Gothic literature is having a moment and I, for one, am loving it. The houses are creepy, the family vibes are rancid, and because this is 2026, the queerness no longer has to be subtextual. Cynthia Gómez delivers a wonderful gothic debut work in Muñeca, out June 2. This novella is about a Latine working class girl in 1968 Oakland named Nati who takes a position with the Miramontes family after she hears that the daughter of the house, Violeta, has fallen prey to a mysterious paralyzing ailment. But Nati remembers her lessons in witchcraft from her grandmother, and she’s sure that this is no ordinary illness. She’s also sure she can do something about it.
Muñeca packs a lot into a novella, alternating between Nati’s memories of learning from her grandmother, her memories of being in the Miramontes household as a child when her mother worked there, and the present, where Nati has traded on the fact that they can’t keep staff to get herself installed as one of Violeta’s caretakers. Assigned the overnight shift, Nati discovers that Violeta is fully conscious in her inert body and uses her witchcraft to give her a way to communicate and figure out that Violeta has been cursed. As they work together to break the spell, Nati and Violeta grow close, bound together by current danger and past legacies. I appreciated how many layers Gómez brings into play, packing an oversized emotional punch into a small story.
I really liked Nati and Violeta’s relationship. As befits a gothic story, it’s a little twisted, a little weird. But they have a real connection, and together they become more than the sum of their parts. I liked that Gómez spent time examining their class differences and what lines they were both willing to cross and how they interacted with their families. Despite the girls largely being confined to Violeta’s sick room in the present, the story is fast-paced as the girls work together through all the obstacles they discover in their quest to free Violeta so they can both have a life.
In conclusion, if you want to get on the gothic revival train, Muñeca could be your ticket. It’s short, it’s full of action, and it has a proper gothic atmosphere, and it brings gothic literature to 1960s Latine Oakland. It is definitely worth your time for a bit of a spooky summer read, so add it to your to read list for June 2nd.
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