Tenth Book of the spooky season (Surprising myself by the amount of books I’m getting through!)
Trying to read horror or at least books with horror elements for the whole month of October.

Ive been eyeing this book for a while now. Such a good atmosphere with creepy and gothic undertones. The plot was a bit linear and predictable, but still a fun read.

The characters are likable and engaging, but no real development with them. This is more of a mystery thriller, than it is a character analysis. I do think the reveal of the monster was super cool, and enjoyed the overall ending.


Excited to see what’s next from her! ( )

The mood hangs heavy over the house at High Place, creating a sinister and unnerving atmosphere that fits perfectly in the gothic genre. The thick fog, the overgrown cemetery, the ancient underground caves, the massive house that stays in almost total darkness – all work together to create a very foreboding setting for our young protagonist. The prose is excellent, lush with detail and vivid in its imagery. One can almost feel the rot and smell the miasma, so pervasively prevalent and perfectly described.

Noemí is such a fantastic character! She’s immediately likeable, with her gaiety, quick wit, and fierce sense of determination. But she’s also a realistic character, prone to a quick temper and vulnerable to fear. She truly carries the story along, through the tense moments but also through the parts that are plodding or perplexing in their ambiguity. She also manages to hold her own against forces that would seek to harm her, from the racism and violence of the other characters to the demonic forces hiding within the walls.

This is definitely what one would call a slow burn, but it also serves the story well. The first third of the book sets up the characters and inciting incident. The second third builds the tension with mounting dread and bursts of nightmares. And finally the last third veers into outright horror, laying bare the grotesque motives and hideous backstory of our antagonists. I don’t fully understand everything that happened in that final act, but I know it was visceral, mind-bending, and utterly memorable.

I’m a big fan of gothic stories, and I loved all the traces of Horace Walpole, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, Daphne du Maurier, and, perhaps most heavily, Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Overall this is an incredible book, and takes a place among other favorite reads for the year! ( )

MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. in 1950s Mexico Noemi's cousin married a mysterious man and disappeared into the country-side. When the family receives a letter where her cousin claims her husband is poisoning her Noemi is sent to investigate. A PERFECT Gothic novel! ( )

A woman marries in haste, then sends a disturbing letter to her uncle, begging for help. She is ill, but she cannot leave her new home, High Place. So her cousin travels there, to see what is going on. She discovers much more than she bargained for. In this paranormal horror story, Noemi enters a place unlike any she has ever seen. Servants are rarely allowed to talk. There is no dinner conversation. Her visits with her cousin are supervised. The longer Noemi is there, the stranger things become. She has nightmares, she sleepwalks, and she is destined to become a prisoner there along with her cousin. On one of her rare supervised trips to town, she visits a healer to get a secret tincture requested by her cousin. And what the healer tells her about the family that her cousin married into turns Noemi’s blood cold. This story is a bit reminiscent of “Rebecca” with strong overtones of “The House on Haunted Hill.” Some of the chapters were a bit slow moving, and the novel could have used some tighter editing, but it does build up the suspense even while you wish the author would just get on with it. The last third of the tale is quite exciting as even stranger happenings occur. As with many horror stories, readers need to suspend their belief in reality to enjoy the fantasy. The protagonists are well developed, and the story wraps up nicely, although a sequel would not be out of line. ( )

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