Writing style
Atmospheric · Descriptive · Direct
Apple BooksMexican Gothic
Horror · Gothic
- Print length
- 320 pagesQuercus, 2021
Description
In 1950s Mexico City, socialite Noemí Taboada receives an alarming summons from her cousin Catalina, who fears that her English husband is poisoning her. Noemí travels to High Place, the family’s decaying mountain mansion, where the hostile Doyles restrict Catalina’s movements and dismiss her claims as symptoms of consumption. Refusing to be intimidated, Noemí seeks outside medicine, questions the household’s history, and cautiously accepts help from the uneasy Francis. Then disturbing dreams and bouts of sleepwalking make the mansion’s influence feel increasingly personal. The book combines Gothic horror with a confrontation over colonial wealth, bodily autonomy, and the systems that allow an isolated family to control those within its walls.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Moderate
Tone
Atmospheric · Eerie · Tense · Unsettling
Structure
Linear
Focus
Atmosphere · Character · Mystery
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781529402681
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