gripping, creeping, eerie, hypnotic. moves perfectly from a contemporary story of two friends reconnecting into something much more horrifying. i was nervous because i’m not always into gothic horror, but i had nothing to worry about. gonzalez is deeply talented and i can’t wait to read more of her work.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Nicky Gonzalez for a copy of this eARC!

What a debut! Mayra is haunting, eerie, atmospheric, and beautiful. This novel focuses on Ingrid and Mayra, childhood friends who have grown apart over the years. They are brought back together by Mayra as she invites Ingrid to visit her at her boyfriend's family house in the Everglades. What is meant to be a relaxing trip turns out to be both eye-opening and terrifying depending on which character's perspective you are looking at it from. I could absolutely relate to the friendship in this novel. I escaped from my small city as well and grew apart from most of my friends, the toxicity in those friendships became clearer with distance. I could also understand the allure of the house, it was a place that gave you everything you needed. I think a lot of people crave that simplicity.

I do think the idea of the house itself and it being this separate entity did need to be flushed out more, I need a bit more of the how and why explained to me.

Overall though, I really gobbled this book up and cannot wait for more from Nicky Gonzalez, I am already recommending this to friends!

This is a very odd book. You feel like it is going one direction for it to do a full 360 on you and go a completely different direction. Sadly, it wasn’t a direction that I liked. I just wasn’t as engaged as I wanted to be, and I found a lot of the books to be too fantastical for my liking. I have read quite a few books like this where the house has power, and this one just wasn’t one I enjoyed.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Mayra is the very, very slow building story of two best friends trying to reconnect in a strange and secluded house in the everglades. Ingrid, our narrator hasn't moved far, physically, from her youth in Hialeah, Florida. She's achieved enough to be comfortable as a real estate assistant, but struggles in connecting to others, relying on dating apps to try and find someone to connect. Mayra went north to college causing the friends to drift apart. Mayra seems to be a big success, with earlier attempts to reconnect with Ingrid failures. However, Mayra is visiting the Everglades for a weekend to relax and invites Ingrid to join her.

The focus of the book is the fraught relationship. How do you reconnect with someone who once meant so much to you but you too are no longer the same person? Ingrid has much she recalls of their shared youth and friendship, Mayra's brash and bold behavior. Mayra too, recalls the past, but not always the same way Ingrid does. And it turns out the house is Benji's, and he is Mayra's boyfriend.

Much is revealed in the third act, but by then it feels far too late. There are plenty of hints that the house is not normal, but what becomes overt in the last act almost feels like a supernatural retelling of the two characters shared youth. How do you define yourself as an individual in a share society?

For readers of gothic horror, flawed humans or the hazards of aging.

In this debut novel, we follow Ingrid as she reconnects with her childhood best friend, Mayra. In some respects, Mayra is the same girl Ingrid remembers. In other aspects, Mayra is unrecognizable, but Ingrid can’t place her finger on why exactly. Ingrid is left to reflect on their friendship of the past but quickly realizes that she may not be able to completely trust her memory. Set in the Florida Everglades, the reader accompanies Ingrid in trying to differentiate fact from fiction on the eeriest swamp ride imaginable.

This story really worked for me. I loved how it started firmly in the realm of reality and shifted so slowly that I didn’t realize it until the intended reveals. The writing was so easy to read and flowed so smoothly. The atmosphere was creepy and gave me just enough to keep saying, “just one more chapter” after every chapter. Mayra is a solid debut that I’ll likely recommend widely for the upcoming fall season (or any season where thrills and chills are the goal!). I can’t wait to check out more of Gonzalez’s work. Overall, 4/5 star reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez in exchange for an honest review.

This book was definitely a case where the vibes were immaculate while the story left something to be desired. So while I really enjoyed the writing and characters in this one, I felt like I kept waiting for something to happen and not much did. But I want to focus my review mostly on the aspects that I really loved because I think we can expect exciting things from this author in the future.

This book presents itself as a gothic “haunted” house story, and the vibes are definitely there. I loved the setting of the Florida Everglades as it offered a very hot and humid feel to the story that really adds to the building of tension and the kind of fugue that permeates the story throughout. And like all good haunted house stories, the author has created a really memorable house here with an array of crazy rooms, locked doors, and a feeling of enclosing doom within the walls. This is the kind of house that I would love to see on screen, as I could really imagine the details in my head based on the author’s description.

The characters in this one are also great. I will always love reading about a kind of toxic, love/hate friendship between women who would have done anything for each other as teens and then slowly drifted apart as adults. But there is always some kind of tether there that you just can’t shake. Ingrid and Maya are both really interesting characters in their own respects, but their dynamic together is really what kept me reading as you learn about their past together and what led them to the moment of reunion in the house. And add a weird boyfriend to the mix in Benji, who seems nice enough but maybe a little off, and this is a great trifecta of characters for a haunted house story.

My main issue with this story was the lack of things happening. There are a lot of subtle things like losing track of time, not knowing how you ended up in a certain room, but there aren’t a lot of horror moments or truly disturbing occurrences until the very end. The last section of the book is very dreamlike and ethereal and a tad confusing at times. But by that point, it felt like too little too late almost for me. But with that being said, the vibes and characters were enough to keep me reading and invested in the story. I just wish there had been a little more plot or weirdness to the story.

At the end of Mayra, my first thought was "what did I just read? What happened?!" And for me this is a mark of a good horror book. Horror where there aren't jump scares and gore, but horror where you feel like you're slowly losing your mind and are lost in a fever dream. Horror where when you come out the other side, all you want to do is run far away and pretend nothing ever happened.

Mayra is built on a story of toxic friendship. A friendship where we find that each friend has their own version of how things happened. Maybe a friendship that is (at least on one side) a little co-dependent? Ingrid feels like a character that knows herself only in relation to how she exists with or without Mayra, the erstwhile friend that grew up with no boundaries and keeps leaving places and people behind.

When Ingrid and Mayra meet again, it is at a hidden house in the everglades owned by Benji (Mayra's boyfriend). And over a long weekend, Ingrid is drawn into the idea that in the swamp, maybe things are better. There are no expectations other than to be there. But Ingrid is also drawn back into the orbit of Mayra, their push-and-pull friendship, and the strange sense that Benji and the house and the swamp are not what they seem.

The pacing is slow, but deliberate. And early on you start getting glimpses that something is amiss in the heat of the marshes. Atmospherically, this one was perfect, with the house and the environment just as much a character as Ingrid, Mayra, and Benji. For fans of insidious, creeping unease and the taking apart of a friendship that perhaps should never have been, this is a book worth checking out.

I had a difficult time with this one. The synopsis sounded like something I would love; ever since reading House of Leaves I’ve loved ready creepy house novels. Mayra definitely had the tropes covered but it was just off for me, and not in a good way.

I think a lot of my issues stem from the VERY slow burn to get to where things start living up to the book being placed in a horror genre. It creeps along at a glacial pace at times and there’s a ton of flashbacks to wade through. I normally don’t mind flashbacks, but there were a lot and they didn’t always serve to move the plot forward.

Then a journal is introduced, and of course our FMC only reads an entry at a time rather than large sections (or the whole thing like most people would do). That among other little things just didn’t ring true for me and the frustration of it definitely pulled me out of the story.

There’s also quite a few words and phrases in Spanish which I didn’t know, and I couldn’t always figure out by context clues what was being said. I would have needed to google the words or phrases which would have pulled me out of the story even further. It’s definitely minor and not an issue, but with a story that jumps around quite a bit from past to present, having anything that pulls the reader from the storyline is going to add up.

There’s also prose is very vivid and the imagery is detailed, although sometimes it really missed the mark for me. For example, in regards to a dog, Gonzales gives us this: “Fresh wet boogers formed a red rim around its eyes, pushing out the layers that had hardened and blackened, marking the passage of time like tree rings.”

I think it’s a good start for a debut novel for sure, I just thought there would be more horror rather than just a paranormal twist (which comes right at the end). Considering that I didn’t like the characters and it took so long getting to the “good stuff” only for it to be less than what I was expecting was a bit of a bummer.

I think those who like minimal Gothic horror in contemporary novels will enjoy this rather than those of us who like their horror undiluted.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley and Random House Publishing, however this review is completely my own unbiased personal opinion, left of my own volition.

This was a very strange book. It is labeled as gothic/horror but took a long time to get there. It was just okay for me.

Oh my goodness! This was amazing. I will say the first 60 percent I didn’t know where it was going. It was a lot of memories and character development. Seemed lit fic ish. Then the last 40 percent turned into a wonderfully beautiful/scary/relatable fever dream. I’ll be thinking about how to interpret this one for a while. Absolutely fell in love with this. It was a slow burn love but now I’m head over heels. I have never highlighted in my kindle more. I will revisit this.

Thank you net galley and the publisher for the e arc of this book on exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley & Random House for an eARC ♥️

You know that friend from your past? The one who was half muse, half natural disaster? The kind of person who made you feel alive, but also like you were standing too close to a bonfire in a gasoline sweater? That’s Mayra. And when she slithers back into Ingrid’s life with a “hey, remember me?”and a “let’s get weird in a haunted swamp house,”Ingrid says YES, because of course she does. We’ve all been there. (Or maybe that’s just me. Therapy is ongoing.)
From the moment Ingrid’s GPS gives up in despair and the road dissolves into something that might actually be a hallucination, you know this isn’t a vacation—it’s a descent. The house is a character, obviously, because all the best horror-adjacent stories have houses that breathe. This one exhales secrets and inhales sanity.
And then there’s Benji. The human equivalent of finding a single soggy French fry at the bottom of your takeout bag. His presence is like a mosquito in the room—unwanted, persistent, and destined to ruin the vibe.
Here’s what this book does better than 98% of literary fiction:
❗️- Makes humidity a personality trait.
❗️- Turns nostalgia into something sharp enough to draw blood.
❗️- Features an alligator that absolutely knows more than it’s letting on. 🐊
By the end, I wasn’t sure if I’d read a novel or been spiritually waterboarded by the ghost of Florida Man. The line between memory and madness isn’t just blurred—it’s been erased with a damp palm.
Best enjoyed:
❗️- In one sitting, under a flickering bulb.
❗️- With a cafecito so strong it feels like a warning.
❗️- While whispering what the hell? at least once per chapter.
Proceed with caution. The swamp is watching.👀

Mayra is one of those books that creeps up on you slowly, wrapping you strangely in the past and present until you’re not quite sure what’s even real anymore. It starts with a reunion of two childhood best friends, Ingrid & Mayra then turns into something dark and unsettling. The Florida Everglades setting is thick with atmosphere, and the isolated house feels like a character all its own that reminded me of The Elementals.

The story unfolds through Ingrid’s fragmented memories of the girls intense, often toxic friendship they shared as teens. It’s moody, hypnotic and at times repetitive, but intentionally so, like a fever dream.

I had mixed feelings about the ending, but I think that ambiguity fits the story’s dreamlike quality. It’s not a book that neatly ties everything up. I’m definitely curious to see what Gonzalez writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House for the advance copy. Mayra publishes July 22

I liked this book but didn’t love it!
I had a hard time getting into it at the beginning and connecting with the characters a bit. However, I loved the rich imagery in this book and the setting, but I didn’t feel like I was truly immersed in the story until the last 25%.

I do feel like most fans of horror will enjoy this because of the setting and the ending!

Mayra left Hialeah, a Cuban neighborhood just west of Miami, for college in the Northeast, and Ingrid hadn't heard from her since. When Mayra calls her for a weekend getaway at a house in the Everglades, she impulsively accepts. The entire trip there is dangerous, with a swamp outside of cell service looming. Once there, Ingrid sees that Mayra is the same irreverent person she used to be. The two aren't alone together, as Mayra’s new boyfriend Benji arrives. The trio spends their time together exploring the house and grounds, and time itself seems to twist. Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world and herself.

Ingrid tends to get anxious and overanalyze things, relationships, and what people say. In school, she once did what Mayra and other friends wanted to keep their friendship, and that tendency to try to impress others and do what others want persisted into adulthood. The urge to revisit friends years later is a common and innocuous one, though most people wouldn't hide a visit from family or most other friends. Throughout the visit, Ingrid remembers the past, with her walks, naps, and exploring the house, bringing up different memories.

