Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Rating: ★★★

TW: Attempted sexual assault.

I’ve wanted to read one of Moreno-Garcia’s books for quite some time, and Mexican Gothic happened to be the first since I picked up a copy in a spooky, “haunted” bookstore on a trip for my fifth year anniversary. I’m interested in each of her titles, so I didn’t have a preference which book would come first. However, I have to say I’m disappointed this was my first read by her since I was disappointed by the book.

The story is set in a Gothic, haunted house and has many Gothic themes and characteristics. I suppose that was my issue from the beginning. It was like being hit over the head: “This is a Gothic story!” I mean, it’s right there in the title. I’m not sure what my expectation was. Perhaps some sort of subversion, or turning it all on its head? Instead, it became a runaway train. I think the story tries to lean in so hard, too hard, that it verges on ridiculous.

The story centers on Noemí Taboada who has come to this house to help her cousin, who lives with her new husband and his family. Noemí has no idea what she’s in for. She thinks her cousin is simply unwell and needs assistance. But there is so much more going on, and the mysteries and horrors unravel quite slowly before coming down all at once, like an avalanche. The slowness of the first half or so of the book bogged me down a bit. I kept going to see what would happen, but I felt frustrated for most of this book.

Avoiding spoilers, I want to say why I’m giving three stars and not a lower rating. Obviously I haven’t said many positive things here. While the face of the story didn’t do much for me, the undertones, symbolism, and postcolonial lens all work powerfully here. The story takes place in Mexico, where Noemí’s cousin’s family has settled from Europe. They settled there long ago and opened a mine. That alone is not only symbolic, but plainly shows how white settlers come in and rip open indigenous land for their own gain. As the story progresses, there are many things the family does, and have done in the past, which parallel how white settlers have treated indigenous women, lands, wealth, children, economies, power, individuality, and freedom. Trying to defeat such a family, to right such wrongs… what could do it? How much would it take?

I can see, when viewing the story this way, how it works. It’s like looking at a painting, and it’s alright, but when the light changes, it’s beautiful, because you can see things that were hidden before. I think, though, that the main story, or painting, or anything, should be done well and enjoyable. The events of Mexican Gothic were sometimes predictable and uninteresting. Great Gothic stories are classics because of the tension in the main character’s solitude. I didn’t feel that here. I felt bored. With the horror elements, how vulgar and gross they were, even then I wasn’t moved since they felt over the top, but not in a camp way.

In writing this review, I’ve been trying to sort my own thoughts. I’m conflicted because I like what Moreno-Garcia did, but I suppose I don’t like how she did it. Perhaps in the future I could read Mexican Gothic again, after reading some of her other stories, to experience the story again and hopefully enjoy it more.

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen

Rating: ★★

Wow, finishing books so close together is really impressive for me. I received The Kingdom of Sweets from Book of the Month, and I chose it because it’s inspired by The Nutcracker. I had vague memories of the ballet, but felt like I liked it. I also thought it’d be fun for Christmas.

I did really enjoy reading this book. I reached for it, looked forward to it. Last night I read for two hours in order to finish it. I go back and forth on my rating, between 2 or 3 stars. I lean towards 3 because of how much I wanted to finish the story, but I’m stuck at 2 because I noticed the flaws I will discuss while reading. I also realized more issues after finishing.

I don’t want to discuss the plot in depth because I hate giving out spoilers. I also went in completely blind, which is my favorite way to read a book. My reviews are not plot descriptions because of this. The story is definitely inspired by The Nutcracker in a loose way. I read the plot of the ballet after finishing and I think Johansen did so much with what was there. There are moments that are directly taken and expanded on in a very interesting way. A new character is introduced, Natasha, and the story is from her point-of-view. Her twin is Clara, and Clara has always had everything: attention, beauty, love. Natasha sticks to the walls and is friends with servants. This dynamic works for them and they aren’t enemies. But it fuels what happens in the story.

The momentum stayed up for me and I just wanted to know what would happen. However, in the last 30% or 40%, I started to feel like the story was falling flat. And that feeling stuck once the book ended. I hate to say this, but there was so much potential. Overall, I think this book suffered from a lack of editing. There are so many ideas: directly from the ballet, inspired by it, and newly formed. I suppose they don’t mesh seamlessly. Early on in the book, I found repetition was common. In the actual Kingdom of Sweets, it makes sense to describe all the different sweets, but it became, well, annoying. This after this after this after this. These types of repetitive descriptions happened multiple times. The writing didn’t feel clear, especially when describing a complicated idea. A few times, I simply couldn’t understand what was happening.

One thing that bothered from the beginning was the fact that this book is nearly all exposition. Yes, there are scenes of dialogue and action. But only very key scenes are acted out in this way. Everything else is told to the reader by Natasha. At one point I though Johansen might be doing this on purpose since there is no speaking in a ballet, which is clever, but she does have scenes with dialogue. You can’t really go halfway with that idea.

