Hacienda

This is a decent debut novel from Isabel Cañas, who is a curious figure herself (she studied Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations). To begin with, I empathized with the notion of writing a historical fiction novel based on your heritage and experiences growing up as the child of immigrants/abroad, thus at once being tied to a culture that you have no connection with. I got the sense that a lot of this novel is a product of Cañas attempting to carve out her space within her heritage and its history for herself, and that is only commendable. Overall, while this novel marked some flaws and inconsistencies to be expected in a debut, and although I had some personal gripes with it, I enjoyed reading it and I think Cañas, at the very least, succeeded in sketching out some ideas and themes for the narrative.

The characters could have been developed more; there were hints as to background and motivations, especially in the case of Andrés; the dual perspective helped in that respect, though it can usually be difficult to maneuver for new authors. Cañas does well with distinguishing the narrative voices, though at times, Andrés’s voice felt slightly short of being convincing. I’m not sure what I would attribute that to—perhaps just the way his thoughts were characterized. It’s now been a while since I read it, since I’m writing this review so late, and the details are fuzzy. But I didn’t really feel any strong inkling towards what Beatriz’s character was fulfilling. Her qualities, such as being the daughter of a rebel general, were repeated throughout the novel but not expanded as much as I would’ve liked. And this is a refrain particular to me, but I felt that the romance was extremely unnecessary and overdone. Can we leave ‘Sexy Priest’ with Fleabag and call it a day? We don’t need a million imitations of the same concept.

The narrative is fairly straightforward; it is inspired by Rebecca, a book I still have not managed to read. Despite that, the overarching structure of its plot was familiar, and so the ‘twists’ weren’t that surprising. The supernatural element added a nice gothic element to the novel, but it was almost peripheral in the narrative—we don’t understand how or why these supernatural forces are at play, exactly; we just know that they are, and that a certain character can have dealings with them. On that note, without getting into spoiler territory, some aspects of the plot felt like they were unfinished, and some minor subplots had loose ends. The ending was rather abrupt. I do give credit to the atmosphere—it wasn’t entirely the perfect gothic setting, but it did manage to have moments that were a lot ‘scarier’ than Mexican Gothic, for instance. I wasn’t terrified out of my wits, but I was unsettled and I appreciated that the author wasn’t afraid of entertaining the darkness in her story.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this novel, but it wasn’t a perfect five-star read and I did have some issues with it. Still, it was a promising debut, and I’m curious to see what else Cañas writes—perhaps in the vein of more original fiction. She clearly has a lot of interesting ideas, and notes in the afterword to the novel that one of the major conceits of the novel (and a key purveyor of its ambiance) was inspired by her own experiences as a child. That sort of thing tends to lead to the best type of writing, so I’m eagerly checking out her next book.

Finalmente tirando um tempo para escrever uma pequena resenha sobre o livro. Eu achei The Hacienda bem mediano - enquanto a parte cultural, histórica do livro foi muito interessante e eu estava muito imersa na conversa entre os personagens (muitos pontos positivos para os narradores do audiobook), o mistério em si não foi interessante e a história apresenta apenas 2 possíveis personagens culpados pelo o que aconteceu com Maria Catalina (outra coisa que eu acho que não deveriam ter entregado na sinopse foi que aconteceu alguma coisa com ela). Qualquer um dos dois personagens que fosse revelado o culpado não teria me surpreendido. O outro twist que a autora também botou pra surpreender o leitor de que Maria Catalina não era uma pessoa boa também não teve efeito sobre mim, acho que por ter visto esse twist em tantos livros antes...
Considerando ser um livro de estréia acho que a autora tem muito potencial. Não é um livro que eu não recomende, mas não achei "wow" como as pessoas dizem que é.

Sometimes a book just works. Sometimes a book does exactly what it needs to and exactly what you want it to, and this was definitely one of those times for me.

Usually I like to be stingy with my five-star ratings and save them for truly special books that are unlike anything I've read before. The Hacienda doesn't really fall into that category, but at the same time I can't think of an argument against it. It had an interesting prompt and inciting incident, not one but two great protagonists, some good spooks, an interesting setting and time period I've never seen tackled in media before, and a variety of memorable moments. Every plot point can be worked back logically and explained in a context that makes sense; there's a good sense of cause-and-effect. And even the side characters were fleshed out enough that I could envision what they would do if placed in a given situation. As a whole, it felt like a very polished presentation of lots of little things I've seen in other books, but compiled into one satisfying work.

I especially liked the dynamic the main protagonist (Beatriz) experienced, which was basically, "yes, this house is haunted; yes, it's scaring the shit out of me; yes, I might die here, but goddamn it, I will tame this house if I have to because I literally have no other choice." Meanwhile the other protagonist (Andrés) is trying to walk the line of his job (a literal Catholic priest) while wrestling with the folklore/witch doctor remedies his grandmother taught him and that he knows will accomplish more than any rosary would.

It was just a refreshing take on the haunted house subgenre and a good example that even more obscure historical eras (at least I don't know of any books or movies taking place immediately after the Mexican War of Independence in 1822) can serve as viable settings for horror stories. I want more books like this.