DNF at 50%. I think that I'm not the audience for this story. Not being a mother, and this story being about motherhood and the challenges that come with that, it was all a bit out of my experience.

That said, I think this could be a powerful, relatable story for mothers. I enjoyed the writing, but the dialogue was a bit unnatural. I would definitely read from this author again.

Overall: Having grown up in Texas, I was familiar with the tales of La Llorona, the ghost of a crying woman. The Haunting of Alejandra expands this legend into a modern horror story. Alejandra, a stay-at-home mom with three children, is deeply unhappy with her life. She feels trapped in a marriage to a man who doesn’t see or love her, smothered by the daily, repetitive demands of her kids, and has untreated childhood trauma from growing up in an unhappy adoptive home. At times in her life, she has heard a dark voice urging her to do terrible things. And now, as she sinks lower into a psychological abyss, she begins to see things, too. Fighting for her life, Alejandra reached out to a therapist who encourages her to connect with her past to try to free herself of the darkness she begins to call La Llorona.

Likes: The central premise, that a person could be haunted by generational trauma, is a fascinating one. Some of the characters provide interesting glimpses at earlier parts of Mexican history; I especially enjoyed the section about Flor’s contributions to the Mexican Revolution as part of Emiliano Zapata Salazar’s fighting group. The horror elements are creative and, especially in the beginning, quite scary. Alejandra’s struggles as a stay-at-home parent are sympathetically portrayed.

Dislikes: Unfortunately, I did not connect with the writing style, which often felt stilted and awkward. There were lots of repeated passages of description that bogged down the plot. I also felt that the book spent much more time telling the reader about emotions and family backstories that would have been more effective had they been shown. And I thought the big reveal about the source of the haunting came too early, and consequently the psychological tension evaporated in the last half of the book.

FYI: Murder, suicide, attempted infanticide, traumatic pregnancy, stillbirth, forced marriage, rape, violence, gore, mental illness, parental abandonment.

The actual story of this book was fantastic, It was incredibly unique and could have been terrifying. Unfortunately, the writing was stilted and awkward and so it didn't have the full effect it could have. It quickly repetitive and flat and I think just needed a little more work.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book- a demon from Mexican folklore haunting generations of women. But while a lot of people enjoyed it, it wasn’t for me. It was slow, and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The main character spent most of her time complaining about her life. The story didn’t pick up until two thirds of the way through a short book.

The author did a lot of telling instead of showing, and the dialog felt formal. There’s a lot about how mothers feel for their children, which probably would resonate with me more if I had kids. It was interesting to read about La Llorona, and I’d like to know more about her. It comes out April 18. Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for my copy.

I loved this book so much! I really didn’t know what it was about when I started reading it, but I quickly was obsessed! The characters are well developed, and I couldn’t help but love them all!

I LOVED this. A horror novel based on the folklore of La Llorona. It featured supernatural entities, mental health representation and the real life horror of most Latino families: generational trauma. As a Hispanic woman who has my own mental health issues, there were some parts of how Alejandra felt that really resonated with me. Highly recommend this read.

I have posted my review to goodreads and StoryGraph as of 4/16/23. I will post my review to Amazon on 4/18/23.

What a rich novel exploring motherhood, connection, generational trauma, and myth. Alejandra finds herself in a new city with her husband and three children feeling disconnected from life and resentful of how tedious every single day feels. Alejandra soon finds herself being tormented by La Llorona. Alejandra must make the choice to explore her past, heal herself, and fight for her children if she doesn’t want to lose everything that matters to her.

This was a slower paced novel for me but I really enjoyed watching Alejandra come into her own and find her power. We’re presented with a multigenerational story from the perspective of the different women which made the story even more complex for me.

Alejandra is a stay-at-home mother of three children who is unhappy with the roles she's acquiesced to being pushed into by other expectations. She begins to see visions of a creature haunting her who is reminiscent of La Llorna. Throughout the story, Alejandra tries to recover from the generational trauma of the women in her family along with trying to quell the visions. The blending of healing from generational trauma along with the aspects of a well-known horror story was masterfully done. Getting to come along as Alejandra tried to take back her life from both the expectations of others as well as the creature that is haunting her was an absolutely amazing experience.

