Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Adult. Horror. Organic Horror. Colonialism. 

Read as a choice novel for AP Lit.

Rating: 4/5

Started: 28 March 2023
Finished: 29 March 2023

Summary:

    Noemí is a celebrated socialite in Mexico City, pretty and glib and clever. When her cousin Catalina, married to a British man and living in his family's mansion near an old silver mine, sends a concerning letter, Noemí's father sends her to investigate. But when Noemí arrives, she realizes she has no idea how to help her cousin. Catalina's husband's family is odd, utterly set in their routines and their rules, and the house makes Noemí strangely uncomfortable. When she starts to have the same dreams that plague Catalina, Noemí knows she needs to take action. 

Thoughts:

    This was a very beautiful book. Because I was looking at it from such a literary lens I was not able to get as emotionally involved in it as I might have, but I still really enjoyed it. The imagery was definitely my favorite part, all the eerie and dark scenes: the house and the people within it, the mushrooms and the graveyard. I quite liked Noemí's spunk, the way that her confidence made it hard to question mher perception, and the way she deftly navigated awful social situations, although she did get a bit annoying near the end when she kept making assumptions and decisions and then not sticking to them. The other characters were pretty good as well; the evil ones were more compelling than the good ones, but they were all nicely developed. 

    This book touched on racism and sexism and eugenics, and while it was obviously horrifying, it did make me realize that straight-white-man horror is inherently missing this sense of vulnerability that these topics add. I think this take on the gothic horror genre is a fascinating one, and I cannot wait to dissect it for my class. 

Words:

    Bucolic (adj) relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside

    Calotte (n) a Roman Catholic skullcap 

    Rebozo (n) a Mexican shawl

    Mordant (adj) biting (especially of humor)

    Calipers (n) a measuring device for dimensions

    Lugubrious (adj) looking or sounding sad or dismal

    Susurrous (adj) full of whispering sounds

    Maenad (n) a follower of Dionysus

Lit Work: