Mexican Gothic

This book was pretty good, but it had some major flaws. It had a fast start and fast end but the middle really dragged for me. No joke– from about page 30 to 230 it was like replaying the same 3 paragraphs over and over. Its like, how many times can you rephrase the same event over the course of 200 pages? Obviously this tactic was made to have a ‘slow-burn' and build unease within the reader for the events taking place at High Place (main family home of Naomei's cousin's husband). Basically Naomei gets sucked into some crazy shit attached to the house. But the thing is that there was a lot that happened and a lot that didn't happen. For example the first 30 and last 70 pages really a TON happened that was just not parced through correctly enough to do the plot justice. The details were all there, but they just weren't explored enough. We don't know enough before and after the events that happened at High Place take place. The neglect of this really dulls the climax of the book. I attribute this to the fact that the writer is young, but not inexperienced. So this can be up for debate. Though she has written a lot, Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic contained tones of YA, despite it not being a YA book. That is actually a turn of for me, because I feel as though YA books are underdeveloped, hold back and thus leave the reader (me) with a sense of emptiness and time wasted–especially when these storylines are MUCH too well imagined to have that happen to them! An injustice! I just heard that this book ws picked up by Kelly Ripa to be made into a Hulu limited series, and I think this will help the plot and the slow and frustrating middle stretch (200 pages) of this book. Visually and graphically, you can get more grostesque horror in and add to the eerieness of the book that I believe it lacked. 3 stars/5.