Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: When Noemí Taboada leaves her socialite life in 1950s Mexico City for a welfare check on her beloved cousin in the countryside, she must confront a mystery that has plagued the village for years and threatens to destroy her sanity.
Expectation: A moody, brooding novel in the style of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca.”
Reality: An overstuffed plot that collapses under its own weight.
Recommended For: Fans of supernatural thrillers.
Why I Read It: It was all anyone on #Bookstagram could talk about earlier in the summer, but I’m convinced no one read it.
My take:
If you read “Rebecca,” watched “Get Out,” “Ready or Not” or “Rosemary’s Baby,” then you’ll have déjà vu at various points in “Mexican Gothic,” which is a shame because the pursuit of cheap thrills overshadowed the best part of the novel – Noemí Taboada.
Noemí is a suffer-no-fools main character determined to sniff out the cause of her cousin’s mysterious health issues, which seem to stem from the dilapidated English-style manor she shares with her in-laws and extended family in the Mexican countryside.
Her quest uncovers several potential root causes, including mushrooms, toxic mold, ghosts and poison, plus a mind-controlling, incestual and cannibalistic patriarch. She’ll also find a love interest because, you know, she wasn’t busy enough.
Yes, cannibalism, nationalism, immortality and incest are all plot points. Any one of those topics could make for a disturbing read, but when mashed together in “Mexican Gothic,” the convoluted plot becomes overstuffed and collapses.
So much is thrown at the reader that it sometimes felt like three different books, and while Silvia Moreno-Garcia does try to lay a solid foundation, so the bonkers ending feels plausible, the pacing suffers. Not much happens until the last 100 pages and it requires you to suspend a lot of reality for it to work.
If I haven’t lost you yet, then definitely read “Mexican Gothic,” if for no other reason than one WTF plot after another. It’s like a long, moody soap opera dipped in LSD.
Criticisms aside, I was entertained, and wouldn’t write off another Moreno-Garcia novel in the future. She has a knack for rich, descriptive writing that amps up the ewww factor at the climax, and you can’t help but root for Noemí. Maybe if the other characters had been developed as well as her, I would’ve cared more about what was happening.
The audiobook is also relatively lackluster with mostly one-note narration and minimal attempts to differentiate between characters.
I’m sure this will find an audience, but it wasn’t for me. I simply wanted to like it more than I actually did.
Rating (story): 2.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: August 15 - 21, 2020
Multi-tasking: Good to go.
