#silvia moreno-garcia

[edelweiss-maiden]

‘‘𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭. 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳, 𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵’’ — 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑣𝑖𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑜-𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑎, 𝑚𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐

[gennsoup]

"Just because there are no ghosts it doesn't mean you can't be haunted. Nor that you shouldn't fear the haunting."

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic

[lowcountry-gothic]

Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Bo Feng Lin.

[edwardslovelyelizabeth]

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

"Every atom in his body demanded that he flee. For a second, he considered it. Considered a world without Montserrat, sterile and icy. Magic is willpower, that’s what Momo said. He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew he needed Momo as much as the flames inside that building needed oxygen to burn...Even if the darkness never ended and swallowed him whole, he’d still run to her."

[kristybluebird]

[sunlilys]

noemí taboada paper doll

random house books

[geekynerfherder]

'Mexican Gothic' by Mia Araujo.

13" x 19" print on Epson Smooth watercolour paper with archival inks, in a signed and numbered limited edition of 50 for $60.

On sale now through Mia's website.

[bracketsoffear]

Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) "In 1950s Mexico City, beautiful young socialite Noemí Taboada receives a letter from her cousin Catalina, begging for help. She firmly believes that her English husband, Virgil Doyle, intends to poison her. Suspecting that Virgil may be after Catalina's money, Noemí's father, Leocadio, sends her to the Doyle home, High Place, which is located in the mountains outside of a small town named El Triunfo. Once there, Noemí is struck by the strange and unwelcoming atmosphere of the Doyles' house and the controlling and patronising attitude of its inhabitants. Catalina is proclaimed to be suffering from consumption and Noemí is mostly kept away from her cousin. Noemí spends her time learning about the Doyle family, which also includes Florence Doyle and the frail family patriarch, Howard. The family has a history of incestuous marriages and deep intergenerational traumas, such as one of Howard's daughters, Ruth, killing several family members before shooting herself."

SPOILERS BELOW CUT

Rappaccini's Daughter (Nathaniel Hawthorne) "Giovanni Guasconti, a young student renting a room in Padua, has a view from his quarters of a beautiful garden. Here, he looks at Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a botanist who works in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with exotic poisonous plants grown by her father. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and secretly meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni. Professor Baglioni is a rival of Dr. Rappaccini and he warns Giovanni that Rappaccini is devious and that he and his work (which involves using poison as medicine) should be avoided.

Giovanni notices Beatrice's strangely intimate relationship with the plants as well as the withering of fresh regular flowers and the death of an insect when exposed to her skin or breath. On one occasion, Beatrice embraces a plant in a way that she seems part of the plant itself; then she talks to the plant, "Give me thy breath, my sister, for I am faint with common air."

Giovanni eventually realizes that Beatrice, having been raised in the presence of poison, has developed an immunity to it and has become poisonous herself. A gentle touch of her hand leaves a purple print on his wrist. Beatrice urges Giovanni to look past her poisonous exterior and see her pure and innocent essence, creating great feelings of doubt and confusion in Giovanni.

In the end, Giovanni becomes poisonous himself: insects die when they come into contact with his breath. Giovanni is troubled by this, which he sees as a curse, and he blames Beatrice. Professor Baglioni gives him an antidote to cure Beatrice and free her from her father's cruel experiment. However, when Beatrice drinks the antidote, she becomes sick and dies. Before realizing that Beatrice is dying, Dr. Rappaccini excitedly welcomes the love between his two creatures, his daughter and her suitor, Giovanni, who has been transformed so that he can now be a true and worthy companion to Beatrice.

While Beatrice is dying, Professor Baglioni looks down from a window into the garden and triumphantly shouts "Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is THIS the upshot of your experiment!""

When she begins to sleepwalk and experience strange dreams and visions, Noemí decides that she must leave the Doyle household, only to be told that she cannot leave. They reveal that Howard discovered a strain of mushroom that has a symbiotic relationship with humans. The Doyles use this fungus and remain at High Place, the house infused with the spores of the mushrooms, which has grown inside its walls and all around it, in order to heal themselves and prolong their lives. As the fungus's potency is lessened depending on the individual's genetics, the Doyles have intermarried in order to ensure that their offspring can also receive these benefits. Because it is interlaced with mycelium and infested with the mushroom's spores, the house can hold memories, which the family refers to as the "gloom". The spores can also help the Doyles control people who have inhaled them, which frightens Noemí. She grows more horrified, however, when she learns that Howard's wife Agnes was used as a sacrifice to grow the spores - and that Howard can use the gloom to take over the bodies of family members, which he's used to further preserve his own life.

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

note: If you did not finish but feel you read enough to form an opinion, you may choose a ‘Yes’ option instead of 'Partly' (e.g., Yes, I didn’t like it). Interpret "neutral or complicated" however you like, I intended this category to be a broad option between like and dislike.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

submit a horror book!

[whilereadingandwalking]

“The future, she thought, could not be predicted, and the shape of things could not be divined. To think otherwise was absurd. But they were young that morning, and they could cling to hope. Hope that the world could be remade, kinder and sweeter.” ― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic

[fictionz]

When they watched horror movies, it was the sight of the monster, the Other, that terrified Tristán and the idea of becoming the hero that seduced him. Montserrat saw herself in the faces of monsters and did not wince.

—Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

[frammento]

Noemí was struck with the desire to lean forward and kiss him, a feeling like wishing to light a match, a burning, bright, and eager feeling. Yet she hesitated. It was easy to kiss someone when it didn’t matter; it was more difficult when it might be meaningful.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic

[gennsoup]

We will grow anew. We have been damaged, but we will heal.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things

[howlsmovinglibrary]

If she'd been a siren luring him to the bottom of the sea, he would have followed. If she'd been a gorgon he'd have let himself be turned into stone. Let him be mangled and devoured. It didn't matter.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

[mangotortoise]

"You're an idiot," she answered archly.

Tristán's grin had been wiped off his face. They gazed at each other gravely. "Why?" she asked.

"You'd save on the rent. We probably shouldn't inflict ourselves on other people." When she didn't laugh, he sighed. "Well, I don't know..."

-From Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

[kristybluebird]

Mexican Gothic!