Mexican Gothic

 Meet Noemi.  Brave. Witty. Fashionable. Spoiled. Flirtatious. Addicted to danger.  

If ever a book cried out for an Alfred Hitchcock adaptation, Mexican Gothic is it.  With nods to Rebecca, The Yellow Wallpaper and other equally terrifying stories, the pages of this novel drip with unsettling drama.  Noemi's father receives a peculiar letter from niece Catalina requesting a visit from Noemi.  She hints at the oddly restrictive life she is living with her new husband's family.  There is desperation in the letter and so Noemi goes.

Moreno-Garcia gives us the perfect Halloweenish house to take in, and she delivers the thrills and chills slowly, making us almost beg for someone to open the locked door or go into her basement against all reason and better judgement.  The Doyle family is properly creepy, Addams family creepy without the tiny doses of humor.  Howard Doyle, the dying patriarch, embraces Darwin's' philosophy of natural sectional, resulting in the creation of a pureblooded family that has fallen into madness. 

That is the world Noemi enters willingly, embracing the challenges - almost hypnotically.  When she finally learns of the diabolical plan that includes her,  a plan that would have her trapped in evil for eternity, she finds one ally among the creepy creeps, and he helps plan an escape for her and Catalina.

If you have read Rebecca, you surely remember the hovering, ever-present, controlling Mrs. Danvers.  Florence makes Mrs. Danvers look like Mary Poppins.  Florence directs every move in the house like a twisted chess match.  She not only confounds characters at every page turn, she has a staggering ability to throw readers off guard.

The ending hints at a sequel.  Will I be brave enough to read it?  Yes.  Maybe no. 

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