Dare to join the shadowy realms where Gothic horror meets mesmerizing storytelling! If “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ensnared you with its intoxicating blend of dread, dark family secrets, and a lush historical backdrop, your journey into the heart of the macabre is just beginning. In this post, we unearth a collection of novels that echo the chilling allure and cultural depth of “Mexican Gothic.”
Prepare to be swept into worlds where haunted houses whisper secrets of the past, forbidden lore and the supernatural collide, and where every spine-tingling turn of the page leads deeper into the darkness. These books are not just stories; they are portals to the unknown, to places where the line between reality and nightmare is as thin as a cobweb. So, light a candle and steady your nerves as we explore tales as hauntingly beautiful as they are unsettling.
7 Books Like Mexican Gothic
Mexican Gothic was the perfect Halloween read. Gothic is the literary movement that came after Romanticism. “Mexican Gothic” covers identity, colonialism, and the abuse of power. Reading similar books leads to meaningful reflections on these important issues.
I will discuss seven historical horror books similar to Mexican Gothic to refresh your gothic vibe. They are filled with suspense, mysteries, and dark secrets. If you enjoy thrilling plots and unexpected twists, they keep you engaged. Let’s go!
| Name | Key Focus | Tropes |
|---|---|---|
| Frankenstein by Mary Shelley | A classic novel that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. | Gothic horror, science and ethics, creation and creator, monster and humanity, isolation and loneliness, revenge and tragedy, pursuit and escape, nature vs. nurture, social rejection, moral dilemma. |
| The Magic Toy Shop by Angela Carter | A gothic novel that tells the story of Melanie, a teenager who, after her parents’ death, is sent to live with her oppressive uncle in his eerie toyshop. | Gothic atmosphere, coming-of-age, oppressive family dynamics, magical realism, sexual awakening, dark fantasy, eerie setting, power struggles, psychological complexity, fairy tale elements. |
| The Complete Wreck by Lemony Snicket | A collection of darkly humorous children’s novels following the Baudelaire orphans—Violet, Klaus, and Sunny—as they face a series of misfortunes and the villainous Count Olaf, who is after their inheritance. | Orphaned protagonists, villainous guardian, dark comedy, misadventures, mystery and intrigue, clever children, gothic atmosphere, narrative wordplay, moral complexity, sibling solidarity. |
| A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde | A classic novel that explores the themes of aestheticism, moral duplicity, and the pursuit of beauty, tells the story of Dorian Gray, a young man who wishes that his portrait ages while he remains forever young and beautiful, leading him down a path of decadence and immorality. | Faustian bargain, vanity and beauty, moral corruption, Victorian society, supernatural portrait, hedonism, social critique, psychological depth, artistic symbolism, tragic transformation. |
| Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte | The story of Jane Eyre, an orphaned girl who becomes a governess and falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester. | Gothic romance, social critique, strong female protagonist, orphan narrative, forbidden love, moral integrity, self-respect, psychological depth, supernatural elements, bildungsroman. |
| The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson | A seminal work in the horror genre, focusing on a group of individuals participating in a paranormal study at a reputedly haunted house. | Haunted house, psychological terror, supernatural events, paranormal investigation, character-driven narrative, atmospheric tension, mental instability, eerie setting, Gothic elements, ambiguous horror. |
| The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi | A fantasy novel set in 19th century Paris, following a diverse group of characters led by the wealthy Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. | Heist adventure, historical fantasy, magical artifacts, diverse ensemble cast, complex world-building, secret societies, Parisian backdrop, cultural mythology, strategic cunning, loyalty and betrayal. |
1. Frankenstein
Frankenstein is about a man named Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Many people call the monster Frankenstein, which has been a huge pet peeve of mine for ages. Yet the doctor’s name is Victor Frankenstein, and the monster doesn’t have a name; he gets called a demon.
It’s about a man who, essentially from nothing, creates a creature by sneaking into graves and stealing bones and various body parts. He creates a monster, immediately regrets it, and everything else follows. This is one section in the novel where the monster wakes up. After running out of the laboratory, he sees bugs and a babbling stream. This book has so much beautiful nature imagery, and I recommend reading it if you love Mexican Gothic.
Author: Mary Shelley
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Mythology & Folk Tales
Number Of Pages: 166
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
2. The Magic Toy Shop
This book is about a young girl named Melanie, whose parents died suddenly. She has to uproot and end her childhood and go to a horror house in London with her siblings. Here, she’s going to now live with her uncle, his wife, and his wife’s siblings when the death of her parents comes. Her uncle was abusive to her, and a spiritual thing chased her.
So, Melanie’s childhood is ripped away from her, and it follows how she deals with living in this haunted toy shop in London, where she had this beautiful bucolic life beforehand in the countryside of England. We found Noemi in the same struggling situation as Melanie in Mexican Gothic.
Author: Angela Carter
Average Rating: 4.4/5
Category: Historical Erotica
Number Of Pages: 208
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audio CD
3. The Complete Wreck (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
This isn’t a traditional gothic literature text. But it has a very gothic aesthetic as a gothic undertone throughout the stories. The story is about the unfortunate lives of the three Baudelaire children. Essentially, their parents perished in a terrible fire that came out of nowhere. So, the three orphans get shipped to relatives after a relative in an irresponsible way.
