Mexican Gothic

April 6, 2020
Moreno-Garcia’s energetic romp through the gothic genre (after Gods of Jade and Shadow) is delightfully bonkers. In the 1950s, Noemí, a flirtatious socialite and college student, travels from Mexico City to rescue her cousin Catalina from the nightmarish High Place, a remote Mexican mountain villa. Catalina has recently married the chilly, imperiously seductive Virgil Doyle, heir to a now defunct British silver mining operation. Beset by mysterious fevers, Catalina has written to her uncle, Noemí’s father, telling him, “This house is sick with rot, stinks of decay, brims with every single evil and cruel sentiment.” Noemí clashes with Virgil’s father, Howard—who subscribes to theories of eugenics—along with a set of oddly robotic British servants. Beset by horrifying dreams and visions, and unsettled by a peculiar fungus that grows everywhere, Noemí soon fears for her own life as well as Catalina’s. In a novel that owes a considerable debt to the nightmarish horror and ornate language of H.P. Lovecraft, the situations in which Noemí attempts to prevail get wilder and stranger with every chapter, as High Place starts exhibiting a mind of its own, and Noemi learns that Howard is far older than he appears to be. Readers who find the usual country house mystery too tame and languid won’t have that problem here.

Frankie Corzo's velvety voice puts listeners under her spell as she narrates this horror audiobook. Noem� Taboada is a clever 22-year-old anthropology student buzzing between parties in 1950s Mexico City. She is quite put out when her father sends her to the countryside to check on her recently married cousin, Catalina, whose in-laws built their fortune with an ill-fated mine. Corzo conveys Noem�'s initial alarm at the many restrictions and pervasive ethnocentrism of the English family ensconced in their isolated mansion, High Place. Later, her concern about Catalina's--and her own--deteriorating mental state grows. Listeners share Noem�'s developing terror as she unravels the many mysteries of High Place and its enigmatic inhabitants. A suspenseful and atmospheric narration makes this an audiobook listeners won't soon forget. E.E.C. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 1, 2020

Set in the 1950s, Nebula Award-nominated Moreno-Garcia's (Untamed Shore) take on gothic suspense and horror is one wild ride, but it also highlights important issues of our times, including racism, classism, and sexism. After receiving a concerning letter from her cousin Catalina, Noem�, a vivacious, urbane college student, travels from her Mexico City home to High Place, the isolated, chilly mountain villa and family estate of Noemi's new husband, Virgil Doyle. The mold-infested, creepy manor house may have been grand in its day, but its ghastly state now matches that of the family's dying patriarch, Howard Doyle, Virgil's father. The family's status and wealth came from operating a silver mine where they exploited the Indigenous laborers, whom the family consider to be inferior because of their non-European ancestry. With Catalina bedridden from her mysterious illness, Noem� is left to explore the villa and nearby town to try to make sense of Catalina's predicament and the Doyle family's role in it. She enlists the help of outcast son Francis, but the strange pull of the house has a strong grip on him, and soon Noem� finds herself struggling against it as well. Frankie Corzo's silky voice and atmospheric narration perfectly reflect Noem�'s growing horror as she learns the secrets of High Place and its disturbed inhabitants. VERDICT Recommended for horror and thriller fans who like some edginess to their stories; also, the brave, smart Noem� is a protagonist who'll thrill YA listeners (as long as they are mature enough for a few racy bits!)--Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.

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