#noemí taboada

[jessfandrawer]

Mexican Gothic doodles. Left side is a scene from the book, right side is post-canon.

[mattievictoria]

“The walls speak to me. They tell me secrets. Don’t listen to them, press your hands against your ears, Noemí. There are ghosts. They’re real. You’ll see them eventually.”

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

[kristybluebird]

[river-runs-fast]

No one can convince me that Mexican Gothic isn’t a metaphor for systems processing their abuse.

[geekynichelle]

Carlota: Oh my, this is just like Sleeping Beauty!!

Noemí: Yeah, yeah just like Beauty and the Seven Dwarves or something...

[floral-alchemist]

Congrats on being able to name ten female characters you like!

I have another query. Can you name ten male characters of color you like? Can you name ten female characters of color you like, for reasons unrelated to sex or sexuality?

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: the evil fungi did it

We all know of The Last of Us, but that franchise isn't the only example of fungal invasions. We've got zombies and apocalypses, we've got gothic horror, we've got fantasy, we've got romance, we've got space - no genre is safe from having their characters become the home of fungal organisms.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

The Girl with all the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts series) by M.R. Carey

Want another fungal zombie apocalypse? Then I come bearing great news! The Girl with All the Gifts is a post apocalyptic novel following a group of characters fleeing across an infested wasteland, trying to stay alive and hoping to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!

Cold Storage by David Koepp*

Years ago, a quickly growing fungal organism capable of wiping out humanity came dangerously close to spreading. It was contained and kept in cold storage underneath a military repository. Since then, a larger storage facility has been built on top, the dangers on the lower floor being largely forgotten. That is, until it makes a new attempt at escape. Now, two unsuspecting security guards might be all that stands in the way of complete extermination. This book is both funny and genuine in its characters, and genuinely creepy in its portrayal of body horror.

Salvaged by Madeline Roux

Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, and has run so far she ended up in space. Now she works as a "space janitor", being sent off to clean up the remains of failed research expeditions. But in trying to cope with her problems, she has fucked up on her job multiple times, and is now close to losing her position. Her last chance is the Brigantine: a research vessel gone silent, all crew presumed dead. But when she arrives to salvage it, Rosalyn discovers the crew isn't as dead as presumed. But are they still human - and will Rosalyn be able to keep her own humanity?

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Novella. Reid is a young woman living in a small community after a climate collapse. Resources are scarce, but Reid's biggest problem is Cad, a mind-altering fungal parasite that lives inside her body. When she is offered a rare chance at attending a far-away university in a secluded dome community, Reid must decide whether to leave or stay to help support her community.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia*

Noemí Taboada is a glamorous and well-off young woman, but when she receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí must leave her glamorous life and travel to find out what is wrong. As she arrives at High Place, a mansion on the Mexican countryside, Noemí is met with mysteries and her cousin's new English family. As she tries to find out the truth behind High Place and its inhabitants, Noemí's only ally is the youngest son of the family. But will she be able to find out what so scared her cousin before it's too late for all of them?

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hiding from both a world wanting to oppress her and the cult seeking to force her back, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Bleak and scary, Sorrowland is a book that will creep under your skin with horrors both fantastical and very, very real.

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier duology) by T. Kingfisher

Novella. Alex Easton, retired soldier, travels to visit their childhood friends, siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is dying. In the siblings' rural, ancestral home, Madeline walks in her sleep and looks to be fading away, while around it wildlife seems to be possessed by a strange force. With the help of a mycologist and an American doctor, Alex attempts to save Madeline and reveal the truth of her illness.

Wanderers (Wanderers duology) by Chuck Wendig

A strange illness has struck the United States: with no warning, random people with seemingly no connection simply get up and start walking. They do not eat, do not sleep, do not communicate, and they do not stop - and if you try to force them, they literally explode from the inside. Teenaged Shana isn't one of these sleepwalkers, but her little sister is. Unwilling to leave her sister on her own, Shana accompanies the growing flock of walkers, protecting them as one of many "shepherds". And this protection proves necessary, as the sleepwalkers is only the first step toward what might very well be the extinction of the human race. An 800 page epic, Wanderers is a slowburn apocalypse story with a multitude pov characters and plot threads, from fungal pandemics and all-knowing AI to the all too real portrayal of radicalization and bigotry.

The Dawnhounds (The Endsong series) by Sascha Stronach

The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It’s really cool and unlike anything else I’ve ever read, but also a bit confusing. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!

Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier trilogy) by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Novella. A government agent known only as the Signalman; a cult preying on the young and vulnerable, promising to usher in a new age; a woman who exists outside of time, searching for a way to save humanity. Agents of Dreamland is short, but includes many spooky elements, among them an alien and possibly world-ending fungi. The narrative is non-linear and a bit strange, but also fascinating.

