Mexican Gothic

I’d definitely heard about the upcoming book Mexican Gothic, but it wasn’t really on my radar until I received an ARC of it in one of the Penguin cancelled festival boxes–Ladies First. I shelved it and figured I’d get around to it eventually, which I did when I found someone who wanted to trade for it–and I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book! One, I love a good standalone, and two, place-based stories are so intriguing to me. In the end, I KIND of predicted what was going on in High Place, but that’s fine, I still enjoyed this book!

In 1950s Mexico, Neomi is enjoying her life as a flirtatious socialite. Then, a concerning letter comes from her newlywed cousin, Catalina, she writes of poison and ghosts and her husband insists she is just sick. Neomi is dispatched to her cousin’s new family home,  High Place, to check on her. Is she truly sick? Is her husband trying to steal her money? What Neomi actually finds is much, much more sinister. This strange family is not what she expected. The old, decrepit house truly seems to be rotting. Catalina’s sickness is concerning, and when Neomi starts having nightmares, she realizes something truly sinister is going on. Is the house cursed, or is the curse the Doyle family itself?

I was really pleasantly surprised by this book! It reminded me a lot of the movie Ready or Not, which I saw in theatres (RIP movie theatres..) in a good way! Family-based weird place stories are kind of my jam, ya know? Always interesting, even if you can kind of anticipate the ending. Neomi was a fascinating character, and the “reasoning” behind the  spookiness was unique and well thought out, in my view.  I also loved the 1950s Mexican setting–not something you see a lot. Overall, happy I read this book and happy to recommend it to people who like Lock Every Door, Ready or Not, or Catherine House for example.