historical fiction

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey, 2020)

★★★☆☆

A pampered debutante must unravel the secrets of a mysterious and menacing countryside estate in this Gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico and influenced by The Yellow Wallpaper.

Despite an infodumpy start, I soon became invested in this story, which meshes together a compelling set of influences:

  • Eugenics / white supremacy / physiognomy
  • Teonanácatl / “you cannot kill me in a way that matters” but make it horror
  • Bloody fables and fairy tales
  • Hallucinations and waking nightmares
  • Silencing / manipulation / gaslighting
  • The Garden of Eden
  • You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

(content warning: sexual assault, cannibalism, incest)

Though I enjoyed the various flavors of psychological horror Moreno-Garcia produced, some plot threads (such as the introduction of local saints/brujería) felt a bit underexplored. I also had a hard time connecting to the main character—even if I found her challenges compelling and timely—and to the narrative voice, which I found hobbled by bland dialogue.

Still, delightfully atmospheric and tense.

The serpent does not devour its tail, it devours everything around it, voracious, its appetite never quenched.

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra (Hogarth Press, 2015)

★★★★☆

A collection of interconnected stories, all set in Russia and Chechnya over the last century, examining family, legacy, and love against a backdrop of war and oppression.

A strong, well-researched “mixtape” that weaves compelling individual stories into a larger emotional arc. I enjoyed Marra’s writing style and felt invested in the characters, and the interrelated structure was deftly done. Favorites: the opening story, “The Leopard,” concerning a government artist/censor who, after informing on his brother, attempts to atone for his guilt by painting him into the photographs he retouches; and “Wolf of White Forest,” one of several entries about the lengths to which parents will go to provide better futures for their children.

Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Lan Samantha Chang

Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Lan Samantha Chang (W. W. Norton, 1998)

★★★★☆

A taut collection of stories centered on the Chinese American immigrant experience, with special attention to parental sacrifice, assimilation, and inter-generational trauma.

This collection hurt. It hurt because it spoke to how my Chinese immigrant parents love/d me, and to how I’ve rebuffed and rejected that love—things I reckon with to this day.

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge (Pan MacMillan, 2014)

★★★☆☆

In mid-1920s England, a young girl, Triss, wakes up from a near-drowning. She barely recognizes her mom and dad, she’s infernally hungry, and her little sister keeps screaming at their parents: “Can’t you see she’s a fake?”

Another “hard to believe this is a YA book,” because it’s awfully creepy, in a way that leaves even adult me wrecked. But the kernel of that is something glorious. As Triss discovers all the ways that things are wrong and she is not normal, her parents try to fix her problems with strained smiles and bed rest. It was easy to see how Triss’s situation might mirror that of any real-world child whose authentic character did not align with their parents’ expectations.

The story veers into many unexpected places, sometimes feeling like an excuse for Hardinge to play with the details of the historical era in which the book is set. Though I never minded those explorations, they also didn’t grab me. I did appreciate the complexity of the sisters’ relationship, and their moments of alternating tenderness and animosity, but on the whole, I didn’t enjoy this as much as Fly by Night.