“Books, moonlight, melodrama.”
Mexican Gothic is a 2020 gothic horror book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A Goodreads Choice Award winner for Best Horror, it follows Noemi Taboada, a woman who receives a distressing letter from her newly-wed cousin living in High Point, a foreboding mansion in the Mexican countryside. Arriving at the building, Noemi is immediately uneasy with the family inside, all of whom seem to be fascinated by her. The longer she stays in the terrifying yet utterly seductive building, the more Noemi uncovers High Point’s past through stories of violence and madness. One of the best gothic horror and haunted house stories in recent years, join us at What We Reading as we present the best books like Mexican Gothic. These stories all bring together gothic elements with intrigue, suspense and the secrets of families and their surroundings.
Daughters Of The Lake – Wendy Webb
Kicking off our list of the most mesmerizing books like Mexican Gothic is Wendy Webb’s 2018 horror novel, Daughters of the Lake. With her marriage at an end, Kate Granger retreats to her parents’ house on Lake Superior to recharge and rediscover herself. That is until she discovers the body of a murdered woman in the shallows, still clutching her child in her arms. No one can identify the woman, except for Kate. She recognizes the woman from her dreams.
If you loved the haunting dreams present in Mexican Gothic, Daughters of the Lake is a great follow-up. Through Kate and her investigations into the past, readers will learn of a love story that ended in tragedy a century ago. It is only through the remnants of a folktale passed down by generations and the whispers of the woman in her dreams that Kate is finally able to begin writing the wrongs from the past.
The Inheritance Of Orquidea Divina – Zoraida Cordova
If you were a fan of the lush atmosphere with a sprinkling of the supernatural in Mexican Gothic, you’ll love Zoraida Cordova’s 2021 book, The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina. Blending magical realism with the paranormal, the story follows the Montoyas, a family that has grown used to not knowing why their matriarch never leaves their home in Four Rivers. But, when they are all summoned back to the family home to attend her funeral and receive their inheritance, they hope to unravel the secrets she has kept hidden all her life.
Instead, Orquidea leaves them all with a series of strange and unexpected gifts. Years later, a mysterious figure begins killing off each member of the family one by one. Four of Orquieda’s descendants, Marimar, Rey, Tatinelly and Rhiannon, travel back to Ecuador to uncover the truth and save their family.
The City Of Mist – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Acclaimed Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafon takes readers on a journey through the fog-laden streets of Barcelona in a series of captivating gothic short stories in The City of Mist. Much like Mexican Gothic, these stories are all shrouded in mystery, delivered with a sense of menace and feature compelling characters in eerie atmospheres.
Eleven stories in total, The City of Mist is set against the beautiful backdrop of ‘The Century of Forgotten Books’ and sees Zafon at his very best. From the story of a young boy who decides to become a writer when his work captures the heart of an aloof beauty, to Antoni Gaudi, a Catalan architect who crosses the ocean to New York and whose journey determines the fate of an unfinished masterpiece, Zafon’s spellbinding narratives make this a must-read for fans of Mexican Gothic.
The Haunting Of Las Lagrimas – W.M. Cleese
Ursula Kelp is a young English gardener who travels to Buenos Aires in 1913 to assume the position of head gardener in a long-abandoned estate in the Pampas. The current owner is planning on returning to the estate with his family and restoring it to its former glory. Travelling deep into the expansive grasslands of Argentina, Ursula is greeted by warnings from the locals that the estate is haunted, cursed to bring tragedy to the Las Lagrimas family.
And soon Ursula begins to believe them. From the sound of footsteps outside her door to the frenzied sound of an axe chopping wood in the forest, the strange occurrences with tragic outcomes begin to intensify. She begins to ponder whether there might be truth in the rumours of the cursed estate. And, as the family’s return approaches, whether they are all in danger. Like Mexican Gothic, W.M. Cleese’s The Haunting of Las Lagrimas is a chilling horror read that plants readers in an ancient estate with plenty of secrets to discover.
