NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “It’s Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird.”—The Guardian IN DEVELOPMENT AS A HULU ORIGINAL LIMITED SERIES PRODUCED BY KELLY RIPA AND MARK CONSUELOS • WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • Vanity Fair • NPR • … THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • Vanity Fair • NPR • The Washington Post • Tordotcom • Marie Claire • Vox • Mashable • Men’s Health • Library Journal • Book Riot • LibraryReads
An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
“It’s as if a supernatural power compels us to turn the pages of the gripping Mexican Gothic.”—The Washington Post
“Mexican Gothic is the perfect summer horror read, and marks Moreno-Garcia with her hypnotic and engaging prose as one of the genre’s most exciting talents.”—Nerdist
“A period thriller as rich in suspense as it is in lush ’50s atmosphere.”—Entertainment Weekly
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I’m giving this book 4.5 stars for the effort and creativity. It’s clear the author worked hard on creating this world, but I didn’t love the story. If I was to rate on the story, I’d give it 3 stars. I did not feel there was any character growth, the secondary characters were left hanging, and the author completely cut off the end. It’s like she ran out of town and just ended it. The story wasn’t over, it needed at least another 5-10k words of wrap up for the characters to make the story arc feel complete.
With nods to Rebecca and Dracula, this dark, funny and atmospheric gothic tale set in the 1950s is about a spoiled debutante who travels to a remote castle to save her cousin who may or may not be in serious peril. This page turner gives us wonderful characters and writing that transports the reader to this misty gothic landscape of castles, graveyards and things that go bump in the night.
If you’re looking for classic gothic horror that doesn’t shy away from the macabre, you can’t do better than Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. For me, the best ghost stories are those that place the unwitting protagonist in a situation she has no desire to be a part of. In this case, the unlucky girl is Noemí Taboada. She is rich and spoiled, and her chief concern seems to be which party she will attend next. Like the best heroes, though, Noemí is layered. She’s whip-smart, headstrong, and caring. And a little calculating.
Sometimes, stories of horror and madness escalate too quickly, subjecting the reader to a dizzying intensity that’s difficult to sustain without resulting in boredom. That’s not the case with this novel. What I loved best about the book is the author’s carefully crafted ascent that, like the town situated below High Place, takes its time.
When you read Mexican Gothic, fix yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate. Wrap yourself in your favorite blanket and prepare to experience a deliciously original tale—a deathless dream of family gloom.
Absolutely chilling. Reading Mexican Gothic immediately reminded me of classic Gothic fiction titles such as Northanger Abbey, The Turn of the Screw, and Jane Eyre, though the language and descriptions immediately made the book feel refreshed and ready for today’s audiences. This was a book that had me guessing what was going to happen from page to page and drew me in to the mystery pretty quickly. I spent an entire rainy Saturday afternoon rapt with attention toward what Noemi would eventually find at High Place.
I haven’t read a good gothic book in a while. This was good and hit all of the beats with a surprise twisty ending.
The gothic is a specific type of novel, not entirely a thriller or a horror, a kind of fiction that blends together a psychological state of distress, the macabre, and even romance. It’s hard to pull off, often marketed as entirely horror to the upset of audiences (still bitter about Crimson Peak), and not something we see a lot of in modern novels. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights will live on forever in the gothic genre (and make cameos in this novel), but Mexican Gothic is a new kind of classic, one that not only perfectly encapsulates the gothic but also captures historical Mexico in atmosphere, language, and culture.
Noemí Taboada finds herself our unlikely protagonist. Unlike most gothic heroines she’s a socialite, confident and brash, entirely comfortable wearing evening gowns around the house, smoking cigarettes, and talking back to her elders. She’s also a graduate school hopeful; while her father gently pressures her to marry and take her place in society, she’s more interested in studying anthropology and going her own way. It’s this desire that takes her to High Place following a letter of distress from her newlywed cousin Catalina: her father promises that if she takes care of Catalina and her seemingly sudden psychological issues, he’ll send her to graduate school. Armed with the determination to make her own future, love for her cousin, two trunks of dresses, and her cigarette case, Noemí arrives in High Place to meet Catalina’s new husband and his family. But it becomes apparent Noemí is not only an unwelcome visitor, but might fall victim to the new mysterious members of her family.
High Place is in rural Mexico, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia transposes the more traditional English setting into the Mexican countryside, literally. High Place is a crumbling Victorian mansion built on imported English soil, inhabited by an English family. We have the traditional gothic setting and characters, only with a Mexican protagonist and world, a literal imposition on the Mexican landscape. Combined with the fact that the High Place’s patriarch immediately comments on Noemí’s dark skin and hair and professes himself a supporter of eugenics, this novel is not only focused on spookiness, but also on imperialism. This family silences her at dinner, encloses her cousin in her room despite her obvious distress, and is reluctant to discuss the silver mine that made them their fortune, despite the mass deaths of Mexican workers that lay scattered through its history. This isn’t a novel that revolves around Mexican trauma, which is appreciated among the many “issue” novels that publishers tend to prefer, yet does not shy away from the imperialist past that Mexico is forced to reckon with every day, even though this novel takes place in the past.
There is also the fact that this novel does take place in historical times with an English family; racism and sexism abound openly. Howard Doyle, the family patriarch, talks about mixed people as if they’re mutts, about Noemí and Catalina as if they’re breeding stock. Virgil, Catalina’s new husband, spends his time leering at Noemí and treating her like a child. Some of the horrors here are real, not only for Noemí but also for readers who still live with inequality every day. Calling Mexican Gothic an “issue” novel would be ludicrously incorrect, but the novel takes into account Noemí’s status among her new family and follows it accordingly; it doesn’t shy away from unfortunate realities, and those who are looking for spooks that aren’t grounded in societal inequalities might want to look elsewhere.
Noemí is the opposite of the type of protagonist we normally see in “issue” books as well, being spunky but not immune to kindness, someone who is unafraid of falling in love easily or being seen as silly, who even embraces it sometimes. It is important to Noemí to be fashionable and liked, not at the risk of her own values. The traits of a socialite are not often loved in any kind of story, much less assigned to a protagonist we’re supposed to like. But Noemí is immensely lovable, a whirlwind of coy conversations and gorgeous dresses, not unlike the cover, which is just stunning.
This novel is undoubtedly gothic, and readers who are looking for the constant terrors provided in more King-like stories will be disappointed, but Moreno-Garcia does not lean away from horror at all. There is the traditional gothic romance, the sensual atmosphere, the sense of unease, but also some true and terrible scares. Mexican Gothic is a creeping thing with buildup that will have you crawling the walls with unease, ready to explode into full-fledged horrors at its climax. There’s a fright in here for everyone, a myriad of unsettling images and tense situations that is sure to make any reader unnerved. Guillermo del Toro, master of the gothic and horror, needs to get his hands on Mexican Gothic so we can all get the movie adaptation that this book deserves.
This novel is beautiful, for its writing, its atmosphere, its horrors. It’s easy to see why Mexican Gothic got so much hype, all of it deserved. This is one story that will linger in your mind, from the imagery of Noemí’s elegant dresses and the lonely house on the mountain to the way chills clutch at your spine. We can only hope that this novel sets the stage for others like it, both for more from Moreno-Garcia and from other authors who have this novel’s success backing them up and inspiring them. Mexican Gothic isn’t just about a haunted house, or a creepy family, but also about real-life issues, the two so smoothly entangled. Readers will be enchanted by Noemí’s journey, dripping with decadence and dread, and Moreno-Garcia takes us with her, step by horrifying step into the dark.
review blog
Science meets the supernatural in this folk horror novel set in 1950’s Mexico.
After receiving a disturbing letter from her newly married sister, smart and sassy Noemi travels to a mansion built into the hills of an abandoned mining camp. Noemi enlists the help of local residents to sift through the history of the house, and the family her sister married into.
Reminiscent of both The Amityville Horror and The Skeleton Key, Noemi goes on a chilling journey that have left most inhabitants of the property insane or dead.
The cinematic writing, strong characters, and edge of your seat suspense pull you immediately into the story and keeps you there, page after page, until its climactic end.
This is the third novel I’ve read from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I love her fresh and unique story telling, and look forward to seeing where she goes from here.
Deserves to be heralded as a new classic of the genre. Everything you love about Gothics — full of suspicion, paranoia, literal and figurative darkness — rooted in a specific culture and time in a way that expands and enhances the story. Follow glamorous firecracker Noemi Taboada into her cousin’s new husband’s family’s crumbling mansion and turn pages breathlessly as Moreno-Garcia skillfully draws the web tightly around characters and readers alike.
The subversive, seductive, satisfying haunted house story I didn’t know I needed… I genuinely couldn’t put it down.
I loved this book. The twist towards the end was surprising and once you found out what makes the house so spooky the book becomes hard to put down.
A little Shirley Jackson, a little Daphne du Maurier, with a dash of Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak.
One of the best books I’ve read this year. An absolute page-turner with some seriously superb writing.
Noemi Taboada is summoned to High Place by her cousin who has recently married and appears to be in distress. Noemi is a sophisticated young woman who is unpleasantly surprised to arrive at her destination and find a dilapidated house with no electricity or modern conveniences. And as it turns out her cousin is ailing from a mysterious illness.
Noemi is skeptical at first at her cousin’s claims that something supernatural is going on, but in time she discovers the truth about the house and its very creepy inhabitants. As smart and resourceful as she is, she faces powerful forces that she might not be able to defeat. This is the essence of the Gothic novel, the old dark house with strange goings on. At the core is the imprisonment, the madness, and the realization that dawns on the heroine that she might meet the same fate.
The family members that inhabit High Place are trapped into repeating a cycle while living out a generational curse. Women are drawn into this world
to fulfill a purpose and it’s not one to their benefit. In her quest to uncover the mysteries of the house and her cousin’s illness, Noemi learns the history of this family and discovers how far they’re willing to go to protect their position. Gothic novels with their mix of mystery, horror and romance are ideal for exploring the shadow side that exists in everyone. In this case the heroine has to confront her own suppressed desires because if she doesn’t, she might not be able to escape.
The secrets hidden in High Place originate from an act of evil and desperation. The reveal is powerful, unnerving and horrific. It’s an image that explains the frustration of the inhabitants, the women who were ensnared and the destruction that has slowly been eating away at the house. The action and the emotions are ramped up as the story comes to its conclusion. But even though Noemi (and her cousin’s) freedom is never assured, there’s also hope that the sins of the past can finally be put to rest.
This book, more than any other this past year or so, influenced who I want to be as a writer. It’s fun, smart, and wonderfully weird.
I think the writing was interesting, but I didn’t enjoy the storyline as much as I thought I would. It may just not be my type of genre.
I did not like this book. To haunting.
Admittedly I don’t do great with horror, but this was the perfect mix of victorian penny dreadful with a side of Hitchcock and even a romance, with a decidedly Mexican flair.
A marvellous horror story. The tension builds throughout, up to the devastating climax.
wasn’t what I was expecting, too many snakes
weird; not my preferred style