I’ve just finished the fifth book in the ’10 before the end’ challenge, the fifth book was ‘Mexican Gothic’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I’ve picked this one to be in the 10 because it has been on my TBR for ages. I bought this book of off Vinted but I switched to my E-reader because the book smelled old and funky.

Again, I went in completely blind. This book got recommended a lot a while back and honestly, when I see a cover come by a good number of times, I always save it and eventually buy it. I don’t read the text people write about it because sometimes it spoils too much.

Beginning Mexican Gothic I imagined it to be a very dark story; but truth be told the beginning wasn’t at all that. Noemi is a socialite living the good live and partying whenever she can; during one of those parties, she gets called home because of a very important matter. Her father received a very distressing letter from Noemi’s niece Catalina who married a year prior and moved away. Reading through the letter it seems like Catalina lost her marbles, when Noemi’s father contacts Virgil about the matter he reassures there’s nothing wrong. But something doesn’t sit right, that’s why Noemi is being sent to High Place, the home of the Doyle’s where Catalina lives with her husband, Father-in-law, Florence and Francis.

High Place is a house like no other, it’s gloomy and dark, old and musty… As if time stood still many years ago and hasn’t restarted since. There are rules to abide by, one of them is the Doyle’s like their peace and quiet, so no talking during dinner. No smoking inside the house, no driving the cars or wandering too far. They have a family physician; no other doctors are aloud. Noemi gets stonewalled and can hardly see Catalina in private; as if they’re hiding something from her. Since coming to High Place her dreams have been all over the place, something really doesn’t seem right.

The first half of the book is very slow but still intriguing enough to keep reading and that’s what I did. The second half gets dark, when it becomes clear that Noemi wants to depart High Place they feast; no rules apply. There’s chattering and after dinner she has to go to Howard, who has been bed bound for a long time to say her goodbyes. What she didn’t expect was for Virgil and Florence to hold her close to Howard for him to ingest her with… black stuff… through their mouths. After that happened, she’s bound to the house, to high place and the Doyle family. She can’t leave, if she steps outside, she slowly suffocates.

But she can’t stay, she doesn’t want to be part of this family, she wants to take Catalina and run. It’s almost impossible to do so, will she succeed? What happens to the Doyle’s and High Place?

I did enjoy reading this, yes, the beginning was slow but the second half was frustratingly creepy.
I’m giving this book a ⭐⭐⭐⭐-star rating.