I have always associated gothic literature with English Literature novels such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. To find a Mexican Gothic tale intrigued me and I am so glad I got my hands on this creepy, intoxicating mystery rooted in the ancient mythology of Mexico.
Mexican Gothic is set in 1950s Mexico. Our heroine is 22-year-old Noemi who, despite her expensive clothes, preference for Gauloises cigarettes and flirty ways, wants to attend college and pursue a degree, in opposition to her family’s desire for her to just decide on a husband. Noemi’s father agrees to allow her to continue her education if she checks in on her cousin, Catalina — who lives with her new husband, Virgil Doyle, in his family’s ancestral home in the countryside — after he receives a letter from her claiming her husband is slowly poisoning her.
"Moreno-Garcia keeps us spellbound and urgently turning the pages to find the solution to the mystery of this house, the snakes, and the oddly moving walls whispering to our heroine."
- Jane Cowell
High Place, the Doyle’s ancestral home, is the truly gothic decaying mansion, complete with disapproving sister-in-law, frightening father-in-law, disaffected brother-in-law, and of course, the brooding, dangerous husband. The house itself is filled with dusty antique furniture, unused rooms, and oddly robotic servants. There are snake motifs everywhere: on the rugs and the fireplaces, and when uncovered, the furniture. And to further the gothic atmosphere, mould and fungus grow on everything. Noemi wants to escape with Catalina but the house and its inhabitants keep them both captive in dreamlike ways. Are there people in the walls? What is causing Catalina’s malaise and Noemi’s hallucinations?
Moreno-Garcia keeps us spellbound and urgently turning the pages to find the solution to the mystery of this house, the snakes, and the oddly moving walls whispering to our heroine.
Moreno-Garcia was born in Mexico and now lives in Canada. In 2016, she won a World Fantasy Award for the anthology She Walks in Shadows and a Copper Cylinder Award for her novel Signal to Noise. In February 2020, she was announced as a finalist for the Nebula Award 2019 in the Best Novel category for her book Gods of Jade and Shadow. Currently a book columnist for The Washington Post, you can read her latest novel if you dare — but be prepared to be up late at night finishing it as it is a compulsive page-turner.