The Genius Plague by David Walton

Soon after landing his dream job at the NSA, things get weird for Neil Johns. His brother Paul, a mycologist, returns from a trip to the Amazon, carrying a nearly lethal fungal infection and a strangely sharpened mind. At work, Neil starts picking up mysterious messages originating out of South America, where cases similar to that of Paul starts occurring. And strangest of all: all the infected seem to be working towards the same goal. Recommended with the caveat that, while the fungal stuff is really cool, The Genius Plague is also happy to idolize American intelligent agencies and demonize environmentalism and anti-imperialism.

Little Mushroom: Judgement Day (Little Mushroom duology) by Shisi

An Zhe isn’t human. He’s a mushroom who absorbed the DNA of a dying man, allowing him to take on human guise and leave the wilderness. Entering one of the last human bases, a place struggling to keep out the mutated and dangerous creatures of the wilds, An Zhe must keep his identity secret as he searches for something which was taken from him. While not my cup of tea (frankly, I need more female characters), Little Mushroom is an undeniably unique m/m romance novel.

Bonus AKA these don't technically involve any fungi but have similar vibes of parasites and nature corrupting the human

Parasite (Parasitology trilogy) by Mira Grant*

In the near future, a great leap in medical science has improved human health by leaps and bounds: a genetically engineered tape worm. Within a few years, almost every human has their own personal parasite implanted. But now, something is happening to the parasites - they want more, whether their hosts want to share or not.

Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

For decades, Area X has been completely cut off from humanity. The only ones to enter are small organized expeditions, many of which never return, or return... wrong. We follow the latest expedition, its participants known only as the anthropologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and our narrator, the biologist. As they enter into Area X to try to find out its secrets, only one thing is for sure: they will never be the same again.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Young adult. Over a year ago, the Raxter School for Girls was hit by the Tox, a strange disease that killed off many and left the survivors' bodies slowly changing in terrifying ways. The island the school is on has been in quarantine since then, and the girls dare not leave the school grounds lest they become victims of wild animals changed by the Tox. But as they wait for the promised cure, one of the girls goes missing, and her friends are willing to do anything to find her. Unsettling, spooky, and sapphic, this is a unique read featuring body horror and messy, dangerous girls.

(Second) Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer

Ambergris, a city created by a mushroom-like people, is now the home of humans, but the original inhabitants are still there, residing beneath the city.

Creatures of Want and Ruin (Diabolist's Library series) by Molly Tanzer

It’s the prohibition era, and while Ellie does fishing during the day, at night she bootlegs moonshine in Long Island. But unbeknownst to Ellie, some of the booze she smuggles has a strange source: distilled from mushrooms by a cult, it causes those who drink it to see terrible things, such as the the destruction of Long Island.

Bloom by Wil McCarthy

The inner solar system has been overtaken by fast-reproducing, fast-mutating technogenic life. Humanity has fled to the outer solar system, hiding beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon, but even here they aren't safe from possible incursion of mycospores, which lead to deadly blooms. Now a group of astronauts venture back to an infected Earth.

[good-books-to-read]

Travel Destination: Mexico

Fractalistic by Gerardo Delgadillo

After her mother’s untimely death, Winter’s life spirals into despair, her father believes his computer program will let them communicate with her spirit, however Rafa, Winter’s friend doesn’t believe it’s real.

Confused and without hope Winter runs the program behind her fathers back, and finds her mother begging for help, is it real or just in Winter’s head.

Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay

When Matt returns home to bury his family he’s faced with a hostile community, a frenzied media, and memories best left in the past, however his family death seemed tied to what happened years before that left his brother behind bars.

Matt must uncover the truth about the crime that put his brother in prision, facing every last fear, even if it puts his life in danger.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Tita is the youngest daughter and has been forbidden to marry, as tradition dictates she must look after her mother until her death, but Tita is in love with a man named Pedro, in desperation Pedro marries Tita’s sister Rosaura so he can be close to her.

Only a freakish chain of events full of tragedy, bad luck and fate can finally reunite them together against all odds.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.

[squirrellyshorrorreviews]

Mexican Gothic (2020)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. Noemí is an unlikely rescuer: she’s a glamorous debutante, more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough, smart, and not afraid: not of her cousin’s English husband, a stranger who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems fascinated by Noemí; and not even the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Noemí’s only ally in this inhospitable place is the family’s youngest son. But he too may be hiding a dark secret. As Noemí begins to unearth stories of violence and madness, she is slowly drawn into a terrifying yet seductive world —a world that may be impossible to escape.

