Nicky Gonzalez's "Mayra" presents a narrative shrouded in an intriguing air of mystery, particularly surrounding the central friendship. This enigmatic dynamic proved to be a compelling thread, subtly urging the reader forward even when the overall direction of the plot felt elusive. However, the initial two-thirds of the book unfold at a measured pace, with significant plot developments feeling somewhat delayed. This gradual build-up, while perhaps intentional, ultimately contributed to a sense of disorientation that lingered even after reaching the final pages. While the atmospheric tension surrounding the characters' connection is undeniable, the lack of substantial progression in the earlier parts of the book and the lingering confusion at the conclusion may leave some readers seeking a clearer sense of resolution.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in advance for an honest review. I was ecstatic when I found out I could read this so soon.

So, what an interesting book. 3.75 stars, rounded up. I’ve never read anything quite like this, which is why I bumped my rating for the appreciation of originality. It starts out feeling like pure literary fiction, following our protagonist and her complex, sometimes tumultuous, sometimes toxic, often sisterly bond with her childhood best friend, Mayra. The story moves fluidly between memories of the past and the present, with the girls reuniting after years in Florida's swamplands for a weekend.

However, at times, I’d often forget this was touted as 'Gothic Horror' until the last part of the book. Then suddenly, you remember the description and realize, oh right, this is where it’s all been leading. That’s when the author launches you into a wild fever-dream sequence that feels like it’s going a hundred miles an hour. It’s creative, chaotic, and confusing (which I feel was intended). The narrative jumps around a lot, with scenes bleeding into each other through Ingrid's lucid thoughts, leaving everything a bit blurry.

The writing itself is gorgeous, deeply poetic and profound at many times. Nicky Gonzales is clearly a gifted writer. I just think she tried to do a bit too much here. I could honestly read her similes ALL day, she’s TOO good at writing them. But when EVERY character is also that good at similes, it starts to feel a bit unbelievable. The voices start to blur together. Ingrid’s inner thoughts, Mayra’s spoken dialogue, and even Elizabeth’s written thoughts all begin to sound alike, so poetic, sprinkled with beautiful similies, but after a while, none of their voices feel particularly distinct.

Overall, great debut, bro. :)

Oooo it’s been awhile since I’ve written a review! This book was spooky, fun and a little all over the place. I had no idea where this was going at any moment which made it fun to read, but I wasn’t feeling enticed to pick the book up to see what happens next. I read multiple books at one time, so my length of reading time always seems longer than it should. However, this just didn’t have me hooked.

I would suggest this book if you are into gothic horror. The story is basically an anxiety fueled fever dream that I know all too well. The ever changing rooms, Benji (ew, yuck), the full escape from reality. I thoroughly enjoyed feeling like Alice falling down the rabbit hole (see what I did there?). I was left wanting more, as if I have questions that weren’t answered. Benji’s explanation of the house and how he ended up there just feels… like a puzzle piece that does not fit. I needed more. I needed the connection to the diary explained. Who are all these people and how did they end up involved in this?? It reminded me of Beetlejuice.

Anyway. The mention of Upstate NY in a book that takes place in the Florida Everglades is fun as heck. Shoutout Ithaca.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. 3 Stars. I look forward to seeing what this author puts out in the future!

I struggled a bit to connect with this story but may need to return to it another time! Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

2.5
I have some mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I feel like there is no denying that Nicky Gonzalez has some writing chops. I thought the writing was well done, BUT I didn't love the plot/how everything came together. I feel like the author was on the cusp of some really interested ideas, but they didn't quite get there for me. I guess I kind of wished there was a bit more parallel between their toxic friendship and the haunted house. They seemed like two separate stories almost. The beginning of the story also felt well developed, albeit maybe a bit too drawn out, and then the ending all just happened so fast.

My favourite part of this book was the flashbacks of Ingrid and Mayra when they were teenagers. They felt like distinct, strong characters in this part, and I thought there were a lot of really good scenes there. The parts at the house just didn't do it for me. I can get down with an untraditional take on a haunted house, but I feel like this one had me more, so just scratching my head wondering, "Was this suppose to be scary/eeire/unsettling?". I hate to be that person, but this felt really close to not being horror. I thought it did do a great job setting some gothic atmosphere. The journal entries also just felt kind of pointless as they didn't really reveal anything that I felt like I hadn't already picked up from reading the summary.

The biggest tradegy was the sidelining of Benji. Like he was doing weird, interesting shit but I feel like we barely even got a taste of him and what his deal was.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

A haunting, modern day gothic horror novella.

Mayra will draw you into the boundless depths of the Florida Everglades and keep you spellbound for days upon end.

Is this a fever dream or something far more sinister?

Mayra what can I say? You are an odd story and an interesting one. Gothic, mystery, haunted? Yes. Friendships, toxisisty, teenage development? Also yes. I really didn't get much of a hold on. on this story, it was a bit too out there for me. Most likely because I wanted a gothic story and got a case study on teenage friendships indead. It is a good book, just not what I was expecting or wanting, or what I was told I was going to get. I think this will be a hit with a selecet group of people. I look forward to seeing it fitin.

