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melreadsandrecs's review against another edition
1.0
I'm sorry, but this was subjectively, to me, a really bad book. I found out not only poorly written but problematic. This review will be fairly brief but will contain spoilers.
Firstly, the characterization was very weak. Every character sounded and acted the exact same. The POV would change and I wouldn't even notice, since threw characters were just copied and pasted.
More importantly, the plot was extremely weak. Alejandra faces challenges, kind of. But every obstacle is unrealistically easy to solve. She finds her birth parents with ease, despite having been in a closed adoption. She finds and can afford a therapist within a matter of minutes, and of course the therapist has no wait list or screening needs. Of course her husband magically agrees to a very easy divorce despite everything we've been told about him being competitive and callous. Of course her therapist knows a soil analyst (which didn't even really make sense) Of course she gets released from the hospital after a suicide attempt with no issue, even though in real life a hospitalization like that costs thousands and usually ruins your life.
Which brings me to what I thought was problematic about the book: it absolutely failed at depicting the tenacity required to actually overcome post partum depression and the difficulties of motherhood. If everybody could just get into therapy within an hour, we wouldn't be losing mothers and children to suicide and infanticide the way we are. If therapists could do random house calls at the drop of a hat, we might not have police killings of people in mental health crises. And it is irresponsible to write a plot a suicide attempt be the solution to any problem.
Yeah the more I write, the less sorry I am for the low rating. Truly what the hell did I just read.
Firstly, the characterization was very weak. Every character sounded and acted the exact same. The POV would change and I wouldn't even notice, since threw characters were just copied and pasted.
More importantly, the plot was extremely weak. Alejandra faces challenges, kind of. But every obstacle is unrealistically easy to solve. She finds her birth parents with ease, despite having been in a closed adoption. She finds and can afford a therapist within a matter of minutes, and of course the therapist has no wait list or screening needs. Of course her husband magically agrees to a very easy divorce despite everything we've been told about him being competitive and callous. Of course her therapist knows a soil analyst (which didn't even really make sense) Of course she gets released from the hospital after a suicide attempt with no issue, even though in real life a hospitalization like that costs thousands and usually ruins your life.
Which brings me to what I thought was problematic about the book: it absolutely failed at depicting the tenacity required to actually overcome post partum depression and the difficulties of motherhood. If everybody could just get into therapy within an hour, we wouldn't be losing mothers and children to suicide and infanticide the way we are. If therapists could do random house calls at the drop of a hat, we might not have police killings of people in mental health crises. And it is irresponsible to write a plot a suicide attempt be the solution to any problem.
Yeah the more I write, the less sorry I am for the low rating. Truly what the hell did I just read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
_readerfromtheblacklagoon_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Moderate: Drug use, Infertility, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and War
perdita's review against another edition
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The book's synopsis was what brought me to read it - yet I was disappointed. There are many things that The Haunting of Alejandra gets right: for example, the portrayal of intergenerational trauma, and the toll that motherhood takes on women (and it emphasises how important it is for women to have some sort of identity besides being mothers!). Nevertheless, many of the characters felt one-dimensional. Some of the twists were forced and the explanation for them was weak, to say the least. The writing style felt off, and disjointed at times. Overall, I believe that this book would have benefitted from further editing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent
thrillakilla's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage and Violence
Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
caidyn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Definitely found a new author I like! This was an intense book, but so good. I enjoyed how it was generational and involved reconnecting with the past.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
jessreadreceipts's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Abortion
thebookworm_queen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A powerful story of Alejandra, a stay at home mother, who is feeling broken. She experiences negative thoughts and emotions towards herself as well as her family. These negative thoughts are followed by whispers from a woman dressed in white, La Llorona. Alejandra is plagued by visions of the spirit and they grow more gruesome as she continues to strain from the pressures from home and those she loves. Castro wrote a vulnerable, chilling as well as feminist story featuring the legendary La Llorana to explore themes like motherhood and generational trauma.
Readers won’t be able to sleep because of this page turner that will have them questioning both what may be hiding in their closets and the lack of support provided to mothers throughout history.
FULL REVIEW at thebookwormqueen.com
FULL REVIEW at thebookwormqueen.com
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse
bkwrm1317's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The star rating is a personal rating, rather than the rating I'll provide for this eARC (which will be four stars).
First and foremost, thanks to Del Rey and Penguin Random House (shoutout to Sabrina S. at Del Rey for recommending based on other novels I've reviewed!) for providing me access to an eARC of The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro in exchange for an honest review.
Castro's Haunting of Alejandra is a slow-medium paced novel that spans centuries and generations of women who have been haunted by an entity that feeds off of their sorrow. Our protagonist is a modern mother of two who, having grown up in an unstable home environment, is enraptured by a young white man who promises her stability. Unfortunately for our protagonist, she ends up in a marriage without real love or affection and deeply unhappy (her spouse's gaslighting her certainly doesn't help things).
We also get insight into our protagonists femme ancestors, who, all the way back to the inception of colonization in what is today México, have been burdened by this curse, intended to punish colonizers by one of our protagonist's forebears.