Length: 301 pages (paperback)

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Rating: 9/10

YEP WE’RE DOING BOOKS NOW TOO.

Content warning: the book deals with the subjects of incest, sexual coercion, domestic abuse, and talks of eugenics ( w/ the weight and revulsion they warrant.)

A fantastic take on domestic noir in 1950’s Mexico, a spin on hauntings that absolutely delighted me. It’s just the right balance of slow burn and absolutely fucking unhinged.

Also I would die for Noemí, Francis, and Catalina.

This book goes from slow burn, classic gothic horror a la Jane Eyre to GROTESQUE IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY so goddamn fast. Its antagonists are delightfully vile in various ways. Its protagonists deserve the world.

It tells a story with so many very interesting layers. It has elements of “the horror of being raised in/drawn into a murder sex cult”, “the horror of being trapped in an abusive, incestuous family”, “the horrors of colonialism” in addition to this wonderful noir and beautifully spooky haunted house.

Moreno-Garcia gave us an ADHD queen in Noemí and she is an absolutely delightful leading lady. The right mix of genre-savvy, stubborn, cunning, caring, and delicate. She plays off the rest of the cast so well. Her love for Catalina and her friendship with Francis were my EVERYTHING for the whole book.

Also “here comes Catalina with a steel chair” was something I got to yell TWICE while reading the last act of the book, and honestly I could recommend it to people on that alone.

[kristybluebird]

Mexican Gothic!

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

note: If you did not finish but feel you read enough to form an opinion, you may choose a ‘Yes’ option instead of 'Partly' (e.g., Yes, I didn’t like it). Interpret "neutral or complicated" however you like, I intended this category to be a broad option between like and dislike.

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.

submit a horror book!

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Ooh, I love book recs! The last one I read was Heavenly Tyrant (the sequel to Iron Widow). I’m also reading Dungeon Meshi (currently waiting on volume 7 from the library).

I need to read Heavenly Tyrant soon, I loved Iron Widow so much. Maybe when I'm done with TGCF. I shall recommend:

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia - a fabulously gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico, wherein a young woman, Noemí Taboada, travels out to High Place, the remote home of the once-wealthy Doyle family, to investigate her cousin Catalina's fears that her husband Francis Doyle is planning to poison her. It's extremely creepy and atmospheric in a way that I think sort of complements DunMeshi, and also an extremely engaging read.

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes - similarly leaping off from DunMeshi here to a literary classic about a man who's actually unwell instead of, like Laios, simply extremely weird. I read Don Quixote in undergrad and really loved it, and I think the actual book deserves to be more widely read and understood. I read the Edith Grossman translation, but obviously there are others.

Apart from these, I have been reading and watching a lot of Chinese fantasy lately, and highly recommend both Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi and Lord Seventh by priest.

[showmethesneer]

-Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

[the-vampira-carmilla]

My current reading is Mexican Gothic, I'm enjoying it so much and I'll be finishing it soon because I cannot stop reading it! I'm so obsessed. 🖤

》 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia》

After receiving a frantic letter from her cousin Catalina begging for someone to save her from a mysterious mental illness, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant and horrific house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband Virgil, a handsome Englishman, he has blue eyes and blond hair, 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 Francis. 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.

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#Mexicangothic #bookstan #bookstagram #bookstanbrasil #bookstans #bookstanbr

#gothicseries #gothicnovel #gothgoth #booklover

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[emmieedwards]

Resenha: Gótico Mexicano, de Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Livro: Gótico Mexicano Volume Único Autora: Silvia Moreno-Garcia Gênero: Romance Gótico, Terror, Mistério Ano de Publicação: 2020 Editora: Darkside Páginas: 320 Classificação: +18

Noemí Taboada é uma jovem da alta sociedade da Cidade do México que sabe o que quer. Animada e sempre procurando sua independência, seu comportamento muitas vezes é rotulado como imaturo e inconstante.

Mas ela não se importa. Ama a vida de bailes e flertes descompromissados, embora tudo isso esteja prestes a mudar.