A re-telling of La Llarona using the origin of the urban myth? Alejandra was definitely a tortured soul. She helped feed the demon that plagued her ancestors since the colonization of Mexico. Once Alejandra started taking back her life and coming to terms with her depression and unhappiness, the demon became displeased. Its food source was changing. A really good folklore tale.

Having heard the name La Llorona only in passing years ago, I had no preconceived ideas of what she was about, and was completely grabbed by her description in Castro's story. This was intense at times, but also challenging to connect with at others. I enjoyed the story, and found it to be a relatively easy and quick read, but there wasn't always the need or want to keep going that I like in a good psychological drama. The connections with the characters in the past was well done, although some felt a bit forced/unrealistic, but overall this was an enjoyable read.

My thanks to Random House - Ballantine/Del Rey, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting premise, gorgeous cover, but not much else going on. The pace is slow and tedious, the characters flat. The narrative is over burdened with too much “tell” and ideas are developed shallowly. The horror elements feel tacked on instead of ingrained into the voice of the piece.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

I love stories about generational trauma, and stories from Mexican and Mexican-American mythology, so this was right up my alley. But this book surprised me by making me think deeply about motherhood, and it gave me some pretty big feelings.

An ambitious tale weaving Mexican folklore together with ancestral lineage and heritage, the (mostly) unrecognized hardships women experience as mothers, and too familiar abuse and trauma. In the book's first pages we know it will be a dark, oppressive story.  Castro captures Alejandra's despair over feeling unfulfilled and under appreciated as a mother caring for three small children with little help or attention from her husband (portrayed as a real jerk). Her emotions felt true, and hopeless, and these feelings culminate with visions of a vicious creature with nefarious intent. 

As Alejandra digs into her past (she's adopted) and connects with her roots, the story goes back in time to shed light on the curse that's followed her family through the ages. There's a lot of back and forth, a lot of repetition with Alejandra's ancestors as the layers are peeled back. And a lot of body horror.

I struggled with the writing. A lot of the prose was just awkward and didn't flow easily. Each time the vision appeared, we got a new onslaught of descriptors (it appears a lot). Many sentences just didn't make sense. While the Europeans did introduce a myriad of atrocities when they arrived in Mexico, the Aztecs and Mayans did practice human sacrifice, so it wasn't all butterflies and rainbows. Alejandra is at school with the kids at the beginning of a paragraph and "getting the kids ready for school" at the end of the same paragraph. A woman is referred to as both a great-grandmother and mother (to the same person) in the same paragraph, same with an uncle referred to as a cousin in another paragraph. "Four of them" when referring to her family of five. Hopefully these inconsistencies were caught in the final edit, they took me out of the story. 

I did crack up at these lines: "...knew without a test she was pregnant. It had happened after an Aerosmith concert four weeks before." and: "Dream On played as soft as his touch to take her away". Of course it did. 

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for this review.

This is a haunting book in more ways than one! First off, La Llorona is one of the scariest ghost stories ever to me. In this story, we start with Alejandra struggling with being a stay-at-home mom to three children and her husband's expectations that she enjoy such an "easy" life. It is in that context that Alejandra begins seeing La Llorona. Right off the bat, those are two of my biggest fears.

However, this book is about much more than a haunting or a woman dissatisfied with her life. It is about generational trauma and pain. It is also about connecting with your roots, your ancestors, and finding your power. It is also about seeking help! Alejandra starts going to therapy and thus beings her journey to understanding what is happening to her. Her therapist does help her confront the spirit of La Llorona, but she also helps her with what she wants from her husband, from motherhood, and from herself.

There are just layers upon layers to unpack for Alejandra and for the reader. I loved it!

Content Warnings: rape, ghosts, suicidal thoughts, blood, self-harm, suicide, discussions of harming children.

