Mexican Gothic

1. General Impressions

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• What other kinds of horror fiction have you read before? How did this one compare, in terms of the level of suspense? Grisliness? Your fear response?
• Was the reveal of the supernatural plot at the core of the story satisfying? Which elements of the plot did you predict before they happened? Which were surprising? 
• Have you read any other books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia? If so, did you like this one more or less than the others? If not, does this one inspire you to seek out her other work?

2. Personal Reflection and Connection

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

• This novel features characters trapped in a variety of ways, ranging from social expectations, to family duty, to literal captivity by a magical symbiote. Do these experiences of entrapment speak to your life? In what way?
• What kinds of horror are most effective for you in the novel? The body horror of the transformed Doyle women? The ecological horror of the invasive fungus? The mystery of the decaying house? The nightmares about sexual assault? Which was the scariest and why?
• How much did you know about the history of European colonization of Mexico and its postcolonial experience? Does this novel provide helpful context into the exploitative nature of resource extraction industries like silver mining? Why or why not?
• Male characters in the novel condescend to, bully, and abuse the women in their lives in many different ways, from Noemí’s father questioning her ability to study science, to the sexually aggressive behavior of Howard and Virgil, to the actual sacrifice of the Doyle women to the gloom. In response, many of the women rebel in whatever ways they can: Noemí smokes in her room, Catalina gives Noemí a page from Ruth’s diary, and Ruth kills as many of the Doyles as she can. Did you identify with any of the women in the novel, and if so, in what ways?

3. Societal and Cultural Context 

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

• The novel considers the effects of imperialism and colonialism on the Mexico of the 1950s. How do the same issues of the harmful effects of resource extraction continue to play out around the world today?
• Moreno-Garcia takes care to portray several aspects of Mexican culture, from the social climbing of Noemí’s family, to the traditional healing practice of Marta, to the golden mushroom worshippers Howard kills. Which does the novel valorize? Which does it question? Why?
• The novel is a purposefully feminist version of the Gothic horror genre, featuring a protagonist who saves her male love interest and her imperiled cousin, a ghost who avenges her own death, and a seeming damsel in distress who ends up actively killing her abusers. What does this subversion say about the classic horror tropes of women in danger? How does Moreno-Garcia update stereotypes?

4. Literary Analysis

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

• Consider the novel’s depiction of mental illness and its relationship to visions, dreams, and nightmares. How do the novel’s female characters understand their own experiences? How do those around them impose interpretations of these experiences onto women?
• Why does the novel only portray male characters at two ends of the spectrum—either the misogynist and corrupt Howard and Virgil or the ineffectual Francis? What does it say about the aftermath of the colonial project that these are its only representatives?
• The novel updates many of the conventions of the 18th and 19th-century examples of the Gothic genre—the crumbling mansion full of secrets, the atmosphere of doom, the threat of sexual violence—and makes them literal or graphically depicted. How does this approach modernize the genre? 
• Explore some of the many allusions to other works in the novel, which references fairy tales, famous pieces of feminist horror like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novella The Yellow Wallpaper, and non-horror novels like Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. What do these references add to the text?
• What does the symbol of the ouroboros mean to the characters who encounter it? Why does this image become the crest of the Doyle family? 

5. Creative Engagement

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

• How do you imagine High Place, described as an English manor house that is out of place in Mexico, looking? What style of architecture would best fit this decrepit house of nightmares?
• What kind of soundtrack would you put under a screen adaption of this novel? Would it make more sense to use music from the 1950s? Older music to reflect Howard’s origins? Newer music to align with its actual publication date?
• How else could the novel have ended?

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