Mayra reads like fever dream. Nicky Gonzalez spins a hallucinatory tale of Ingrid, whose life is comprised of working a dead end job and enduring bad dates. Her humdrum existence is interrupted by a phone call from Mayra, her former best friend, who invites her to spend a weekend in the rural Everglades at her boyfriend’s secluded house. Mayra and Ingrid once shared an intense, often toxic bond as teenagers but haven’t spoken in years. Obviously, as readers we know this isn’t going to end well. However, the journey towards that ending wasn’t what I expected and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

If you’re going into this expecting gore and straightforward horror, you’ll likely be disappointed. Instead, Gonzalez has created a claustrophobic story of psychological horror that examines teenage friendships and the sometimes toxic bonds between women. It’s Gothic in the classical sense—a hungry house built on past sins, a landscape that feels like a character in itself. I loved Gonzalez’ lush prose and vivid descriptions of the swamps and suburbs. (I especially enjoyed the repeated motif of the “green glass room”). If intense, sorta queer friendships and a richly described Florida gothic landscape sound like your vibe, you’ll love this. I certainly did.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

The description of Mayra immediately caught my attention. Best friend drama with a touch of gothic? Count me in. I was drawn in by the promise of tension, secrets, and a dark atmosphere, all things I typically love in a story.

While the premise was definitely intriguing, the pacing was slower than I expected. It took a while for the story to really pick up, and I found myself waiting for the drama and tension to fully unfold. Some moments captured that eerie, moody tone well, but overall, it didn’t fully hold my attention the way I hoped.

This isn’t the kind of book I usually gravitate toward, and while it wasn’t a bad read by any means, it just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. That said, readers who enjoy a slower, more atmospheric build-up might find this one worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

This was an enchanting story, one that takes you from the known all the way into the strange unknown where you are left questioning what you just read. It was definitely a slow burn, and it took its time slowly teasing you into the midst of the strangeness and by then you are hooked and you need to know what will happen next.

It felt hypnotic and strange and yet comforting in a weird way. I really enjoyed it and how it really wrapped up by the end leaving you with just enough answers but also so many more questions.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook ARC of this title in exchange for my review.

I expected a gothic, creepy haunted house book, but I'm not sure what I really got ... I didn't dislike it, I'm just not sure how to categorize it. Maybe I have a different definition of the word "haunted".
For the first half of the book, we get a bunch of flashbacks to a group of teenage friends who are maybe more 'frenemies' than true friends. Quite a toxic group of friends. This slow burn story is set in an isolated house in the Florida Everglades, which makes for a super creepy, atmospheric setting. It's a slow burn, and we are left expecting something bigger is going to happen. But then we get into a repetition cycle of - still in the house, more flashbacks, Mayra was a snot as a teen. Rinse and repeat. Then - woah, what's going on?! Mayra's in a swap? What? The ending of the book is so much of a fever dream telling, and it's just hard to really get grips on what's going on. Lots of jumping around as things get wonky, so that you're never really sure what is going on or who is speaking in the conversation.

It's not bad, but it's not great. I've been thinking about it since I finished it. But I can't rate it 4 stars - too many things I really didn't care for. So I'll go for 3 stars, and will cautiously recommend it to specific friends. I am interested in others by Nicky Gonzalez and would read others to see how they are.

Ingrid has no idea what to expect when she hesitantly decides to stay with Mayra, the larger-than-life childhood friend she always looked up to, envied, adored, and resented. Restless as she always was, Mayra had moved away several years prior, leaving Ingrid behind in their hometown of Hialeah, Florida. When she calls Ingrid out of the blue and invites her to stay at a mysterious and isolated house in the Everglades, Ingrid is fearful but overwhelmed by the desire to reconnect with the one person who once meant the world to her.

Things go well for awhile, so well that Ingrid starts to feel as though she is learning more about herself, letting go of old anxieties, and rediscovering a more mature, but equally intense bond with Mayra. But everything is not as it seems in the strange house; the architecture makes no sense, its space seeming infinite and claustrophobic. Time passes differently and soon Ingrid is having trouble differentiating one day to the next. Not long after, she finds her thoughts and memories are becoming jumbled as well, and to top it all off, Mayra’s boyfriend Benji is overtly accommodating, bordering on robot-like. Despite these red flags - or because of them - Ingrid finds contentment. Eventually the question becomes: are you really a prisoner if you love your prison?

Mayra isn’t your standard horror fare. It’s more along the lines of existential, psychological horror. There is one central supernatural influence but even that is extremely subtle - a creeping dread that slowly fills both the protagonist and the reader with a kind of panicked hopelessness. It’s a slow burn to be sure, and one that works surprisingly well.

I was in awe of how accurately Gonzalez portrayed the turbulent friendships of adolescent girls, fraught with jealousy yet also a desperate co-dependency. I saw much of my former (hell, even a little of my current) self in the timid, perennially-one-step-behind, never-in-on-the-joke Ingrid, and an amalgam of many of my closest girlfriends in Mayra.

