A review by nixter
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

From the start, I was really intrigued by the book off cover alone. Throughout the whole book, the writing style was amazing and drew me in, even if I didn’t necessarily care about what was being said at every point. The novel had a very strong start, in my opinion, that set up the atmosphere and the pieces really well. Unfortunately, the pacing and plot started to falter as I went on. I still enjoyed the book by the end, just not as much as I thought I was going to on the first 75 pages. I wish there were more horror elements to the book, and it felt like so much of it was exposition that kept going until about the 60% mark. What was initially intriguing at the beginning started to become dull and repetitive and confusing because there were a few times when I was like “okay, but what now?” 

The story itself had the pieces to be great. It has elements of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”, which was interesting, but the execution fell a little flat for me. Still, I was ready to give it a 4 star. However, there is a very unnecessary romance plot thrown in that I simply don’t understand. Not only do I not comprehend the pairing, but it seems rushed and just an add-on for the people who need their books to have romance in it. I didn’t even like one of the people in the couple. All this to say, I still enjoyed the book and finished it in a day. I would still recommend it for certain audiences, but with how high my expectations were at the beginning paired with what actually happened, I cannot give this more than 3 stars.