Here we are with book one of 2024 finally completed. Mexican Gothic was recommended to me by a few people, and I also saw it talked about in a number of places as being an excellent read. I ordered my copy from World of Books on eBay and ended up receiving a beautiful hardback first edition copy - not bad for £3.45!
It’s 1950s Mexico and socialite Noemí is sent by her father from her home in Mexico City to the countryside following a letter from her cousin Catalina. Noemí is tasked with bringing her cousin home due to Catalina’s belief that her husband is trying to poison her. All is not what it seems upon arrival at the mansion; Catalina’s husband Virgil downplays her illness, and the other members of the household are strange and strict.
As time progresses complications arise, with a strong tension ever present between Noemí and those surrounding her cousin. An undercurrent of something creepy flows throughout, and the final few chapters bring everything together in an unexpected way.
Pinned as a contemporary gothic horror novel, Mexican Gothic sounded like my kind of read, and I really enjoyed it to begin with. Noemí’s socialite life is described in a way that is carefree and vibrant, and her mannerisms, attitude and lust for life make her both compelling and likeable. Set in 1950s Mexico City her life of parties and fun is fun and exciting. The clothes she wears, the people she knows and the car she drives are all written about in a way that weaves a rich, colourful tapestry.
Contrasted against the drab, sorrowful surroundings of the mansion her cousin lives in, along with the characters that reside there, Noemí’s modern values stand out even more. High Place and its residents are written in a way to exacerbate just how different they are from Noemí’s city lifestyle, and from the moment she arrives it’s easy to imagine the bleak and despondent surroundings that she finds herself in.
At the start of the book I enjoyed the attention to detail, but by chapter 10 it felt like things were becoming repetitive. I like a slow burn, but this turned very slow. I like details, but the same ones were talked of over and over. We get it, it’s a mansion in the middle of nowhere, there’s mist! For me it became a struggle to want to carry on reading so that slowed me down somewhat in finishing the book. Despite the slowness it was an easy read. Four or five chapters could be easily devoured in a short time, though it often felt like there’d only been one or two new findings throughout those chapters. On the other hand there were times where so many different ideas were wheeled out it felt hard to keep track of what just happened, who was who, or why something just occurred. The ending was so rushed it felt like a checklist of tropes had to be squeezed in quickly with no thought.
By the final third I’d given up caring completely and was page turning just to get to the end. The premise had fallen flat, lost to a volley of tropes, bad pace, and characters that never became fully fleshed out. Even Noemí was a drag, and whether she got Catalina home or not fell from my mind because I no longer gave a hoot. To me the dream scenes were particularly boring and badly-executed, and my default response tended to be ‘eh?!’ rather than one of enjoyment.
In a complete 180 to the slow build up, once the action hit it was so excessive it bordered on ridiculous and, ironically, felt far too rushed. It was over so quickly and wrapped up in no time! Because of this it definitely felt like the lead in had been a double waste for such an under-explained and hasty conclusion. Of course I appreciate that with written works of fiction there needs to be an element of willingness for readers to suspend their disbelief, but by the end it felt like so many different things were happening at once it devolved into nonsense.
For a book that was hyped so loudly Mexican Gothic really fell flat to me. A rich story with an interesting premise was lost to repetition and a rushed outcome. Don’t let the pretty cover fool you!
Rating: ✨✨
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