Halloween - Gothic Novel

This is "Read a Gothic Novel and review it".  I didn't think was a clause I'd complete, but I ended up in Waterstones on the first day of our holiday and decided to buy Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia purely to tick off this clause.

 💀There will now be Spoilers.💀

It was a really quick read, which was unexpected.  I don't read that much horror, I went through a phase of reading all of Anne Rice's books, but I doubt I'd have picked this up without the Rebel Badge Club encouraging me to read a gothic novel.  I enjoyed the spooky premise of a house that won't let you leave, but I wasn't as creeped out as some people who have reviewed it on Goodreads.  The heroine, Noemi, was also a character that I was happy to support, a badly drawn main character juts ruins a good book.

The worst part of it for me wasn't where Noemi's dreams were being taken over by the house, but the very human support for eugenics by the patriarch of the family.  The family originally came from England, literally transplanting themselves, and only interbred with other whites.  They are now running out of suitable partners and are attempting to crossbreed with the native Mexicans.

The silver mine that the family-owned employed Mexican workers, the house was built with Mexican labour and most of these people died (were killed, actually) mining or building, and then buried in unmarked graves. The family had brought a few white house servants over from England, but they had also been taken over by the house.

We learn towards the end that everyone is linked up via a mycelial network and it's the mushrooms that have taken them over.  It's possible that this is the part where I failed to be creeped out.  Mycelial networks are popular in science fiction, particularly on Star Trek: Discovery at the moment, so I wasn't learning anything new here.  In fact, after I finished Mexican Gothic I started our latest Book Club read Bewilderment by Richard Powers, mycelial networks are mentioned in there as well.

I'd been (internally!) shouting at the heroine to bloody well burn the house down for many chapters before the house finally goes up in flames, so that also may be why I give this book four stars rather than five.