Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

9 reviews

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

bookiesncreme's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Infidelity and Abortion

_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

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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

leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Colonisation

sophi_b's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

reneebraceysherman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? No

4.25

I just finished and LOVED The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro. It’s a beautiful and eerie retelling of La Llorona through the eyes of Alejandra, a despondent suburban housewife who loves her children but longs for more. As she reconnects with her birth mother and her Mexican heritage, she finds that she’s not the only one in her family who has experienced a depression around lack of access to choices and the haunting of La Llorona. The story is told through women of several generations and is a rich story of reproductive choices and liberation accessible to the women in the bloodline.

There’s also an abortion consideration and what I would consider to be a mystical abortion in the story, so I’m categorizing it as an #AbortionBook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion

laurenbookwitchbitch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I’ve been a big fan of V. Castro since reading “Goddess of Filth,” so I was very excited for this new, even longer horror novel. First off I mean look at this gorgeous cover! I adore a grotesque book filled with ghosts and blood that has bright pastel flowers on the cover, five stars for the illustration! Alejandra is a mother, wife and home-maker plagued by depression, anxiety and recurring nightmares of a woman in white whispering encouraging her to kill her children. As Alejandra’s terror increases, she begins to delve into her ancestry to discover a long lineage of women, who have had similar encounters w/ this demon masquerading as La Llrona.  This book does that thing where it switches POV and goes back and forth in time between the different ancestral women who also encounter this demon in a way that is hard to pull off seamlessly but Castro nails it! “The Haunting of Alejandra is dark, emotional, fraught, frightening and will threaten to devour your own soul. But like, in a way that makes it a fantastic horror reading experience! 

My only criticism of this book is that it very much equates womanhood with motherhood. 🙁😐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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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

ta2dlibrarian's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book includes dark themes. Check all content warnings. 

What if the pain and suffering of your people never went away? What if it were inherited like other priceless heirlooms? What if it waited until you were most vulnerable, lonely, and sad to manifest itself? Except it came to you as La Llorona and whispered in your ear? 

Alejandra finds out that some curses are real and supernatural enough to need the help of not just any doctor or therapist, but requires the help of a curandera, a healer that uses traditional Latin American, non-Western medicine. 

Simultaneous to Alejandra's story we learn of the strength of her Mexican ancestors: how they battled the conquistadors, fought for their own independence, and how the legend of La Llorona was born of a woman's desperation and deep love for her children. 

Will Alejandra be strong enough to stop the curse, save her children from future torment, and end La Llorona? There's only one way to find out! 

Content warning: self harm, suicidal ideation, abortion, spousal abuse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Grief, Abortion, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia