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A review by nahret
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I really enjoyed the atmosphere in the book. The house in question was very oppressive, and the eerie things very disconcerting, I found. I also enjoyed the whole colonialism aspect that underlies the story. The foreshadowing was well done; if one were to consider the culprit in that particular direction, it would be quite obvious from the start. I didn't, so I had my "aha!" moment.
See, the unseen horrors can usually be one of two: natural phenomena, often orchestrated by a very human villain, or supernatural entities of some sort. I think my gripe with the book is that it went in one direction when I would have preferred the other, which is obviously a me problem. I also found the solution - once we knew what we were dealing with - very obvious, but it took the characters a whole two chapters to figure it out.
The pacing was a bit odd; it durdles in the middle, when the setup could probably have been swifter, only to rush through to the end. I can say that I did find the resolution very satisfying, especially since the characters finally did what I had been telling them to do for some 70 pages or so.
See, the unseen horrors can usually be one of two: natural phenomena, often orchestrated by a very human villain, or supernatural entities of some sort. I think my gripe with the book is that it went in one direction when I would have preferred the other, which is obviously a me problem. I also found the solution - once we knew what we were dealing with - very obvious, but it took the characters a whole two chapters to figure it out.
The pacing was a bit odd; it durdles in the middle, when the setup could probably have been swifter, only to rush through to the end. I can say that I did find the resolution very satisfying, especially since the characters finally did what I had been telling them to do for some 70 pages or so.
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism