Japanese Gothic is a masterfully crafted gothic novel. I often read a book and think how much it could have been improved if it was better plotted/paced/edited etc., but everything in this book felt like it was meant to be there in that spot. Hats off to Lee Baker, she is incredibly skilled. It’s also great as a reader because I feel completely engaged with the story and not a moment of reading time is wasted.

The use of Lee as an unreliable narrator made for a fever dream feel, but wasn’t over done in any way. It was perfectly utilized to seed doubt and misdirect without being too obvious or ridiculous. Sen is then a great foil because she is so direct. Whatever we don’t know about her/her timeline she is intentionally withholding.

The mirroring of Lee and Sen’s lives was fascinating and also made the differences between them and their specific family dynamics stand out. The repeated images of stains, turtles, ferns, a face half hidden, the lines in the sand, etc. were all enchanting and made for a dreamlike atmosphere. I loved seeing how the two different story lines as well as the legend were knit together.

The drastically different but both disturbing depictions of abuse were harrowing to read. Lee potential poisoning by his mother for example was so surreal, it wasn’t as horrific to read, but serves a blotch in an impressionist painting of family strife that is hard to define, but fascinating to look at. Sen’s father on the other hand was full on horror and gut-wrenching to read. I think reading about Kura being slowly starved to death and Sen hallucinating her decaying body while buried alive has disturbed me more than anything since that scene in It. Hence the docking of enjoyment points; I found the violence against children incredibly hard to read. I might try to give Beloved another go though, seeing as I made it through this book.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, but not in a bad or good way. I just feel like I want to do a re-read at some point to contextualize it and decide for myself what I think happens.

I really loved the vibes here, perfect for spooky season. I looovved the New England spookiness of it all. The plot about Alba in Mexico was also very interesting though! The concept of witches and how they are viewed in different cultures was interesting. The portrayal of these witches as vampiric, drinking blood for power and longevity, was super interesting. The Alba/Arturo plot line screamed Nosferatu to me, which was surprising, as I wasn’t expecting the vampire connection at all. The incest and the detail of it all was wild tbh, but I did think it was still compelling to read about how Arturo had groomed her her whole life and hungered after her in multiple senses and that no one suspected a thing. I liked how the ending was left somewhat vague as to how much Noah knew and if he had powers.

I have a couple of qualms with Moreno-Garcia’s writing. I don’t love her dialogue. It comes off as wooden sometimes. I wish my Spanish was better, maybe it reads better in Spanish. I also don’t love how transparent her plotting is. I gave 3 stars for plot, mostly because I think she did a decent job of jugging the three plot lines, but it’s super clear the whole time who the antagonists are and there aren’t really any twists. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was the extent of Noah’s involvement. I really wish she had tried to throw us off the scent a little bit. I also think Minerva as a main character was boring compared to all of the other characters, so that was disappointing. I wished she came off the page more, but she fell flat for me. All in all I still enjoyed this as a spooky fall read. Undecided if I pick up more of her books or not.