The book cover for “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A woman wearing a purple dress sits against a paisley green background, holding a bouquet of yellow flowers. Photo courtesy Penguin Random House.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)
Trigger Warnings for Mexican Gothic
Gothic fans who wonder if the subgenre can evolve to move past the traditional Victorian era and dreary English moors will find that it can indeed be reimagined. “Mexican Gothic” takes place in 1950s Mexico, with an English family living in seclusion in the Mexican countryside in High Place; the family estate transplanted straight from England. Noemí Taboada is sent by her father to check on her cousin, who has married into the family and fallen mysteriously ill. In typical gothic fashion, Noemí finds that High Place is not all that it seems, and that getting out will be far harder than getting in.
From High Place on a foggy mountainside to the village full of wary townspeople that sits in its shadow, “Mexican Gothic” is filled with atmospheric settings. Moreno-Garcia succeeds in pulling the reader directly into an insidious plot through her prose. However, the characters are a little lacking, with some existing at times only to move the plot forward and others lacking interiority despite their importance to the story. For character-centered readers, this is an understandable deal breaker, but the building sense of dread and ever-advancing plot makes “Mexican Gothic” perfect for readers who read for plot over characters.