Driving out of Hileah, FL into the muggy yet lush Everglades, down Alligator Alley, Ingrid comes closer and closer to a reunion with her childhood best friend (and somewhat frenemy) Mayra in a labyrinth house, deep in the swamp. What follows in Nicky Gonzalez’s Mayrais a haunting hallucination as the house shifts and changes, history becomes blurred, and memory becomes hazy, all told through the story structure of horror. Mayra has shades of the Southern gothic, but ultimately crafts its own uniquely Florida gothic. This fan of Shirley Jackson devoured this.
Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez, (List Price: $28, Random House, 9780593731550, July 2025)
Reviewed by Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia