Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

14 reviews

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

In her debut supernatural suspense novel, The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas takes imagined horrors and twists them with the cruel reality of history.

The Mexican government has been overthrown, and Beatriz's father was executed in the process. Now, she and her mother are left alone searching for a place where they belong. After years of emotional abuse at the hands of her aunt, Beatriz has finally found a way out--through marrying the rich and handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano. Beatriz now finally has a home in Rodolfo's estate, Hacienda San Isidro. But San Isidro is not the paradise Beatriz was hoping it would be. In the hacienda, she finds both real and supernatural horrors she could never have imagined. It will take all the strength Beatriz has along with the help of a mysterious young priest to overcome the power of San Isidro.

This novel does a great job juxtaposing the supernatural with the real horrors people faced in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence. Beatriz's plight was not an uncommon one--women were, and still are, searching for a path to freedom. And Beatriz believed she had found that freedom in being the Doña Solórzano, but even then she had limitations of others' opinions of her.

The Hacienda made me think about which how frightening real-life horrors can be. It made me reflect on the past and realize how much progress we've made but also how much progress we still have ahead of us. As Cañas points out in her author's note at the end of the novel, it's great to read books like these and ponder the past, but it's what we do going forward that really matters. 

I highly recommend this novel to those who love horror and thrillers novels and are looking for a little more depth to their reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault, Abortion, and War

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

I really enjoyed Vampires of El Norte by this author, and I enjoyed this one as well. This felt like more of a horror read, with the scary stuff happening fairly quickly and being the primary focus of the plot. This story fits the gothic horror paradigm of a new wife faced with a mysterious husband, a creepy house, and a hostile welcome to her new home, but it still felt fresh and different. If you liked Fleabag season 2 but wanted it to be set at a haunted house in historic Mexico, you will probably enjoy this as well. I did get a little frustrated with Beatriz sometimes, but overall she made for a compelling heroine. The audiobook narrators both did a great job, but sometimes I did wish I could see the text because I wasn't sure how some of the Mexican words were spelled based on how they were pronounced.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Death, Racism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, Alcohol, and War

fkshg8465's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I liked reading this book enough, but everything about it was too superficial. I think this book would've been better if longer - the relationship between Beatriz and Andrés never really got a chance to develop. I would've liked to see that one grow over a slow simmer. Same with the relationship between Beatriz and Rodolfo. Rodolfo's past sins were glossed over too quickly, so that I never really felt the impact of his actions. While they were abhorrent, I didn't get a chance to process them. Juana and María Catalina also needed more development. Their rage was assumed, when really, their motives were so shallow that their actions seemed over the top, which then put the whole book at risk of falling apart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nancydrew023's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I was not satisfied with this ending and would have appreciated a little more depth for backstories of Juana, Catalina, and maybe even Rudolpho 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Rape, Vomit, and Abortion

javafenn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I absolutely loved this book!! It as spooky enough that I didn’t like reading it late into the night but couldn’t stop and the main character was as perfect for the story. She is youthful and naive but learns very quickly how bad people can be. There were some good twists that you can see coming and others you can’t. It kind of reminded me of a much better version of Rebecca mixed with Mexican Gothic. All around fantastic book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Classism

noshakira's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I absolutely loved this book. It's equal parts spooky, empowering, and romantic. It perfectly captures the feelings, both good and bad, when you walk into a space that feels like it is living. Typically, I dislike period pieces, and would have avoided a book set in the 1800s like this one, but the storyline didn't feel as dated as many others and focused more on the timeless human and haunting aspects. Beautifully written and read like a movie in my mind. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

cover2covertx's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Abortion

rochelleisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

lorriss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Beatriz is desperate to escape the household of her mother's cousin, where she is forced to work as a scullery maid due to her mestizo heritage, and she thinks marriage to Rodolfo Solorzano, a wealthy hacienda owner in the country, is the key to a life for her and her mother similar to the one they lost when her father was killed in the Mexican Revolution. However, the Hacienda is anything but a refuge. Servants and Rodolfo's sister avoid it at night, no one really knows what happened to Rodolfo's first wife, shadows move on their own, areas of the house are unnaturally cold, and Beatriz is haunted by visions of blood. Beatriz's only hope of rescue is Andres, a mestizo priest with ties to the hacienda and supernatural powers that he's suppressed out of fear of the Inquisition.

It's a horror and historic fiction hybrid, and while I don't read the former much and can't say how well it holds up to others (it's the best of the few I've read), but the historic fiction aspects are excellent. Isabel Canas shows an expertise of the era of history she has set this in, and I think she gets around the issue of delivering exposition about the setting to readers less familiar with life in the era by making its presence related to some of the emotional wounds of her primary characters and really most of the cast. Canas demonstrates an excellent knowledge of how social issues like sexism, racism, colorism, and classism impact people/characters, and I find it hard to completely hate most of the antagonists.

The prose is gorgeous and at times macabre. I (and a few members of the book club I read this for) quickly learned that reading it at night is not a good idea as we were quite jumpy afterwards.

It's not a flawless debut. While the book focuses heavily on the casta class system in Mexico, the few members of the servant class that get development is almost entirely Andres and his family, which I think slightly undercuts the theme. Rodolfo also feels more like a plot device than a character, which I'm not sure how I feel about it. His decision to leave the hacienda in Beatriz and Juana's hands while he rubs elbows with politicians in the capital is necessary for character motivation, it leaves him underdeveloped, and readers are left on their own to reconcile the Rodolfo who his first wife adores and the one who (sexual abuse mention and a spoiler)

rapes serving girls and hides Beatriz's letters from her mother.

There is also something about the ending that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Beatriz's mother inherits a small home from her husband's family and moves into it while Beatriz is surviving her husband's home and invites her to come. Something about the knowledge that if Beatriz waited she'd have a home that she didn't have to fight a malevolent spirit to survive in feels unsatisfactory. Returning to her mother fits with the other theme of home, and I don't know how else to do that in a way that isn't majorly depressing. Plus, Beatriz grows as a person and initiates healing for Andres and his extended family as well as the hacienda itself through her actions, so it's not a total let down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Vomit, Abortion, Alcohol, and War