English class has a bad habit of making reading unfun. I often find that I enjoy what I read for class less than I enjoy things I seek out myself. This year, Ms. Bolte’s class, myself included, read through Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I think it says a lot about the quality of the book that I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, even in conditions of standardized education.
The story uniquely blends Mexican setting and culture with the trappings of classic gothic horror, complete with old, decaying manors and a haunting atmosphere. It takes place in the year 1950 and follows Noemi, a high-class woman from Mexico City. When she receives a strange letter from her cousin, Catalina, she must venture to High Place, a secluded English-style manor in the mountains. What follows is a captivating and mysterious investigation as Noemi works to unravel the dark secrets of High Place.
While being a throwback to classic skin-crawling gothic horror novels, it is also a remarkably thematically dense book and has a lot to chew on for readers paying attention to those themes. By using a genre typically associated with a European setting and having the story take place in Mexico, Mexican Gothic is able to say a lot of fascinating things about colonialism, racism, and the relationship between white and Mexican people. In our current socio-political climate, we need more stories that tackle these important issues.
The book’s pacing is also quite good – it’s slow and creeping, yet never feels boring. Something of note is always going on. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing style also wonderfully compliments the story; paints an eerie picture of the setting while hinting at the themes that setting represents, and the actions of the cast are both vivid and easy to read.
At around 93,000 words, Mexican Gothic is a fairly meaty book, and it takes place more or less in a single location. It’s impressive just how much horror the book is able to draw out of High Place, and how it manages to stay engaging and interesting to read even as the characters stay more or less in the same place the whole time.
Overall, I give Mexican Gothic an 8/10. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, and as a fan of gothic horror, I found its unique take on the genre to be refreshing and surprisingly politically rousing. I think that it is a must-read for anyone interested in the gothic horror genre, and has certainly earned its considerable success.