Hi everybody, I'm Andrea and welcome back to my booktube channel
To everyone that has subscribed while I was
gone, thank you so very much.
Alot has been happening, both in my personal
life and the world at large, especially in
this country.
So I'll be leaving a few links down below
about organizations and places where you can
donate to support black lives.
And I'll be briefly touching on why I was
gone because I think its important to mention
and create awareness for.But I thought I would
come back with a good old fashioned book review.I
haven't done one of these in the longest time!
I want to talk about one of my favorite new
releases of this year by one of my favorite
authors and that is Mexican Gothic by Silvia
Moreno Garcia.
Hope y'all enjoy!
So Silvia Moreno Garcia is one of those authors
for me that is an autobuy.
I will literally buy anything she writes,I
think the way she kinda does hybrid mixes
of genre and changes them and makes them really
unique to her own writing style is the best
thing ever.
Mexican Gothic is no exception.
Mexican Gothic is a classic reimagining -- no
sorry!
Mexican Gothic is a reimagining of the classic
gothic novel.
So if you go way back in time, when you think
of the first "gothic novel", i guess you can
think of castle of otranto.
Ontranto?
The otranto book is what i call it.But there's
this spooky home, weird things are happening,
ghosts and you get all those elements ( spaces
out for like two seconds)in Mexican Gothic.
So, this book is about a young socialite called
Noemi.
Noemi is just a party girl, she loves to living
her life, she likes being free.
She likes to party, drinking, all that kinda
fun stuff and she wants to go to grad school
for anthropology, I believe.She has a cousin,
her cousin sends her this very mysterious
letter one day asking her ( Noemi) to save
her.So her cousin marries this wealthy white
guy and he whisks her away to this mansion,
this gothic mansion called the High Place.
She ( Noemi) hasn't really spoken much with
her cousin since that initial marriage.
But she is alarmed at the tone of urgency
-- the urgent tone that her cousin writes
her.
Noemi cuts a deal with her dad, she's like
"fine dad I'll go and check up on my cousin,
if you can let me just -- go and fuck off
to grad school basically.
And her dad's like "Sure, yeah , go ahead."
So she goes to High Place and is immediately
creeped out and I would be too!
It's basically like this British style colonial
home in the middle of Mexico.
It's based on a real town called in Hidalgo,
Mexico called Mineral del Monte or Real Del
Monte.
It's a small mining town in east central Mexico.
So immediately she is kinda thrown off and
she is immediately suspicious but she meets
this guy who turns out to be her cousin's
husband's nephew.You can tell that there is
gonna be some kinda tension between them and
there is gonna be something more.
SHe goes to the main house and meets everyone
one blah blah blah.
She meets her cousin's husband called Virgil,
and he's supposed to be this very handsome
guy.
In my mind he looks like Dan Stevens in Downton
Abbey, but I was talking to some people and
they were imagining Armie Hammer.But like
basically, that type of very basic white man
face, that is what he looks like.
So she's thrown off at just the oddity of
it all and she sees's her cousin and she almost
doesn't recognize her.
She's not the same girl that she once was.
It's almost like this house is taking the
energy from within her.
Noemi immediately sets out to solve the puzzle
and find out what is happening in the house
because it is weird as hell.
There's definitely, a very atmospheric quality
to the book and I think alot of her writing
itself in alot of books that she's written,
really capture the feeling of the setting
and she does it once again here.
It's feels like rotting in decadence, is the
way I would describe it.
So very kinda traditionally gothic in that
way.
My mind kept going to Crimson Peak by Guillermo
Del Toro, if you've seen the movie.But the
house, really reminded me of that, especially
near the end when certain events happen and
the horror factor gets ... expanded on.If
you're somebody that gets scared easily, maybe
don't watch read this at night, because there
is certain imagery in this book that will
have you....
questioning things...
So while in High Place, Noemi starts getting
these really weird, vivid, dreams that are
just really unsettling.
Honestly trigger warning for sexual assault
within these dreams because as a reader yourself,
you can't even distinguish what is a dream
and what is actually happening because the
house itself just has this really like ... world
within a world feel to it.So you don't really
know what's happening really, until the very
end.I've always admired the way Silvia, creates
a very delicate balance between tension and
plot within her novels and in Mexican Gothic
it is no exception.
The way the second act kinda leads into the
third and everything is kinda revealed to
me was so satisfying to read.
One of my favorite things that she does is
write really good, complex, female characters
and protagonists.
I love how layered they are.
For example, you have Noemi, who is this rebellious
girl and you have her cousin, Catalina who
is portrayed to be a little bit more timid
and reserved but those aren't the only facets
that they hold.
