Mexican Gothic- Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This was a blockbuster haunted house-type story with a twist. Set in the 1950s in Mexico, Noemi is a glamorous debutante who answers her cousin’s call for help. Noemi can’t figure out what is going on with her newly married cousin with whom she used to be so close. Are there problems in the marriage? Is the cousin going insane? Is the house the problem? The residents of High Place are strange to say the least. The surrounding community is isolated and stuck in a prior age. Noemi doggedly pursues the truth that may end up being stranger than anything she ever imagined.

I chose to read this book because I thought it would dive into cultural perspectives and topics I was unfamiliar with. This book is not that. Think English mansion horror story. Much more on the horror side than I usually read. There is an interesting perspective on the house as a living, breathing entity.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts- Katherine Arden

World War I must have produced many ghosts. Laura Iven served as a nurse on those battlefields where she was wounded and eventually sent home. After her mother and father are killed in an explosion, Laura doesn’t think things can get much worse. But then she receives word that her only brother is presumed dead after a battle. Something is wrong though because the government returns both her brother’s dog tags. As a nurse, she knows that one should have stayed with Freddie’s body. Was it possible? Could Freddie still be alive?

In an effort to confirm her brother’s death, Laura volunteers to return to the battlefield using her spare time looking into what happened to Freddie. Accompanied by two other women, Laura returns to Belgium, lives through an attack on the way to the army hospital and takes shelter at a tavern overnight. There the women encounter a surreal experience shaking them all. Later, Laura hears whispers and rumors about a strange man who runs a bar and hotel whose wine induces altered states. Most think the idea fantasy but after what the women experienced; Laura can’t let it go. As the war intensifies and the frontline draws closer, ghosts and the living move in the same spaces.

This is a well-written story with meticulous historical detail. The writing is sufficiently atmospheric, and the characters are believable. Of the two books, I definitely liked this one better.      

My own creepy offering, just released!