46. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

listened on Libby
320 pgs. (10:40)

2020
Adult Fantasy Horror
Finished 5/22/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.67
My rating: 3
Setting: 1950 Mexico, rural small community a train ride away from Mexico City

My comments: I had no idea when I began this book that it was a fantasy horror story, so when weird things started happening, I was put off a bit.  Arriving in an isolated mansion, High Point, on a mountainside in Mexico in 1950, Noemi has been sent by her father after receiving a really strange, discombobulated letter from her newly married cousin.  Not only is the mansion falling apart to the point that it is moldy, but the family that her cousin has married into is terribly strange and forbidding.   Over-the-top weird and secretive.  Once very rich as silver mine magnates, they now use candles and oil lamps instead of electricity and have all sorts of bizarre rules like not speaking a word to each other while eating a meal.  As more and more rumor and gossip about past deaths and illnesses assail Noemi, you realize that she is getting herself into something dangerous and really bizarre.

Goodreads synopsis:  After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.