Wrapped into this generational curse and its consequences are an interpretation by the author of the myth of la Llorona of Latin American folklore. Perhaps one of the most interesting characters of the novel, this creature, perhaps from another dimension/part of the universe, has an insatiable hunger for violence and malevolence on par with the Spanish conquistadores. "Before the invasion of this land by other humans, the creature had known that something just as malevolent as itself sailed the horizon. Perched on a jagged rock at the edge of a cliff, the creature had watched the bleeding sunset and inhaled the scent of death carried by the currents from the open waters creeping onto the shores. An omen." (location 544 in eARC via Kindle app)
A great fit for fans of Latin American folklore imbued fantasy, fans of Latin American inspired horror, folks who enjoy fantasy that covers broad time periods/is multi-generational in nature, readers who want to discover new takes on familiar tropes/stories (la Llorona, in this case), and emotional or heavier fantasy. I'll be on the lookout for more by V. Castro!
CWs: thoughts of unaliving oneself, horror, ghost stories, family/generational curses, emotional manipulation and gaslighting, childhood emotional abuse, childbirth, regret of having children, adoption + associated emotions for birth parent and adoptee
First and foremost, thanks to Del Rey and Penguin Random House (shoutout to Sabrina S. at Del Rey for recommending based on other novels I've reviewed!) for providing me access to an eARC of The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro in exchange for an honest review.
Castro's Haunting of Alejandra is a slow-medium paced novel that spans centuries and generations of women who have been haunted by an entity that feeds off of their sorrow. Our protagonist is a modern mother of two who, having grown up in an unstable home environment, is enraptured by a young white man who promises her stability. Unfortunately for our protagonist, she ends up in a marriage without real love or affection and deeply unhappy (her spouse's gaslighting her certainly doesn't help things).
We also get insight into our protagonists femme ancestors, who, all the way back to the inception of colonization in what is today México, have been burdened by this curse, intended to punish colonizers by one of our protagonist's forebears.
Wrapped into this generational curse and its consequences are an interpretation by the author of the myth of la Llorona of Latin American folklore. Perhaps one of the most interesting characters of the novel, this creature, perhaps from another dimension/part of the universe, has an insatiable hunger for violence and malevolence on par with the Spanish conquistadores.
A great fit for fans of Latin American folklore imbued fantasy, fans of Latin American inspired horror, folks who enjoy fantasy that covers broad time periods/is multi-generational in nature, readers who want to discover new takes on familiar tropes/stories (la Llorona, in this case), and emotional or heavier fantasy. I'll be on the lookout for more by V. Castro!
CWs: thoughts of unaliving oneself, horror, ghost stories, family/generational curses, emotional manipulation and gaslighting, childhood emotional abuse, childbirth, regret of having children, adoption + associated emotions for birth parent and adoptee
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting
Minor: Child abuse
horrorandscience's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
“Everyone deserves to write their own story.”
Alejandra is a 30-something, stay at home mom with three children. Her life seems normal, except for the bloodied creature wearing flesh and fish skin for a dress that watches her children sleep.
I love books about trauma. I love books about mental health. I love *raw* and honest books about mental health. V. Castro is already one of my favorite authors, and The Haunting of Alejandra is no exception. I flew through this book quickly, devouring it in about two nights.
This was a hard book. I don’t have children myself, and don’t want them, but it shook something in me that made me take a look at my past and my trauma and how the people around me treated me over it. Women (and other marginalized communities) are meant to take so much trauma without creating a fuss. They are meant to give up everything to cater to others. And this is the norm, not an extreme. This book forces you to look at the uglier side of womanhood and motherhood. Reading this on the heels of The Lies We Weave by Grace R. Reynolds definitely added a bit of emotion to the story.
Tread with caution, and treat yourself kindly while reading this book. I loved Alejandra, and I hope you do too.
Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the chance to read this advanced review copy.
CW for death, murder, body horror, suicide, suicidal thoughts/ideation, blood, gore, toxic relationship, sexism, abandonment, sexual assault, emotional abuse, child abuse, rape, mental illness/depression, infidelity, miscarriage, colonization, and racism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, and Colonisation
starklinqs's review against another edition
2.75
This book started out with a strong premise but I feel like it petered out a bit. Honestly, I think there’s a great book in here, but it needs editing for me to give it the 4 I wanted to give. The dialogue was probably the biggest thing - the general writing is well written, but the dialogue sounds stilted and choppy. A lot of the times I was taken out of the story because I’d be reading thinking “Nobody speaks like this.” I found the ancestor chapters super interesting, but I wish it followed a more consistent chronological timeline. I would have loved seeing the curse build over time, or to start most recent and go backwards to see how it all started. I love the idea of a generational haunting/curse but wish it were incorporated better.
There’s also just a lot of graphically written gore and violence in this - which isn’t a bad thing and it has a purpose, but it isn’t really my thing and I guess I had different expectations. When I saw the title and read the summary I thought this was going to be more of well, a haunting. It started out more like what I thought of a quiet horror of sorts, but then kind of turned in the middle to a demonic, bloodier tone. Again not bad just wasn’t really something I was into or expecting.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
There’s also just a lot of graphically written gore and violence in this - which isn’t a bad thing and it has a purpose, but it isn’t really my thing and I guess I had different expectations. When I saw the title and read the summary I thought this was going to be more of well, a haunting. It started out more like what I thought of a quiet horror of sorts, but then kind of turned in the middle to a demonic, bloodier tone. Again not bad just wasn’t really something I was into or expecting.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Rape