The last book I read of 2020 was Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Honestly, I couldn’t have timed it any better. I’m not often caught off guard by books (their endings, plots, etc.), in fact the last time was so long ago I forgotten which book it was, and Mexican Gothic caught me completely by surprise. At first Noemí seems vapid and annoying and I put the book down several times because of this. Then High Place (what they call their home) and it’s white inhabitants are horribly racist—I mean spouting-eugenics-as-actual-science racist—and High Place a reflection of their miserable existence. But then something magical happened; magical and horrific. My partner asked me “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” multiple times while I was reading it because I’m sure I was making awful faces. The ending and the reason why the High Place is the way it is… well, you’ll have to read it won’t you? Honestly, giving you a proper summary would ruin the suspense! Silvia Moreno-Garcia did something uncanny and completely unexpected. One thing I will tell you is it’s a horror book, I thought it was a fantasy sort of novel. It is not. Bear that in mind when you read it. I’d say it’s for people over 15, since there is a brief (like maybe a paragraph) attempted r*pe scene in it and another scene that makes the reader (or at least me) extremely uncomfortable. If you need the page numbers to skip over, please let me know.