I’ve been reading a lot of female first person POV books recently and when I realized this was yet another I worried I had reached my limit. However, Gonzalez’s style is all her own and I enjoyed getting caught up in her descriptions which were poetic and dreamy yet somehow never pretentious; Ingrid’s memories and perceptions of the world around her which were relatable but not predictable.

Those looking for more action-oriented, what-you-see-is-what-you-get horror may be thrown by what they find in Mayra. Truthfully the book is probably more accurately placed within the suspense category. Readers who appreciate eerie, atmospheric writing with a very introspective, character-driven plot will likely enjoy this debut.

I enjoyed this book a lot! It was Ingrid and Mayra against the world when they were growing up in FL. However, they grow apart when Ingrid goes to college and leaves the town of Hileah behind. When Ingrid receives a call from Mayra, inviting her to spend a weekend with Mayra and her new boyfriend in a very unique house, she decides to go. From this, it's very haunted house gothic. I wouldn't necessarily describe it as horror, but you felt the tension and claustrophobia in the story. Like Ingrid, you begin to lose part of yourself as time passes. I felt the end was abrupt, and I'm honestly not sure if this was intended. Either way, very fun!

I read this book because it was a horror book about a creepy house out in the swamps of Florida, but what I actually got was a book about a female friendship with a tiny dash of horror near the end. I was bored for a good portion of this book and the ending wasn't worth the payoff.

Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez is a dreamy gothic set in the swampy Everglades of Florida.
A book about friendship, memory and hauntings.

Childhood friends Ingrid and Mayra reconnect after years, is a house in the Everglades owned by Mayra’s boyfriend’s family. What is supposed to be a just a long weekend getaway for Ingrid turns into a time warped long vacation where leaving seems impossible once Ingrid finds a journal that belongs to one the house’s older guests.

I loved the setting. An old house with surprises in every corner- yes please! Overall, I enjoyed this book but I did feel like there were some plot lines that didn’t make sense.

Mayra took me a while to get through—not because it wasn’t well written, but because I struggled to understand what the book was trying to be. At times, it felt like a quiet meditation on childhood friendship, exploring how people drift apart yet remain inexplicably tethered by shared memories. At other times, it seemed to be building toward a haunting, even supernatural, tale—one involving a house that refuses to let go of its inhabitants.

The shift between these threads made the pacing feel uneven. Much of the book moves slowly, with the more eerie or suspenseful elements not really coming into focus until the last 15% or so. I found myself wishing that some of the creepier, more unsettling moments had been introduced earlier to help build a consistent tone and keep the momentum going.

That said, Mayra still offers a compelling, atmospheric read, especially for those who enjoy stories that straddle the line between memory and mystery. With a few more fast-paced or emotionally heightened sections, it could have packed even more of a punch.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy of the book.

Remember that toxic friendship from your youth that sticks to your ribs? This book will wake up all the feelings about it. Gorgeous writing and a "what the heck is going on" plot (in a good way.) I wish the ending were a wee bit more flushed out, but all in all it was worth the journey to the swamps of Florida.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and it only took a few days to read. I think this is going to be a good book club option for several clubs. I plan recommending to my book friends and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Sometimes, as a reader, you'll encounter stories that just aren't for you, and for me, this is one of those times.

I wanted to love Mayra. It had the makings of a thrill ride that I could go back to again and again. The writing was top-notch, and the basic premise (holding onto disloyal, fairweather friends) is something that resonates with just about everyone.

Mayra starts off very strong, and captures your attention in a subtle yet assertive way. I found myself overidentifying with Ingrid multiple times, and openly (and sometimes audibly) questioned why she was enthralled by Mayra. It was so obvious that she didn't care about Ingrid at any point in their friendship, and yet, Ingrid is so insecure and desperate to be accepted by others that she tolerates the disrespect.

The South Florida setting was laid out perfectly. I am a huge fan of immersive, atmospheric books, and Nicky Gonzalez will definitely have you sweating in the stifling Florida heat and humidity in Mayra. Her attention to worldbuilding and bringing the reader into the story should be applauded, because balancing the two really is an artform. I've enjoyed many books that didn't stick the landing in quite the same way, but Mayra was one of the rare ones that put me in the middle of the action.

Unfortunately, that's where the good vibes end for me. I struggled to pay attention to the story once Ingrid got on the road, and despite multiple attempts to jump back in, I just couldn't do it. It's hard to pinpoint what it was exactly, but I think the main thing that happened is the story's tone changed in small ways, and I couldn't adjust to it.

Mayra is the perfect read for anyone who loves a good thriller, and stories that focus on complicated and/or dysfunctional relationships.

Three days of desperately wanting to like this book
have been largely unsuccessful. While it’s possible
I will pick it up and try again in a month or two, I make
no promises.
I loved that the story seemed to be about two women
who have a super close and special long term friendship,
As the story trudges on to the conclusion I think I may
have figured out an underlying theme but it came
too late and was not fleshed out.
As a benign story of friendships and their
complexities, there were some parts that gave me hope.
My hope is that I missed the point, while others were
in on a secret.
My thanks to Random House via NetGalley for
the book,for review purposes.