After her father receives a cryptic letter from her cousin Catalina, young socialite Noemí Taboada is sent to visit High Place, the crumbling mansion where Catalina lives with her new husband. Upon arriving at the remote estate, Noemí receives a frosty welcome from Catalina’s English husband and his family, as well as a list of strict house rules. As Noemí begins to uncover the decrepit house’s violent past, she starts to realize there might be something more behind the troubling dreams and visions she has begun to experience. It seems as if the house has a mind of its own, and Noemí must find a way to leave before it decides it wants to keep her forever.
I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it just didn’t do it for me. I liked exactly three things — the evocative language and imagery, the classic gothic atmosphere, and the cover, which was absolutely gorgeous. However, I felt like the dialogue didn’t fit the time period, and the author milked the disturbing scenes to a point where the story started to lose its plot. The pacing was strange as well, with 250 pages of basically nothing and then 50 pages of complete weirdness thrown at the reader at a breakneck pace. I went in knowing this book was going to start off slow — I just expected the twist at the end to be worth it (spoiler: it wasn’t). Moreover, the romance was completely pointless, and the book would have probably been better off without it. Overall, there were a few highlights to this book, but it wasn’t for me.