A distant relative, Count Olaf, is chasing after them, trying to make their fortune. Like Mexican Gothic, there are a lot of excellent literary references throughout the series. For example, in the reptile room, one of the snakes was called the Virginian Wolf Snake. The original movie in the early 2000s with Jim Carrey didn’t touch the subplot at all. But the Netflix series is making it a way to avert. They’ve invented all these characters who aren’t supposed to be there.
Author: Lemony Snicket
Average Rating: 4.8/5
Category: Children’s Action & Adventure
Number Of Pages: 324
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
4. A Picture of Dorian Gray
The imagery in this book is beautiful at the beginning of the story. There’s the scene where they’re in a garden, and it’s describing the way the garden looks, and it was so enchanting to read. This is a very famous, gothic-lit book after Mexican Gothic. There are always heaps of references to Dorian Gray everywhere.
The plot involves a beautiful young man named Dorian who is very much in love with himself, as well as with how innocent and pretty he is. His friend Basil paints a picture of him. When Dorian sees the picture, he realizes how lovely he looks. He then gets ticked off because he realizes that he will never be as beautiful as he was on the day the painting was made.
From then on, he will get older and older and more ugly. The painting will always stay perfect and lovely by some strange twist of fate as God hears him. Dorian stops aging. The painting instead starts aging for him. Essentially, he will go the rest of his life without ever aging. I think he was in his 20s when the painting was painted. There’s a lot of witty dialogue in this book as well.
Author: Oscar Wilde
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction
Number Of Pages: 304
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Mass Market Paperback
5. Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is about a young girl named Jane, an orphan. She has to go live with a horrible aunt or uncle. Her whole childhood, she grows up pretty badly abused, and then eventually, she goes off to boarding school. Here, she has a hard life. Eventually, she becomes a young woman who is a governess to the ward of a mysterious man named Mr. Rochester.
Jane moves into this great, big, beautiful manor in the English countryside. Mr. Rochester has a mysterious past, and the house is haunted. It follows from there, like her experiences of being a governess to this kid. The humor in the book is good, and Jane is so sassy.
Especially when she’s a child at a point where a reverend comes and tells her that she will suffer because she’s not well-behaved enough. But in reality, she’s a kid who’s being abused and trying to stand up for herself. So you can relate Jane’s situation to Noemi, which we saw in Mexican Gothic.
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Classic Literature & Fiction
Number Of Pages: 492
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Loose Leaf
6. The Haunting of Hill House
This is a classic horror novel published in 1959. It is also one of the finest gothic horror novels of the late 20th century. The Wall Street Journal went so far as to say that it is now widely regarded as the greatest haunted house story ever written.
Dr. Montague is very interested in the paranormal, so he sends letters to people who have witnessed some paranormal event. Then, he invites them to spend a few weeks at a haunted house called Hill House. So, only two young women respond. One is Theodora. She’s very confident, outgoing, and gregarious. The other woman who responds is Eleanor, and she’s very shy, introverted, and self-conscious. Those traits are not synonymous. She happens to be all three.
Montague also invites a young man named Luke, who will eventually own the house. The story is primarily told from Eleanor’s point of view as she gets to know the characters. They all start to experience some very horrible things in the house. There were so many instances of that throughout the book.
The horror and the scary things happening are very vague, similar to Mexican Gothic. If a horror novel gives everything away at the end or directly describes what is creepy, it can make it less scary for the reader. It doesn’t allow them to create anything in their heads or imagination. So this book leaves a lot to the imagination. This won’t be for you if you want a horror novel that spells everything out. But again, this is genuinely one of the creepiest.
Author: Shirley Jackson
Average Rating: 4.3/5
Category: Ghost Thrillers
Number Of Pages: 208
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Mass Market Paperback
7. The Gilded Wolves
Like Mexican Gothic, the story takes place in an alternate history of 1889 Paris and feels steampunk. There’s magic, but it’s cool technology in this historical period. It follows the gang of characters on a little bit of a heist. There are secret societies they’re trying to infiltrate and secret societies with magical artifacts they want to get their hands on. It is because these artifacts could shape the world. So there are secret societies, a heist, magical artifacts, and a gang of nerds doing their best.
Roshani has beautiful flowery writing, and the imagery is so vivid because so many cool things are happening here. One of the things with the secret societies is that there are many mythology references. Roshani got started with a lot of mythology. I adore her because she enjoys a lot of Greek mythology. Also, there are multiple biracial characters here. There’s a bisexual love triangle as well, which is separate from the angsty ship, although that’s pretty angsty, too.
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Average Rating: 4.4/5
Category: Paranormal & Urban Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 416
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
The novels we’ve traversed blend the grotesque with the gorgeous, weaving stories that are as captivating as chilling. They remind us of the seductive power of Gothic fiction, where every shadow hides a secret, and every character has a ghost or two lurking in their past.
So, as you brave your next foray into these dark and opulent narratives, may you find yourself thrilled by their mysteries, enchanted by their atmospheres, and always, just a little, looking over your shoulder. Until our next journey into the beautifully macabre, happy reading, and may your dreams be free of the specters we’ve stirred!
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