Part horror, part mystery, and part romance, in Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the protagonist, Noemi, comes from a wealthy family in Mexico City. When first meeting her, she came across as vain, flighty, and a little pushy at getting her way. The beginning of the book starts with her going to a costume party with her latest fling. They were supposed to go as a couple costume with a horse and jockey, but Noemi changed her mind at the last minute and switched from jockey to a sexier costume, leaving her fling wearing half of a couple costume with no partner to complement the look. She doesn’t really like this guy, but he’s hot so she’s willing to go out and have some fun with him.
Upon returning home, Noemi finds that her recently wed cousin Catalina has sent Noemi’s father a rather distressing letter. In exchange for being allowed to get her masters in anthropology, the latest thing Noemi thinks she’s going to do with her life, Noemi’s father asks her to travel to High Place in the Countryside and find out what’s going on. The English family that resides in High Place used to own a silver mine, but the mine is closed, and the house has started to fall into disarray. Noemi thinks the oldest son Victor might have only married her cousin for the money.
High Place has a lot of odd rules, for instance, meals are taken in silence. Florence the house matriarch is very strict. There is no music allowed, baths should be taken in tepid water, and absolutely no smoking in the house. The last one may seem like a no-brainer, but the story is set in 1950s Mexico. The family tells Noemi that Catelina is suffering from tuberculosis and the letter was the product of a high fever she had when she wrote it, but now she’s better. Still, Noemi can’t visit her right away, Catelina is currently resting. Instead, Noemi gets to have a less than pleasant conversation with the patriarch, Howard, who is a real big fan of eugenics, but the good news is that he thinks it’s okay for his sons to marry women outside their race because it will lead to a hardier breeding stock.
The bloody mystery of High Place propels the first third of the novel, and the second third is dominated by the strange dreams Noemi has that encourage her to investigate the house’s history. In the last third of the novel, the story comes alive, and all the loose ends start to get put in a nice pretty bow, that promptly gets shredded.
I didn’t like any of the main characters of the novel when they were first introduced, but they were nuanced, and it made the story an interesting read. Although I didn’t like Noemi as a character in the beginning, the journey she goes on matures her and highlights her caring nature. When first coming to High Place, she bowls through many of their rules, and almost seems rude in the way she does it, for instance, she smokes in her room even though she was asked not to. Some of her other rule-breaking is because she does care for her cousin and wants the best for her.
This book is in development as a limited series for Hulu. This is one of those novels, ala Hunger Games, that I think will do better as a book. A lot of Noemi’s character comes from her internal thoughts and minuscule actions she takes that will be difficult to notice in an actress as opposed to when a narrator is explaining how tightly Noemi has balled her fists.