Quando seu pai a avisa que sua prima, Catalina, que andou meio sumida após se casar com um inglês, enviou uma carta suspeita pedindo que Noemí fosse visitá-la pois andava se sentindo doente e vendo coisas, Noemí não encontra uma maneira de escapar do convite inusitado. Deixando sua vida agitada para trás, Noemí vai para High Place, uma grande e antiga mansão com um ar misterioso e um tanto decadente, apenas para encontrar sua prima com uma susposta tuberculose e o marido dela se recusando a procurar uma segunda opinião que não seja do médico na família. Noemí logo vai descobrir que a mansão não é a única coisa estranha em High Place, mas também toda a família que nela vive e, no momento em que ela começa a ter visões, pesadelos e a descobrir mais sobre o passado dos Doyle, Noemí percebe que talvez sair de High Place não será tão fácil como ela imaginou. "Gótico Mexicano" traz uma nova nuance para o gênero embora mantenha a parte mais comum dele: as mansões assombradas. Em High Place, a protagonista Noemí Taboada não vai apenas experienciar situações novas e assombrosa, mas também amadurecer de uma maneira que nem a própria personagem esperaria. O livro acabou sendo bem mais gráfico em suas descrições do que eu esperava e só posso dizer que isso deixou a leitura ainda mais instigante e assustadora. Numa trama intricada de assuntos como imortalidade e eugenia, Moreno-Garcia conseguiu colocar sua marca singular em assuntos que são discutidos há tanto tempo: o preconceito velado com argumentos de "superioridade" de uma raça sobre a outra e a ambição humana na busca da vida eterna. Com personagens profundos, personalidades e emoções bem desenvolvidas, a autora criou uma narrativa assustadoramente impecável, mostrando a dualidade dos seres humanos tanto para o bem quanto para o mal. A evolução de Noemí foi muito bem construída e ela se tornou uma das personagens que, embora eu queira esganar muitas das vezes, também virou uma favorita para exemplificar um protagonismo feminino forte. Quanto a versão "audiobook", a narração de Corzo deixou um pouco a desejar, embora não tenha sido ruim. O ritmo ficava um tanto robótico, às vezes, como um leitor automático, e em cenas mais tensas e dinâmicas foi um pouco difícil identificar de quem era cada fala, mas no geral deu para prosseguir sem problemas. Acho que não restam dúvidas, não é? A obra tem tudo para ficar na mente dos leitores por muito e muito tempo. E vocês? Já tinham ouvido falar do livro? Contem nos comentários.

NOTA: 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨ - 4.25/5

ɑviso: livro de conteúdo explícito, nα̃o indicɑdo pɑrɑ menores de 18 ɑnos. contém gɑtilhos como: gore, putrefɑçα̃o, mençα̃o ɑ incesto, cɑnibɑlismo, ɑssédio, relɑcionɑmento ɑbusivo, entre outros...

[venusinmyrrh]

mid-year (ish) reading roundup

I never got how people could read 52 books in 52 weeks, but then I got a library card and downloaded the Libby app, and now holy shit I've read 52 books by August. anyway I borrowed this questionnaire from @wormwoodandhoney!

best book you’ve read so far in 2023? Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford. this is exactly the kind of academic book on fashion that I've been dying for. I want ten more of these and to kiss him on the mouth.

best sequel you’ve read so far in 2023? I don't usually read series, but I made an exception for Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf, and I'm so glad I did. it took me a while to fall in love with this fantasy twist on Red Riding Hood, but once I did, I fell hard, and I'm planning on reading the sequel For the Throne once it's finally released.

new release you haven’t read yet, but want to: I don't really keep up with releases, but the new releases I've enjoyed most recently are The Guest by Emma Cline, about a low-level con woman drifting through the New York upper class, and Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, about a sound editor in 1990s Mexico who gets caught up in an occultist's plot dating back to old Hollywood.

most anticipated release for the second half of the year: this is cheating because it's coming out in February, but the teasers for Saint Gibson's An Education in Malice already have me drooling.

biggest surprise: I picked Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason by Anne Roiphe at random off a prop bookshelf backstage, and immediately experienced that wonderful shock you get when meet a stranger who understands you perfectly.

favorite new author (debut or new to you): Jeannette Ng, whose Victorian gothic fantasy romance Under the Pendulum Sun I devoured in less than 24 hours.

newest favorite character: a tie between Catherine Helstone (Under the Pendulum Sun) and Noemí Taboada (Mexican Gothic).

book that made you cry: The Unexpurgated Beaton. these are British photographer, designer, and former Bright Young Thing Cecil Beaton's unedited diaries from the last ten years of his life, and I knew this going in, but still, somehow, it snuck up on me that he dies in the end.

book that made you happy: Maurice by E.M. Forster! what a relief, what a joy, to know that tales of queer love could have happy endings, even in 1914.

most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): that honor would have to go to Kit Mayquist's modern gothic novel Tripping Arcadia!

what books do you need to read by the end of the year? Gods of Jade and Shadow (Silvia Moreno-Garcia), Save Me the Waltz (Zelda Fitzgerald), The Language of Fashion (Roland Barthes), and Other People's Shoes: Thoughts on Acting (Harriet Walter)