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Mexican Gothic
416 pages
A glamorous socialite descends into a decaying, dread-soaked mansion where the walls themselves seem to breathe with colonial rot.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a beautiful but suffocating fever dream. It begins with a slow, deliberate build of dread, wrapping you in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a decaying mansion that feels sickeningly alive. The prose is lush and sensory, lingering on peeling wallpaper, the smell of damp earth, and the oppressive weight of old money and older secrets. You experience the story through a fiercely glamorous, unapologetic heroine whose sharp wit and defiance provide a brilliant contrast to the creeping, hallucinatory terror around her. As the slow-burn mystery unravels into visceral, skin-crawling body horror, the pace accelerates into a breathless nightmare. It is a perfect, dread-soaked read for anyone who loves classic gothic tropes violently dismantled by feminist, anti-colonial rage.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- claustrophobic
- hallucinatory
- decaying
- Tone
- atmospheric
- defiant
- suspenseful
- wry
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- colonial exploitation · bodily autonomy · aristocratic rot · feminist defiance · ancestral trauma
- The writing
- Lush, sensory, and evocative, lingering on the grotesque beauty of decay and oppressive atmospheres.
- The arc
- Moves from creeping, atmospheric unease to visceral terror and ultimately fierce, bloody defiance.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave classic gothic tropes dismantled by feminist, anti-colonial rage and anchored by a fiercely glamorous heroine.
Content notes
- body horror
- eugenics and racism
- sexual coercion
- gore
- incest themes
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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