Noemi Taboada is a debutante and university student in Mexico City, whose father receives a peculiar letter from his niece, Catalina, a plea for help. He decides to send his daughter to assess the situation, and report to him if there is cause for concern and intervention. Catalina married into a wealthy English family and lives in a remote mountainous region of Mexico, an ancestral mansion called High Place. Noemi finds the house and family to be strange, mysterious, and ominous. Unreliable narrators make for interesting stories; Noemi is a flirtatious, frivolous young woman, enamored with her ability to manipulate men. At the same time, she is smart, and harbors secret intellectual ambitions, wishing to be taken seriously. She doubts the obvious signs around her, looking for a rational explanation for the bizarre phenomena she observes, attempting to resolve her cousin’s distress through reasonable interventions.

Catalina lives with her husband, Virgil, his sister Florence, younger brother Francis, and their ancient uncle Howard. The family’s wealth comes from their productive silver mine, currently out of operation. The home is situated in a mountainous region, with deep ravines hidden in dense mists and forests. A cemetery sits next to the home, with a family mausoleum, and numerous graves of locals who died in epidemics or mining accidents. Noemi finds Catalina not her usual self, bedbound, by turns anxious and depressed, with inexplicable symptoms. The family appears to restrict and limit Noemi’s access to her, and rebuffs her efforts to get a second medical opinion or intervene on her cousin’s behalf. The family’s rules and customs, silence during meals, no smoking in the home, refusal to use electricity, are strange enough; the home itself is dark and dank, with mold growing on the walls. Sound travels easily, so most conversation is whispered. Noemi finds her sleep becomes disturbed, with strange dreams and the reappearance of her childhood habit of sleep walking. Moreno-Garcia keeps upping the creepiness of house and family, Noemi’s interactions becoming more distressing, threatening, and dangerous. The reader is begging her to flee this house for her life, finding each moment unbearable. When all is revealed, we learn what we suspected all along to be true. Moreno-Garcia is very effective at building tension bit by bit to a crescendo of action. While we saw and suspected, the climax, it is still well-done and satisfying.

I read this novel at the same time as The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, also reviewed here. It is ironic, as both books address the meaning and character of house and home in two vastly different ways. Coincidence? It felt like a happy accident, each bringing meaning to the other. Read both to see what I mean. This is a fun book, if gothic horror is your thing. Recommended.