Paperback, 345 pages
English language
Published June 1, 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group.
Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.
When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at …
Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.
When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark the doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?
Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her.
Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.
Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.
I really wish I remembered more from that one segment on the Mexican war for independence. Excellent haunted house book
The Hacienda is the perfect mixture of crime drama, witchcraft, love and historic fiction. It reminds me a lot of Victorian times, but set in Mexico after the War of Independence. Great read.
Rounding up my review. A chilling Mexican gothic style book, a girl agrees to a marriage as she feels she has no other options to have a roof over her head and hopes to look after her mother too. The house has other ideas and starts haunting her soon after she moved in. Gory imagery is described for the chilling effect and she reaches out to get the house exorcised. Meanwhile she meets a padre who is in fact a witch with much experience with the supernatural, and learns more about the history of the place, the people in it including her own husband and rumours around him and the death of his first wife, and about the community at large. Coming nearly eye to eye with death, she manages to unravel the mysteries and escape alive, whilst reconnecting to her mother.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
