I read different types of books to grow.  I’m not saying I love to read or live to read, but I don’t feel I could go a day without reading.  I would feel sick without a book.  Like I’m wasting my time. Reading gives me the feeling I’m moving forward, going somewhere.  I recently read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.  This summer I’ve been searching for a new book to assign for my English classes.  I’m looking for something hip and cool.  I’m afraid most of the books I read are older than my students.  I typed in "Contemporary Mexican Authors" in my Google Search Box, and this is what I came up with. The cover caught my eye.  The young woman in the party dress looks close to the age of many of my students. I thought this just might work!

In reading a gothic novel, you could expect a lot of blood and guts and horror.  If that’s what you like to read, you’ll find a lot of  it in Mexican Gothic.  It’s the story of a young Mexican woman named Naomi living in D.F.  who is sent by her father to check up on her cousin who lives in the  country side. The cousin has recently married an Englishman, and they live in a secluded mansion.  No one has heard from them in a while. That’s why the father sends Naomi.  Something is wrong.  It will be Naomi’s mission to find out and report back.

The title of this novel gives the story away. Naomi is rich and spoiled and naïve, and when she makes the trip to visit her cousin, she finds her to be very sick.  Naomi wants to take her cousin back to Mexico City, like immediately, but she is told that no one is to leave the house.  Like never.  The husband is a  cabrón. The roads have been washed out by the rains.  The house seems haunted.  This is when things get SPOOKY! 

I’m not recommending this novel.  I’m not assigning this novel. At my age, I don’t need any more doom and gloom in my life.   But I do like reading novels about characters that are taken out of their comfort zones and placed in dangerous circumstances.  Naomi has to take on a challenge that nothing in her life has prepared her for. Someone will one day make a movie from Mexican Gothic.  Jennifer Lawrence might make for a good Naomi.  The story is violent. It’s horrifying.  It’s just sick.