What Moves The Dead (Sworn Soldier #1) – T. Kingfisher
If you loved Mexican Gothic or Netflix’s recent adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher, T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead should undoubtedly be your next go-to horror read. The award-winning author of The Twisted Ones presents a dark and atmospheric retelling of The House of Usher with a gothic tone that any fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s book will love.
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend, Madeline Usher, is dying, they race to the ancestral Usher home in the countryside of Ruravia. What they find, however, is a nightmarish setting featuring putrid fungal growth, possessed wildlife and a dark pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, while her brother, Roderick, is consumed by nerves. With the assistance of a British mycologist and an American doctor, Alex is compelled to engage in a deadly game to unravel the secrets of the House of Usher before it overtakes them all.
The Hacienda – Isabel Canas
Like Mexican Gothic, Isabel Canas’ The Hacienda is a historical gothic horror nominated for Best Horror in the Goodreads Choice Awards. The debut novel from the Mexican-American author is the story of Beatriz, a woman who accepts the proposal of the handsome Don Rodolfo Solorzano following the execution of her father and the destruction of her home in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence.
Ignoring the sudden demise of his first wife, Beatriz moves into Rodolfo’s luxury estate in the countryside. Yet, Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she first imagined. Soon, visions and voices begin to invade her sleep, though everyone to whom she confesses her fears scoffs. But San Isidro truly is haunted by a malevolent presence and the ghosts of its past. Allied only with a young priest, Padre Andres, Beatriz must unravel these secrets and banish this darkness before it and the estate become her doom.
Starling House – Alix E. Harrow
Eden, Kentucky is just another rundown town whose only claim to fame is the legend of E. Starling, a reclusive nineteenth-century novelist and illustrator who wrote The Underland and then disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But, everyone in the town agrees that it’s best to leave the building, and its last heir, Arthur Starling, to rot.
Opal knows better than to go poking around inside a haunted house or around a brooding man, but an unexpected job opportunity soon presents the best chance to get her brother out of Eden for good. Soon, however, Starling House and its occupants begin to feel like the one thing she has never had in her life: a home. Malevolent forces threaten to converge on Starling House, leaving Opal and Arthur no option but to dig up the secrets of the past and confront their own deepest fears. Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House is one of the best books like Mexican Gothic for fans of dark, gothic haunted house tales with elements of history, fantasy and the supernatural sprinkled in for good measure.
Fever Dream – Samantha Schweblin
If the eerie nightmares experienced by Noemi in Mexican Gothic were something you found enthralling, Samantha Schweblin’s debut novel, Fever Dream has to be one of your next follow-ups! The story follows a young woman named Amanda who is lying in a hospital bed somewhere in rural South America. A boy named David sits beside her.
A nightmare comes to life, a ghost story and a cautionary tale to the real world, Fever Dream is an eerie psychological tale that unravels the story of this pair, who their identities are, and how they arrived at this point. As readers accompany the two of them on their tale of toxic family and transgenerational desperation, they must confront what it all means, or if it’s all a fever dream.
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is an enthralling tribute to gothic fiction which any fans of Mexican Gothic are sure to enjoy. In it, she introduces readers to the enigmatic writer Vida Winter, who has spent the past six decades creating outlandish life histories for herself which have earned her fame and fortune, whilst keeping her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and in poor health, she commissions a young biographer named Margaret Lea to record the extraordinary truth about her life.
As she begins to spin her tale, Margaret is fascinated by Vida’s tales of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including stories of a ghost, a governess and a devastating. Yet, the more she hears of her story, the more suspicious Margaret becomes of her authenticity. It is only that she demands the truth from Vida, and the pair are finally able to begin confronting the ghosts that have haunted them. Similar to Mexican Gothic, The Thirteenth Tale is a homage to the power of storytelling, full of suspense, atmosphere and intrigue that keeps readers breathless and hooked throughout.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
