A review by semeyers
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ooo man where to begin with this one. I was so excited to dig into this and it just kinda....fell completely flat.

The premise drew me in: A neglected manor in the countryside in which lives the remaining members of a once wealthy and powerful mining family now battling to keep their power after tragedy.  A socialite from the city who arrives at the manor at the behest of her cousin's husband and her own father after receiving a rambling and concerning letter from the cousin. The husband hopes a familiar face will draw her cousin out of her confusion. Her father hopes she will be able to get her cousin away from the family and into a psychiatric hospital closer to home.  As she spends time in the household, it become apparent that not all is as it seems and something far more sinister is at work...

Now the issues:

  • The characters are incredibly one sided. There is no backstory on the characters you are supposed to connect the most with - the MC, Noemí, and her cousin, Catalina. Catalina especially fell flat. With no background on her, it is hard to connect with and sympathize with her situation. She was supposed to be the driving emotion behind Noemí's actions, but it just felt forced. The members of the Doyle family somehow felt more fleshed out as you heard their backstories and more of the reasoning for their actions.

  • The length. There are pages and pages and pages of Noemí just wandering around the mansion and the grounds, smoking, and not doing much of anything to forward the plot. I found myself thinking more than once "What was the point of including that paragraph??". A lot of it ended up feeling like filler.

  • The shoehorned romance. <Spoiler>Noemí and Francis had absolutely 0 chemistry. It was so uncomfortable having them end up together.  Keeping them as friends/confidants wouldn't have effected the storyline at all and would have worked bettter, imo.

  • The ending was predictable and not at all unique. 

I did like the twist
and the fungus
and there were some true moments of horror in this book that I enjoyed so it gets two stars. But, other than that, the whole thing felt wooden and formulaic. Just wasn't for me!
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