Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4/5 cats
SPOOKTOBER COMIN’ AT YOU LIKE
this is not so much a reinvention of the gothic novel as it is a game of pin the crazytown tail on the classic gothic storyline.
and it is beautifully done.
if you’re a fan of gothic novels, whether they be the The Castle of Otranto or the Rebecca kind, you’ll dig the first 2/3 of this one. it’s all there: big crumbly isolated house, stormy storms, imperiled women, too much silverware, you know the drill.
if this is your first toe-dip into the genre, know that gothic novels are in no hurry to get where they’re going and the characters always take longer than the reader to get a handle on their situation. gothic horror is a slow simmer all about building atmosphere; the descriptions of rooms, wallpaper, clothing, trees. it’s about slowly uncoiling dread. it’s about nothing much happening until it does. it’s about an author walking the ambiguity line between the supernatural and plain old madness for as long as possible before canting the reader one way or the other.
and when this one cants, it cants HARD, shifting into some cronenberg-channelling-lovecraft fireworks that are super-icky and wonderful and it plays far rougher then your typical gothic does.
and i loved it.
a slow burn to an absolute conflagration.
read my book reviews on goodreads
