This book was slightly different than I expected but in a good way. This book is a fever dream in a horror setting, and I loved it. If you can get through the slow beginning, it will be worth it in the end.

This is an amazing literary horror--immediately immersive. It's like a lush fever dream, and I didn't want it to end. Can't wait to recommend this to everyone I know who likes slightly weirder fare.

I found this book to be a little odd. It’s listed as a story about a gothic haunted house, however I found that most of the story focused on the friendship. I found the story to be entertaining but there were definitely some really parts of the book where I had to push through. Thank you to the publishers for sending me an ARC of this book.

Nicky Gonzalez's debut novel tracks the reunion of Ingrid and Mayra, childhood best friends whose connection has long since dissolved. When Mayra unexpectedly invites Ingrid to a secluded house in the Florida Everglades, what begins as a potential rekindling quickly transforms into something far more unsettling. The story weaves between past and present, revealing the intricate, often fraught landscape of their friendship—a relationship that was never comfortable, which in fact, seemed awfully fraught, tenuous, and one-sided, with Ingrid never quite knowing where she stood with Mayra. Ingrid's imagination drives the narrative, making her an unreliable yet captivating guide through the novel's increasingly strange terrain. Her internal world is so big, so ridiculous, that even when the plot threatens to unravel, she remains compelling. The house itself becomes a character—isolated, labyrinthine, as mercurial as the swamp surrounding it—mirroring the unpredictable dynamics between Ingrid and Mayra. While the book occasionally feels like it's losing its way, particularly towards the end, there's an undeniable magnetic pull to the story that keeps you turning pages, curious about what bizarre turn might come next.

Wow - this book will take you on a gripping and spooky journey. The way the author wrote this book, made me feel how I imagine the main character, Ingrid, felt. I found myself losing track of how fast/slow time was passing in the book. The subtle yet stark changes in the character’s throughout the progression of the book, paired with the unsettling vibes of the house, left me feeling uneasy (in the best way). I zipped through this book so quickly and can’t wait to read more of what this author writes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

thank you Will Lyman, Random House Publishing and Nicky Gonzalez for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

So this book was not really what I was expecting when I hear a ‘horror’ book, but it really is a great example of gothic horror.

If you’ve read any of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s works, this book I would put right up with her because boy is it unsettling.

Ingrid gets a call from her high school best friend, Mayra inviting her to a weekend getaway to a vacation home in the middle of the Florida Everglades- no service, no technology- just a detox from technology for a simple weekend.

Ingrid and Mayra’s relationship is heavily detailed in this book between current day chapters and flashbacks to their schooldays before they graduated. I feel like these flashbacks could have been cut down IMMENSELY to make way for more of the unsettling aspects of the house but the reader gets a really good sense of their relationship and how Ingrid may have misinterpreted some events in their past, and how the rectify those.

One thing that was slightly disappointing was that the creepiness factory didn’t really ramp up until 3/4 of the way through (65-75% through specifically) but the author does a really good job with incorporating the unreliable narrative trope into the modern day sections and putting little unsettling hints here and there.

The ending was really an interesting thing, and I would recommend this to someone who may like thrillers vs horror, because I was expecting more actual horror aspects within the book which never really happened.

I think though anyone who enjoys a book that you have to really pay attention to and is more atmospheric horror vs overt would really enjoy this story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I started the book excited to see Latina characters thrive and take center stage literally just living their lives. I feel their Latin background could have been explored further and deeper without venturing into gratuitous territory and I’m sad it wasn’t more present than in some slang and specific locations mentioned from their childhood. I actually feel the opposite than several of my fellow ARC reviewers. I was kind of getting annoyed with Ingrid and beginning to find her insufferable when The Unhinged Fever Dream part began. Or rather, once The Window Cleaning bit happened, my back snapped to attention, and once I was able to clear my grimace I really began to enjoy the story.

As a bi Latina, I was really hoping that the sexual tension between Mayra and Ingrid, or at least Ingrid’s bisexuality would be touched on a bit more. It was barely really addressed, but I’m still glad the author didn’t bury the gays I guess.

My other bone to pick is that while I appreciate the author doing a lot of showing rather than telling, help a girl out and tell me some stuff, you know? Like. Ok, you dropped in the tidbit about the eyes in the diary and then mentioned them again when speaking about Benji a few chapters later, but a little more exposition, without having to give us the “How This House Became a People Eater” explanation wrapped in a bow would have been appreciated!

I will also add that there are some truly beautiful bits of prose scattered throughout the book that even if this Grady Hendrix-esque gothic horror isn’t your normal cup of tea, make for a worthwhile read.

I love a book that feels like a fever dream and makes you question every bit of reality until the end. It’s not always easy to develop a twisty gothic book that delivers a resound punch at the end, but this book truly took some turns that I didn’t see coming. This story follows two long-lost childhood friends that adventure to a lonely house in the middle of the swamplands of Florida to reconnect and stay a while. The house has rooms that shift and rooms that find you and rooms that change you. But which room is yours?

I’m so excited to see future books from this author and can’t believe this is a debut!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an E-ARC copy of this book.

Complex female friendship reunion in a mansion that’s giving haunted funhouse fever dream vibes. It started off slow, but by the end I was so creeped out. Worth checking out at release.