Yes, I read the book, and quickly, so how bad can it be? Could I recommend it? Perhaps. Just with the caveat that it is lackluster. It needed to be tightened up and polished.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Rating: ★★

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. I haven’t been reading much since June. I did finish the third book of the Murderbot series, but I didn’t do a full review. I enjoyed it and gave it three stars.

The Salt Grows Heavy was recommended to me by a coworker, and they even brought their copy in for me to read. Even though it’s such a short book, it took me a while, about two months, to finish it. I picked it up for a bit, then stopped for a long while. I finished the last half in the past two or three days.

Without looking at a blurb, it’s hard for me to say exactly what this book was about. Maybe that’s my own fault because I went so long between starting and finishing. After looking it up, I’m reminded that this is a story of a mermaid and a plague doctor who become more-or-less trapped in a village of children and surgeons. The story is full of gore and mystery. There’s elements of fantasy and, I suppose, science-fiction, though nothing is fully explained.

I think my issue is with many novellas or short stories I read: the setup isn’t there. I’m not oriented enough when I begin the story, so I don’t understand how things work or where we are. However, I continue on, trying to enjoy it. By the end, the story felt flat, like the big flourish of an ending, or even a climax, wasn’t there. I left disappointed, because I did really enjoy the writing of this novella. It’s creepy and gory. The mythology of the mermaid here is terrifying, and the reader realizes it over time. That’s the novella’s strength. Everything else, though, seems like extras so the author could share this mythology.

The plot was uninteresting to me, and at the end something happens that seems completely out of left field. I don’t know if the author was building to it, if it’s not a spoiler, or if it’s obvious. I’m not going to say what it is just in case, but it seemed so awkward and wrong for the story. Suffice it to say, I didn’t like the ending.

I would definitely read other stories by Khaw because the writing was great. This was the first thing I’ve read from them, so of course I’d try again. Also, it has no bearing on anything, but this cover is absolutely stunning. I would hang this on my wall!

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Rating: ★★★★★

Well, after my last review, I’m very surprised to be back here so soon. I read this book in two or three days, which is remarkable. I couldn’t put it down. I read 50 pages one day, and finished it the next time I picked it up. I won’t lie. This may have to do with the fact that I saw and loved the movie some time ago. The book is different, but the essence is there. It just pulled me in.

This book is pure science fiction, but in a natural world type of way, not a space and aliens type of way. Essentially, there’s a strange area of the world – Area X – that is cordoned off by the military. They send in expeditions to investigate. The book opens with the twelfth expedition going in. According to Goodreads: “The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.”

Much of this book and what it’s trying to say is intangible and ethereal. I don’t really know what’s going in. There’s a lot of mystery. And that can be a bit frustrating, having no answers. But for some reason it doesn’t bother me. The environment, the characters, the prose… All of it is enthralling. Annihilation is now one of my most favorite books.

I would like to continue the series, but I’m almost nervous the sequel won’t be as good, and it would taint the experience. I think I’ll put some time between now and picking it up.

Bodies of Water by V.H. Leslie

Rating: ★★

I recently decided to start reading shorter books so I could finish a story. In 2022, finishing a story was often impossible for me. I read Bodies of Water in about a month and it’s only 130 pages. I’m happy with that, and I hope I can continue to finish stories throughout the year.

This may be the first review I’ve done with spoilers. My issues with the story can only be addressed in that way. But before spoilers, let me explain the premise: Kirsten is living in present day and just moved into an apartment complex which was used as a hydrotherapy hospital in the 1870s. It’s close to the river, and Kirsten is fascinated by the water. But then strange things start happening. Every other chapter is from Kirsten’s point-of-view. The other chapters are Evelyn, who is a patient at the hydrotherapy hospital in the 1870s. In my opinion, her chapters are much more interesting with much more happening. There are more characters and action.

In general, though, the book is filled with exposition which gets very boring. The author also uses the word “water” and/or “river” in almost every single paragraph. I felt like I was getting hit over the head with something, and I just don’t know what it was. The story doesn’t connect any dots to really say anything. At the end, there are some lines about women being confined across centuries and needing the wide space of the river to, I’m not sure, have their own space?

SPOILER WARNING: After finishing the book, I realized my biggest issue is the lack of connection. There is nothing between Kirsten and Evelyn, other than Wakewater Hospital/Apartments. Kirsten’s story ends up being about satisfying the needs of female water spirits who are murderous, and for some reason water is leaking in all over Wakewater. There is no reason given for this. On Evelyn’s side, there is no mention of such water spirits until the very end, and even then they’re not murderous. Evelyn just sees them in the river. Kirsten apparently is seeing the character of Milly who was Evelyn’s lover, but why? Why is Milly out for an offering in the present day?

The more I write this, the more I am annoyed. I feel like the author wrote half the book and then didn’t know what to do. Or maybe they wrote Evelyn’s side since it was so much more interesting, and then needed something else and came up with Kirsten.

