Mexican Gothic

After several enthusiastic reviews, and seduced by the beautiful cover, I decided to read this week Mexican Gothic (which is translated into French, despite the English title). I think that we are dealing, once again, with a phenomenon of hype more or less deserved. I hesitated a few times to stop it in the middle, but there were enough positives that I didn't. But it was close.

Summary

One evening, while Noemi is partying with friends, her father calls her urgently. He has received a letter from Noemi's cousin Catalina, who is causing him a lot of trouble. He wants Noemi to go to the castle where she lives with her new husband and his family to see what is going on.

And this is what Noemi does. Catalina is clearly out of her mind, but her husband refuses to take her to a psychiatrist, and limits the time Noemi spends with her cousin. In fact, Noemi is not allowed to do much in this gloomy and dilapidated house. She feels watched at all times, and at night, she has disturbing dreams that are very similar to reality. She sees it more and more clearly: she must get her cousin out of this house. But as time goes by, she feels less in control.

Impressions

The aesthetic is beautiful, or should I say well done. I wouldn't want to be in this house, ever. It's always dark, it's damp and full of mold, and it's full of strange people. If I were Noemi, I would have left as quickly as possible and tried to come back with the police. The mystery is good, and before we know what's going on, we're really intrigued.

Then we learn the cause of the problem in a few paragraphs, and the spell is broken.

Spoiler alert : it's something to do with mushrooms merging with humans.

I have an idea why this revelation made me so indifferent. These days, I listen to Star Trek: Discovery with my boyfriend (but not for long, it's pretty bad). There is often mumbo jumbo in Star Trek, but in this series, we reach new heights. In particular, the characters discover a giant tardigrade that surfs on networks of cosmic mushrooms that cross all universes. One of the characters manages to merge the tardigrade's DNA with his own, which allows him to communicate with the cosmic mushrooms and cross the universe in a few seconds. I find that there are quite obvious similarities with Mexican Gothic.

Let's just say that it doesn't convince me much. I need it to be a little bit more realistic anyway, or at least better justified. Also, I don't know about you, but mushrooms don't give me nightmares at night. I suddenly felt like I was in a Disney movie that was more or less scary, more or less predictable, more or less boring. There are better ways to be entertained, let's say.