), you will love the setting of this story. The house truly came alive throughout the novel and was easily my favorite aspect of the story. Hypnotic is absolutely the most fitting word to describe the experience of winding your way through the house as the story progresses. Additionally, Nicky Gonzalez kept the mystery around each character thriving up until the very end. Even though this book isn’t described as a mystery/thriller, the intrigue of each character kept me flipping the page time and time again.

Although I did love these aspects, the novel ultimately fell flat and felt a little unfulfilling at the end for me. Though I do think it is worth the read, Mayra situates itself in the middle of the pack for my 2025 books and earns a 3/5 stars from me. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC!ouse and NetGalley for this ARC!

3.5/5⭐️
I enjoyed the story and the slow burn of events happening at this house in the middle of nowhere Florida. I did like the complex relationship between Ingrid and Mayra. Specially since they had so much history together, things were as simple as they thought. The atmosphere in the house was eerie and haunting. I wanted more in the lore of the house or the place it sat on but it was still engaging. The last half of the book felt like a fever dream and I wanted the house to be a bigger character than it was. But I was satisfied with the end.

Mayra is a win for anyone that loves A Haunting of Hill House.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this gifted e-ARC.
Published July 17, 2025.

This is a gothic story set in the Florida Everglades. It’s about two childhood friends reuniting. It’s about memory and perception—perception of ourselves, our loved ones, and of reality.

Ingrid and Mayra’s relationship is rich, complex,and filled with palpable tension. The humid marshes of the Everglades is the perfect backdrop for their reunion. In fact, besides the deliciously unsettling feel of this story, the sense of place here is a major point of interest here. You can tell that Gonzalez is not only a native Floridian but truly fascinated and in love with her home state. You don’t forget for a second where you are in this story; you can feel how muggy it is, hear the saw grass, see the Spanish moss draped over branches, etc. And she describes this all so well. Her writing is fantastic!

If you’re searching for a gothic character driven tale reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and/or a novel with a strong sense of place, then I’m confident this will be a great match for you.

This book was not for me. I love gothic horror but this book is so slow. And nothing happened. I didn't like the flashbacks, I didn’t like anything. If I didn't listen to the audiobook I would of never of finished it.

Mayra is a slow burn, debut Horror novel set at a mysterious house deep in the Florida Everglades. We follow Ingrid, who after years of radio silence, finally hears from her childhood best friend, Mayra. While it might seem strange for Mayra to call Ingrid so suddenly, out of the blue, to invite her on a private weekend getaway, it's actually pretty true to character. Mayra did always march to the beat of her own drum.

Desiring a shake-up, Ingrid impulsively accepts the invitation and sets out on a solo road trip towards her destination, using only the sketchy directions Mayra provided her with. The Everglades are a tricky place. She's out of reach of cell service, and as the swamp starts to feel like it will swallow her little car whole, Mayra wonders if she'll ever actually get to reunite with Mayra.

Luck is on her side though, as she does eventually arrive at the quirky little house where Mayra is staying. The two fall into their old patterns of relating with one another pretty quickly, but soon enough the fun reunion is covered by a dark cloud: Mayra's strange-behaving boyfriend, Benji.

Mayra did deliver on the solid Southern Gothic atmosphere I was hoping for, but unfortunately, it didn't deliver much else. The setting was definitely my favorite aspect. I enjoyed the way Gonzalez described the house, as well as the area around it. It had a true sense of place, which is something I always appreciate, and it was unsettling. I could feel the heaviness of it, of the air and natural surroundings.

Additionally, I did feel the development of Ingrid and Mayra's characters, as well as their relationship history, was strong, but as far as a plot goes, it just didn't go anywhere for me. It was too long-winded in the build, and sadly had me bored and frustrated. I wanted answers, mystery abounds, but as I got to the end, I ultimately ended up with more questions than I had even at the beginning. The finale was way too fever dream for my tastes, and I was left feeling disappointed.

Too much build, too little payoff.

Overall, the 1st-half, that anticipation, was stronger for me than the 2nd-half. I wish it could have kept a solid level of interesting set-up, followed by an actual conclusion that made sense. It would have been a more satisfying read for me if that had been the case. Sadly, we can't love them all, and even though the content of this, stylistically, didn't work for my tastes, I would still recommend it for fans of more Literary, character-driven, Horror, or fever dream narrative styles.

Thank you, Random House, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is a very solid debut, and I look forward to seeing what Nicky Gonzalez delivers next!

Honestly still trying to process this one out. It was super weirdly done in a good way, but also lacked direction. I thought the writing style of the author was fabulous as was the depths of the the setting. The pacing and plot were just not interesting to me. It felt like too much was trying to be done.

I’m going to start this by saying this is not my preferred genre. I found this book to be just weird. This book follows Mayra as she rekindles her friendship after being invited to this house that has its own secrets. This is definitely a slow burn. I personally did not think the payout was worth it at the end. I do think this book would appeal to those into gothic horror, but this was not for me.

This exposes two fundamental truths: female friendships are effing wild, and sometimes the desire to disappear is more powerful than the desire to be seen.

Ingrid and Mayra were best friends, unbeatable, loyal, with Mayra bringing Ingrid out of her shell and Ingrid providing Mayra with love and stability. Everything broke apart when Mayra left their Florida town for upstate New York for college. They changed and didn't change, but found that their puzzle pieces didn't fit together anymore when Mayra would come back. When Mayra comes back to Florida, she invites Ingrid to the house in the swamp that she's staying in with her boyfriend, Benji. Ingrid isn't going to go but she's unhappy enough with her life and remembers what Mayra could bring out of her that it makes her take the drive.

Things are tense at first, but something about the house lulls Ingrid. Benji is a more than hospitable host, obsessed with giving Ingrid and Mayra space to reconnect, clear the air, and relax. Time passes strangely, the house in the middle of nothing is full of secrets, confusing hallways, strange rooms, tiny doors, and singular staircases. The two women mine their past and their hurts, confronting how they got here,

But something sinister is going on, and Ingrid needs to be the bold one if they're going to figure out what's happening and make it out the other side.

An encapsulation of girlhood, womanhood, and our limits.

I am from Florida. I have an ex best friend. All the makings of a successful soiree into this title! It was dreamy, it was atmospheric, it was strange, and I knew each darting lizard. This being a debut title addresses some of the lingering wants of the storyline and plotting for me. However, that didn't really affect how much I enjoyed it. The flashbacks took up a bit of time, but I think that was just on me because I've been reading a lot of nonlinear books lately. Thank you so much to Gonzalez, NetGalley, and Random House for advanced access. Looking forward to Gonzalez's next project.

This was an eerie debut and entertaining read that I finished quickly.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

This book had potential, but it often felt like two different stories mashed together, and both leaned more YA than I expected. The swampy Everglades setting was atmospheric, but the characters didn’t quite land for me. I never fully understood Ingrid’s infatuation with Mayra, who honestly came off as self absorbed and cruel. Their dynamic felt one sided, and it was frustrating to watch Ingrid cling to someone who treated her so poorly. While the premise intriguing, the emotional core & lack of cohesion just didn’t connect the way I hoped.

Thank you NetGalley & Random House Publishing for the gifted copy.