Teenage Ingrid had been impressed by Mayra once upon a time, since Mayra seemed self-possessed and didn't care about what other kids thought of her. It was like an antidote to Ingrid's anxiety. As adults, both still have similar personalities. Benji is trying to clean up and fix the property, sometimes going overboard. I found him creepy and Mayra a little annoying, to be honest, and Ingrid was passive. There's a reason for that, for the cloying feeling of heat and laziness throughout the book, for memories bleeding out and blending. I'm not sure if this is meant to be a kind of horror story, or showing us that sometimes nostalgia isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Thank you net gallery for a copy of this book. This story devolved rather quickly into nonsense. I There were constant flashbacks and then just weird stuff going on in the present. Not sure I would recommend.

I love the concept, a twentysomething woman from Hialeah, Ingrid, goes to visit a childhood friend, Mayra, for a weekend in the Everglades. They have become distant since the friend left for Cornell and didn't come back. The house in the Everglades turns out to have many layers and creates a sense of place in unusual ways, to put it mildly. The first half of the book, which largely takes place in Miami, Is fantastic. At some points I wished for a dual POV. It is clear that Mayra had her reasons for acting the way she did and for doing what she did later on, but those reasons aren't very well fleshed out because the story is told from Ingrid's perspective. I also feel like the back of the book could have really dug into the horror more. It felt a bit rushed. But this is a great debut. Reminded me of Caitlin Starling, if you're a fan.

Mayra is a dreamy surreal exploration of two estranged friends, Ingrid and Mayra, who have come to meet together again in an isolated house in the Everglades owned by Mayra’s boyfriend Benji. As they reminisce over sumptuous meals, the mood begins to shift into the unsettling, and time starts to lose meaning, with memories of the outside world slipping away.

I really enjoyed the reflective atmospheric quality of the prose and the exploration of Ingrid and Mayra’s relationship. The author really captures the emotional intensity of their connection and losing oneself for love and acceptance. As a Miami girlie myself, I also found that it really captures South Florida, particularly Hialeah and what it was like, as well as the isolated otherworldliness of the Everglades. However, while the atmosphere is unsettling, with some imagery which has definitely stayed with me (Benji and the window scene, if you know, you know), I don’t know that I would categorize this as horror, and some readers might be disappointed with that element. Still, I found it intense, emotionally impactful, and rather unique. I’m really looking forward to what Nicky Gonzalez writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy. This review was written voluntarily.

I love the Spanglish in the book, and how it flowed so easily for me. And Mayra? Ex best friend and Ingrid goes to meet up with her? After so many years? NAH! that could never be me. The text was a bit jumpy and I was getting lost all the time to the point that I started to lose interest. The cover made the book appear like it was some type of spooky read, but it was far from that. I was getting annoyed by each and every character, but I still read the whole book, so I liked it but I didn’t like it at the same time lol.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book definitely had the creepy/gothic vibe. But for me, that’s about all this book had going for it. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. The characters were not really likable and it fell flat in the horror aspect. Parts of the story dragged a bit and the paranormal parts left me confused more than intrigued.

There’s always that girl. The Beauty Queen. The Smart One. The Athlete. The Bully. The one who used to be your best friend and then wasn’t.

In this story, that girl is Mayra. She’s sharp, sarcastic, and walks around with a smirk like she’s in on a joke you’ll never get. Mayra and Ingrid were inseparable—until Mayra left Florida and basically vanished. Years later, Mayra calls out of the blue and invites Ingrid to a house way out in the Everglades. Against her better judgment (and honestly, against the better judgment of anyone who’s ever seen a thriller), Ingrid says yes.

Cue: weird boyfriend, remote cabin, ominous mirror situation in the bathroom.

Then suddenly, the story takes a hard left turn into Being John Malkovich territory. Like… wait, what? Did I skip pages? Did my Kindle glitch? No clue—but for me, the back half of this one just didn’t land.

I know this book is on a ton of “must-read” lists right now, and I’m sure a lot of people will love it. But personally? This is a "nah, I’m good."

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early read.