Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Mexican Gothic

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

83 reviews

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It’s great for gritty scene lovers, and made me compare to books like Annihilation and maybe even Severance or The Raven King. But those books have excellent dialogue, characters, and narrative flow. This book fell flat in all those areas.

I kept having to put this down because the story stiffly shifts from one room, then another, then town, then something trippy happens. The plot was constantly interrupted with stories of past figures and happenings, which would have been something better discovered organically, or detail revealed to the reader through alternate chapters. So what I’m saying is that the book could use some more editing.

By the end, I think it was trying to draw parallels of the Grant Wood painting American Gothic,

if the knowledge of the figures are father and daughter, there’s a light conspiracy twist of incestuous relationship… idk!

The book was certainly unsettling, and full of ‘shrooms. I’m guessing with how often the word “putrefaction” came up, they would be particularly smelly ones!

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xiggy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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andloveistoolong's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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badmom's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Intriguing mystery set in 1950s Mexico surrounding a young woman’s cousin, recently married but suddenly disengaging from her close-knit family. As the main character, a bold & brash (for the 1950s) adventurer, investigates she discovers that her cousin’s in-laws are essentially white supremacists. She also begins to realize their home harbors terrifying & dangerous secrets, and she might be ensnared as well.
The story is engaging most of tge way & written with soaring, sumptuous imagery at the start but unfortunately unravels once the secrets are revealed - the language ultimately feels more melodramatic soap opera than true, rich gothic.

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apollinares's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This book had been hyped up for me and based on that, I expected to like it a lot more than I did. I feel like a lot more could have been done with the premise and setting, and many aspects of the story fell very flat for me.

Noemi isn't as one dimensional as her cousin Catalina, but she doesn't feel as fleshed out as she could have been. She's not vapid or shallow per-se, but the way she reacts to the (batshit insane, and in theory - horrifying) things happening around her is... underwhelming. My love for pathetic sickly men kept me rooting for Francis, but otherwise - the antagonists were predictable, Noemi was predictable, and the ending was kind of rushed? Lots of telling (rather than showing) going on too, and the main conflict/villain/clues towards what was going on, was revealed to Noemi through dreams, which is cheap.

I genuinely wish I liked that more than I did. It sounded so up my alley, I'm gutted.

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