Following along with my desire to read more books written by women with strong female leads this month, I just finished Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
In 1950’s Mexico a strong-willed socialite by the name of Noemi is asked by her father to visit the country and check-in on her cousin, after the family received a most alarming letter from Catalina (the cousin). In her letter Catalina speaks of hauntings and bizarre dreams that are playing with her sanity.
Thus Noemi is sent on a mission to try to find out what is going on but also to bring her cousin back to the big city where she can get proper psychiatric help. However, when Noemi arrives at High Place she begins to realize that her cousin might not be crazy and that the house and Catalina’s husband + in-laws might be more sinister than they originally appeared.
Given that I love gothic stories that make use of language and some aspects of magical realism to instill a sense of horror and suspense, I must say that I adored this novel. I loved that SMG used such vivid language to set a macabre and spooky mood, while also slipping between reality and dream to give us a sense that we were slowly losing our minds alongside our protagonist.
While I recognize that this type of writing is not for everyone and that this is not your typical horror book, I still think people should check it out. My husband and I decided to read it together and took turns reading to each other on lazy days. We both loved it, but then again we prefer creepy insidious horror to outright slasher-type works.