I’m giving this two stars instead of one because I really only give one star reviews to books I don’t finish. I obviously do not recommend it since it falls flat. It leaves you with questions, but not the curious kind. They’re the kind of questions that arise when a story doesn’t make sense from beginning to end.

The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley

Rating: ★★★

I haven’t finished reading a book since May of this year. I’ve started a few, but I just couldn’t continue with them. So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to officially stop all of them and pick up a short book. I have a shelf on Goodreads for books I’m interested in which are 150 pages or less. The Beauty is very short. Goodreads gives it 99 pages, but I doubt it. I read just about everything on my phone, and the edition I have has another short story at the back, so I can’t say for sure how many pages it is. The point is, it was short, which is why I was able to finish it.

That sounds mean. The story was intriguing and I wanted to see what happened, so I kept going. But, due to my own inability to read, I would stop for several days at a time. I’m hoping that in the new year I will be more dedicated to reading. Since it’s so short, I don’t want to say much about the plot. I will say that the story opens with a group of boys and men living on their own. All the women have died from some sort of disease that does not affect men. I personally wasn’t clear if it was a fungus that started in the women’s bodies, or was something that came from without and entered them. Either way, they are gone. But something comes to the men which will seemingly replace the women, or offer something new.

The book is fascinating, sexual, and gross. It might be something I would visit again, but it’s definitely something I will be thinking about for a while. I thought about rating it four stars, but there are so many things that I’m unclear on. That can happen with a story so short. But the premise doesn’t really allow for something to be developed further. So here we are.

The Beauty was published in 2014, and more recently there has been a lot of talk surrounding trans rights, issues, laws, restrictions, etc. I am non-binary, and while I’m not sure if I would call myself trans, I am firmly on the side of trans rights. The reason I mention this is that this story is saying a lot about societal expectations of one’s gender identity. It goes further into changing biology of people within the story. I can’t help but read what’s happening through today’s lens. I don’t know what I would have thought if I read it in 2014. But it just feels like it’s screaming something about trans people here. I just don’t know what it is.

Because the book is so thought-provoking, I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t expect any clear understanding. It’s kind of just there, showing you something interesting. I enjoyed it.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Rating: ★

Catherine House is a strange story about a fictitious, prestigious school. It follows Ines who isn’t all that invested in her classes. She has a mysterious past. The school itself allows students to do whatever they want as long as they pass their classes. There’s drinking and parties and sex. However, the students aren’t allowed any contact with the outside world for three years. Ines is soon put on probation, but she seems to drink a lot and sleep. It’s clear she’s running from something that happened before coming to Catherine. What’s more to this story is something called plasma that the school is studying for seemingly magical properties; or at least the story frames it as beyond the realms of known science. Ines isn’t in the plasma concentration, so she sees certain things from afar and is interested in delving farther.

I’m a slow reader and I’ve been in a slump for quite some time. Many, many months. I picked up this book thinking it was a gothic mystery that would have me turning the pages quickly. That wasn’t the case. I started reading this book around May or June and now it’s October and I’m only half-way through. I finally asked myself, Am I in a slump or is this book boring? Everything happens so slowly, and nothing seems to happen at all. Our main character doesn’t care about anything. She’s depressed and hiding. She doesn’t interact a whole lot with anyone. The interactions she does have are very muted. I suppose this book could be seen as highly philosophical, which is why it bored me. I’m not in the right headspace for it, so I couldn’t enjoy it. I like strong characters and interesting plots. Ines is not strong in any sense. She’s weak-willed, sleepy (literally), and detached from reality. Her perspective is utterly uninteresting. Perhaps that was a choice so that the school itself would shine, but the descriptions of strange goings-on don’t hit very hard since Ines isn’t all that involved. She also doesn’t seem to care. There’s no meat to this story.

When I don’t or can’t finish books, I always rate them one star. It couldn’t hold my attention so I couldn’t be bothered to finish it. When thinking about reading it at night, I would consistently turn away because I didn’t want to go into the story. Painfully boring.

Misery by Stephen King

Rating: ★

I hated this book from the beginning. I generally save one star ratings for books I DNF, but this one deserves it. I only finished it to see how it differed from the movie. It is full to the brim with misogyny and hatred for the mentally ill. I even took screenshots (I read the ebook) while reading to share on Twitter.

I won’t spoil anything, but Paul, our main character, uses the rape word twice to describe something unpleasant. He refers to most women in the book as bitches. He goes on tangents describing how simple minded his female fan base must be. It was highly insulting and aggravating to read. Hating Annie, calling her a bitch, makes sense. But Paul feels the same towards all women.

Then there’s the talk about the mentally ill. In this book, they don’t need help. They’re just scary. King boils it down to this handy statement: “Depressives kill themselves. Psychotics, rocked in the poison cradles of their own egos, want to do everyone handy a favor and take them along.” That’s useful.

I hate this book. Do not recommend. Even if I could get past these things, the actual story is boring, gruesome, and gratuitous. This should have been a short story or novella.