Family | My Haunted Library

Spunky young socialite Noemí discovers that her newly-married cousin’s new family has nefarious—and supernaturally icky—plans for them both in Moreno-Garcia’s shivery spellbinder.

Mexican Gothic—Silvia Moreno-Garcia, 2020. Rating: 5/5

Noemí Taboada bounces from boy to boy, party to party, and dress to dress while searching for her passion. She’s landed on archaeology and wants to go to grad school. Her traditional father finally agrees—if she travels to a remote Mexican mountain town to check on her cousin Catalina, who married into an English family. Catalina’s most recent letter, in which she claims to see ghosts in the walls and insists she is being poisoned, suggests she is having a mental breakdown.

Determined to prove to her father that she is more than a flighty social butterfly, Noemí travels to High Place, the decaying Doyle family seat. Noemí meets the repugnant family patriarch Howard Doyle, ancient, pale, and frighteningly fond of eugenics; Virgil, Catalina’s calculating, sexually magnetic husband; Florence, the domineering head of household; and her son Francis, gentle, shy, and the only one whom Noemí comes to trust—potentially at her peril. Catalina is bedridden, suffering from “tuberculosis” and Noemí has time to explore the mountain village and learn the ominous rumors surrounding the family. When Noemí begins sleepwalking and experiencing terrifying visions, she realizes the horrible danger both she and Catalina face.

* Insert delighted shiver. *

Mexican Gothic delivers on its gothic promise. A dark brooding atmosphere complete with a fogbound cemetery and moldering Victorian manse. Isolated damsels in distress at the whims of a strange, malevolent family. An eerily sentient house. Fungus. Sexual tension. Threats of madness. What’s not to love? While Mexican Gothic lovingly draws on all these elements of classic gothic horror—including nods to Poe, Lovecraft, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman—it offers a fresh story from a unique perspective. The setting of 1950s Mexico informs the characters’ thoughts, beliefs, and actions. The underlying menace of eugenics and the Doyle family’s involvement with the local silver mine touch on issues of female oppression and racism. Noemí, though she enjoys her rich-daughter status, is something of a rebel for both the time and place. Following the rules—at home, or at High Place—is not something Noemí is very good at. With a sarcastic mouth and a soft heart, Noemí is a smart, confident (and always well-dressed) heroine. Mexican Gothic is a dark delight.

Susan journeys to the big city to find her father and learns that Old World magic is very real—and very dangerous—In Nix’s enchanting new fantasy.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London—Garth Nix, 2020. Rating 4.5/5

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When she turns eighteen, Susan begins a quest for the father she never knew, leaving her country home and vague, artist mother for bustling London. It is 1983, and Susan only has a few meager clues about her father’s identity. One of these clues leads her into a sticky supernatural situation. Enter Merlin St. Jacques, a left-handed bookseller. Flamboyant, dashing, and currently a ladies’ man—though he is “somewhat…shape-shiftery” and is contemplating changing gender—Merlin is one of the fighting booksellers. Right-handed booksellers, of course, are their cerebral counterparts, excelling at mental feats of power.

Merlin introduces Susan to the extended booksellers’ family organization. Their mission is to maintain a peaceful balance between creatures of magic and the clueless human world. And sell books. Merlin realizes that Susan is being targeted by beings from the Old World when goblins dance them into an other-worldly May Fair. He and his sister Vivien (a right-handed bookseller) also begin to suspect that Susan’s father is a rather important Old World figure, and they intuit a connection with the murder of their mother. With outside help from long-suffering police liaison Inspector Greene, the trio battle Cauldron-born; encounter water-fay, a Fenris and a host of other magical beings; and face betrayal and human corruption.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is a magical hug. Funny, bright, and brilliant; packed with magic dark and light. I couldn’t put it down. Nix’s unique London is the world we fantasy-lovers wish we lived in—hazardous though it may be—where creatures of myth and legend live (mostly) seamlessly alongside our ‘real’ existence. Though there is gunplay and assassination-by-hatpin and plenty of genuine gruesomeness (Merlin is left-handed, after all), Nix takes time to explore themes of identity and heritage as Susan comes to terms with her unique family background, and Merlin learns more about himself. A fantastical, cozy, satisfying gem.