3.5 stars

Well, that was an experience. I loved most of the start, even with a very depressed MC who tells you every little thing on her mind. And I mean every little thing. It still builds like a contemporary gothic horror, and I was here for it. I liked how it was weaving folktales into the narrative, and I was desperate to see where everything was leading. I was pulled out of the story once we started introducing some other ancestors, mainly because they read exactly like the present day timeline to their thoughts to the dialogue. Then came the ending, which at the best interpretation I just didn’t like, but the more I think about it, the more I sort of hate everything. So I’m just going to stop thinking about it, and remember the good times (the start and buildup). If you are a women’s fiction person who likes mildly creepy horror now and then, you might love this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was an interesting concept, but the execution fell flat. I was bored by large portions of this, and the characters felt inauthetnic at times. It was also very, very slow.

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

A great story of a women who have all been haunted and cursed. I like how Castro switched timelines pretty effortlessly and it was easy to follow along with because the pacing was well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Woah! I was completely taken in by this book! It is haunting throughout, with several points of view, the main being Alejandra, a wife and mother to 3 children, who is feeling depression and hopelessness and fear that she is not good enough for her children. There is generations of familial trauma endured by the women in her family’s past that fuel her haunting.

I loved reading about that story of La Llorona and how V. Castro weaved it into her new tale.

As this was an ARC, I did notice some grammatical errors where I had to reread a sentence more than once to understand the intent but I have confidence the editors will make appropriate corrections.

Source: DRC via NetGalley (Random House Publishing Group-Ballentine, Del Rey) in exchange for an honest review
Publication Date: April 18, 2023
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

Why did I choose to read this book?

I was drawn to this book because of the haunting and because of the act of shaking off generational trauma. As much as we might like to deny it, the sin/actions/consequences of our ancestors are visited onto us, and it’s up to us whether we will continue them or break the cycle. I’m interested in how authors choose to tell the story of breaking the cycle and if there’s spookiness to boot? I’m in.

What is this book about?

The Haunting of Alejandra falls into the same category as Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. A woman, who is a mom of 3 (four if you count her passively aggressive overbearing slightly emotionally abusive husband) has reached a point of no return. She wants to end her life to escape the hole she’s dug for herself. But then she receives a visit from a ghost in the bathroom and begins thinking she’s crazy, that she’s seeing things. She visits a mental health professional who is also a spiritual healer and begins to discover that this might be more than just something that lives in her own head.

What is notable about this story?

The use of La Llorona as a real, modern threat was very intriguing. I’ve said before that I enjoy learning about other cultures and historical events through fiction, and this book does not disappoint. The curse of La Llorona flows through bloodlines, and Alejandra is next on the list.

I also think it’s important to see women’s stories as mothers who are beaten down, trapped, and worn out. Alejandra gave up her career, her name isn’t on anything that her family owns, she’s bored and sad and frustrated. She feels disconnected from her husband who is just as helpless and irritating as the kids. He sneakily lures her into a life of housewifery and it all happened so fast that now she can’t see a way out. So many women live this way and it’s not right. If you’re reading this right now and you are in that situation, you are not alone.

Was anything not so great?

This only the third book I have chosen not to finish this year. The writing, oh my goodness the writing. It’s not even the style. It’s like what a high school student would write if their paper was due in 3 hours and they hadn’t started so they were just writing a stream of consciousness. It was just so…I’m not a literary scholar so I don’t know how to describe it. It didn’t feel polished. It didn’t feel edited. It felt like a 4th or 5th draft where you have the timeline and the characters established, but how you connect it all just feels like a plastic bag full of mayonnaise. There were words, and they meant things, but they weren’t doing anything. It was like reading a diary that was trying to be a novel.

I guess the best way to describe it using my own experience is like hearing someone sing a really familiar song badly. You know the background music and the words to the song and so does the singer you’re about to hear. But then they start to sing and you cringe because how they are singing it is just so wrong. And it’s a professional type event, not karaoke, so your expectations are that this person would be a good singer. So you’re disappointed, and a little tiny bit mad, that your time was wasted.

Luckily this was a digital advance copy of the book, so I didn’t spend money.

What’s the verdict?

Unlike previous DNF books where I was pretty clear that it just wasn’t for me but it was well written so if it sounded like you might want to try it you should, The Haunting of Alejandra was simply not a well written book. It hurt my brain to read it. I made it to 46% before I called it quits so I felt confident enough to write a review, but unfortunately I have to give this one star on Goodreads. It’s got all the ingredients of a great story, I just can’t make it through when the writing is this bad.

On to the next one!