recent reading: Mexican Gothic

[lotesse]

An interesting book, with strong, solid atmospherics and plot twists, that draws heavily from an archive of my favorite things. From Jane Eyre to Bluebeard/Fitcher's Bird to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, not to mention all of the CPG/Yellow Wallpaper references, this felt like a tissue of allusion made up of texts I've loved and studied. Reading MG was like dancing a reel with a series of familiar, well-practiced steps, kinetic but known, feet falling fast in the right and established positions. What would it have been like to read without already knowing those texts so well? Honestly, that's hard to imagine.

Do I regret that the hetness of the book meant that the enervated white man was saved as the lover, and not the mummy of the indigenous woman? Yes. Tbh, would have been better if lesbians. Big NBC Hannibal energy, would have landed even better if more queer. But beautiful, intricate, hurtling. Such pretty horror/gothic imagery!