“Mayra” by Nicky Gonzalez is a truly unique and odd experience in the best possible way. From the very first page, I was entranced by the author’s beautiful writing—each sentence feels like it was crafted with the utmost care. I found myself highlighting something on almost every page, as the prose is not just beautiful but poetic, making it easy to lose yourself in the rhythm of the words. The novel takes you on a hallucinogenic fever dream, where reality and fantasy blur seamlessly. It’s a wild, captivating journey that leaves an unforgettable impression. The haunted house vibes are also executed to perfection, which is a tricky element to pull off in literature but Gonzalez nails it. The eerie atmosphere and unsettling tension create a sense of being trapped in an otherworldly place, making the narrative all the more immersive.

I also admired how well Gonzalez developed the characters, especially Mayra and Benji, despite the story being told from Ingrid’s first-person perspective. Typically, we get a limited view of other characters in such a narrative, but here, I felt I really got to know Mayra—particularly her teenage version—and Benji in a way that’s rare for first-person accounts. This debut has me craving more of Nicky Gonzalez’s writing, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. Gonzalez’s talent for blending surrealism with deep emotion creates a work that is both haunting and mesmerizing. If you’re looking for something unconventional, this is a must-read.

This was weird but very interesting. The author did a very good job at making this very atmospheric swamp/marshlands in the middle of nowhere setting and I felt like I was there. It was very easy to picture in my head and it was like I was watching a movie. I liked seeing the descent into madness that our main character Ingrid experiences. I just feel like I wanted more from this book. But I will definitely look out for this authors next release!

2.5 stars...first off thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this eARC. I really wanted to like this book but it kind of fell flat for me. Nothing really happened until like the last 15% of the book. So I was bored for a majority of the book but I finished it because I wanted to give this book a fair shot and maybe time to redeem itself. I thought it was going to be more than it was. No real character development the plot was meh. I don't think I would recommend it in all honesty

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to preview Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez in exchange for my honest review. This was an odd one! Mayra starts out with an interesting premise- an invitation to stay with an old friend for a weekend at a big, old house in the middle of nowhere. Once the narrator, Ingrid, arrives at her destination, things get more and more weird until the end. The house and it's caretaker, Mayra's boyfriend, are deeply strange and disorienting. I won't say more as I don't want to ruin the fun for future readers.

I didn't know what to expect with Mayra, and I like what I got.

Ingrid receives an invitation to visit an old friend she hasn’t spoken to in years. Mayra is staying at a strange house in the middle of nowhere. Ingrid goes with the intention of staying for 2-3 nights. Before she knows it, though, she’s been there for several days. Even worse, her memory doesn’t seem to work as well as it used to. That’s the basic plot of this super slow-moving thriller that was perfectly adequate, but no better than that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

DNF - There is certainly a readership for this book but I am not among them. I could not connect with the style in which this was written so I kept feeling unmotivated to go on.

Mayra was such a fun read! I loved how mysterious and bizarre it was as the story went on. I found at times the pacing was a bit slow but once it got going it took off. I also don’t really understand why this was called Mayra? I think there are more fitting titles for this book but that’s a small complaint. I really enjoyed this one and will recommend it highly.

I didn’t feel that this book lived up to its description as being a gothic horror novel. It was definitely gothic but there really was no horror. I found the writing itself was good but the plot was very thin. I kept hoping that the ending would be worth the wait but it was also kind of meh.

I love a good gothic horror, Mayra is equal parts awful friendship and what the heck fever dream. While I was really hoping for a deep haunted southern gothic twisty tale the “haunted” factor fell short for me. However I do recommend it as it was a fun escape full read.

Mayra follows Ingrid as she reunites with her childhood best friend, Mayra, in a secluded house, deep in the swamplands of Florida.

While this book is described as a twisty gothic tale, it felt, to me, a little more like a sweltering suspense mixed with an unsettling-maybe-haunted house story. And underneath all of that, there's
an element of a coming of age story, told through Ingrid's memories that she shares with Mayra, as they grow up together in Hialeah, Florida. Honestly, whatever more niche genre you want to put this one in, it does something that really work.

The cast of characters is small and intimate, with Ingrid and Mayra being joined by Benji, Mayra's somewhat quirky boyfriend. Through Ingrid's time at the house and her shared memories with Mayra, the reader really comes to be endeared to these women, as they spend their days (and, maybe more importantly, their evenings) in this strange house. The setting of the house and its surrounding marsh is both dreamy and creepy, and Gonzalez's writing is really suited to enhance these feelings with each description of the rooms that seem to pop up out of nowhere and winding marshlands that encircle the house.

Overall, this was a really creepy and, somehow, fun read. I enjoyed getting to know Ingrid and Mayra through the memories Ingrid shared throughout the story, and I truly cared what happened to these young women in the end. While I did find myself wishing there was just a little bit more (more slow reveals, more hints of what was really go on, more explanation of the ending), I did have a really good time with this book.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the Arc of this book!

I really liked this! In part, it's an examination of friendship--how friends grow together and then apart, and the complicated feelings of adolescent obsession. And, it's also a well-crafted submersion into oblivion--the writing of the way in which this "haunted" house preys on occupants was perfect in my opinion. I think I'm most impressed by Gonzalez's ability to weave these multiple elements together that makes them all engaging. There are some incredibly poignant observations in here, and I'm definitely excited to see what Nicky Gonzalez writes next.