Their only role in the story is not just to
be the swashbuckling savior or the damsel
in distress, they really own up to certain
moments and show the complexities behind their
characters.
One of the creepiest aspects of this book
is the way that colonialism and eugenics comes
into play.
Without spoiling too much of it , it really
explores the dynamics of when European settlers
invade a place that isn't theirs and try to
change it from the inside out on a really
slow burn.
So slow and so subtle and so gas light-y that
the people being affected almost don't perceive
or see it.
We see that personified in this relationship
between the original inhabitants of High Place
vs Noemi and Catalina, the new blood that
is introduced.
I really do think that this book makes really
interesting commentary on the fetishization
that white men sometimes have with communities
of color and how the "intrigue" some people
have with these communities is entirely based
on their perceived "inferiority" and "exotic-ness"
and I think Silvia did a really great job
at kinda untangling that and writing it in
a way that is so unsettling and so creepy
but entirely true because it is just an example
of what actually happens in reality.
I think that the way these aspects are unraveled
within the novel is what really cements it
as a true horror book.
I've seen alot of discourse online like on
bookstagram and stuff about how some reviewers
were saying that this book wasn't necessarily
in the horror genre or Mexican enough and
I entirely disagree because that's one of
the reasons why it's so terrifying.
These people of color ( BIPOC) and their bodies
are being exploited for white gain and then
disposed of like they're nothing.And that's
the reality so many people face and continue
to face.
So some quick things on this book -- This
family is composed of the dad figure, Howard,
he is a literal creep.Virgil, again creep.
Francis, he was going down into the creep
route but he didn't entirely reach it and
Florence who is the (Howard's) niece.
Now when we talk about like passed down, cyclical,
toxic traits....this family is that personified.
They are a unit and are really close in more
one way and there are mushrooms involved...
that's all I'm gonna say.To make a long story
short -- this is just a great gothic book
that takes place in 1950's Mexico that deals
with race, with paranormal elements, with
toxic masculinity and toxic families and just
how all those things go deeper then you may
think and how roots of not only families but
of beliefs can rot the entire area beside
it.
Like there is that one saying "One bad apple"
ok imagine that but they're all bad apples.And
really quick, I just wanna say thanks to Del
Rey, the publisher, who gifted me this ARC
after I literally slid into their DM's and
was like "Can I have it?" and they were like
"Sure".
So throw your shot.
But yeah that's Mexican Gothic, I really liked
it.Silvia Moreno Garcia's writing style is
interesting to me and I really love it because
it is both blunt and powerful but also very
poetic.
And I know that doesn't make sense but I feel
like once you read a book of hers you'll understand
exactly what I mean.Some people are a little
thrown off because of that, it's not necessarily
as flowery or like long and flowy as some
may enjoy within the genres that she
usually writes in.
So like fantasy, historical fiction, here
in horror, noir, so watch out for that if
that's not something that you enjoy.
But I really enjoyed this book and I hope
y'all give it a chance.
I always talk about SMG because I love her
and I think she is criminally underrated not
on ly on booktube but on bookstagram and book
twitter and at like the world at large . I
think her novels should be adapted into movies,
tv series, I don't know.
Here's a graphic of me making a fake Netflix
screen because I love it so much.
Anyways this has just been me going on off
about Silvia Moreno Garcia, imma shut up now
before she puts a restraining order on me
and I'll see y'all next time....So as I was
saying, this pandemic is still happening and
still very real and alot of people are being
affected by it, alot of people are losing
people they love to it and unfortunately my
family was one of them.
And I had someone really close to me, a family
member, be diagnosed with COVID19 and at the
end of the month actually pass away from this
disease.And I just wanted to tell y'all to
remind you all to stay really cautious and
safe.
I know things are opening up and people want
to revert back into the way they were living
pre this pandemic, and there's nothing I wish
more then y'know doing that, being able to
hang out with my friends and to go do all
these activities and just not have to worry
about the pandemic but unfortunately that's
the reality we live in.
It really worries me to see so many people,
so nonchalant about something that is so devastating
and I wouldn't want anybody to go through
that.
But really honestly, it's not a joke, it's
not a hoax, it's not some government plot
to like I don't know -- bring down the United
States.
It's real and it sucks and you have to remember
that wearing a mask and wearing hand sanitizer
it isn't just for yourself, it's for everybody
around you.
And yea, I just wanted to say that.
It feels weird like I said, to just make a
booktube video and not talk about the giant
elephant in the room that lives within my
head.And yeah, I hope you guys again, are
staying safe and I will see you next time
with a new video.
I had a bunch of videos pre-filmed in April,
but I didn't post them because of what was
happening, um, but hopefully I will edit them
soon.
And bye!
