Thank you to Hear Our Voices for including me in this book tour. All thoughts remain my own.

<b> A haunting novel of womanhood, mental health, generational curses and ultimately freedom and self forgiveness. </b>

What a beautifully rich novel this was. Not only was I immersed in the frightening lore of La Llorona, but I felt a connection to each of Alejandra's ancestors and loved that we were able to get pov chapters from each of them.

I just wanted to cuddle Alejandra. Not being a mother myself, I can only imagine how lonely and filled with self hatred she felt with these emotions she was experiencing. I felt deep empathy for her and although it was hard to read due to a lot of the subject matter being incredibly dark and upsetting, there was uplifting moments and inspiration advocating for external and self help, both in therapy and spiritually (whether that's believing in a higher power, your ancestors or the magic of your own existence and will power).

The strength and female kinship displayed in this novel was breath taking. It felt visceral and attainable.

This was a strong novel, battling struggles of the mind, manifesting into a physical sinister entity and it was an incredibly, empowering read.

The first time I had ever heard of La Llorona was actually during an episode of Riverdale. I was fascinated by the lore of her. When I read the description of The Haunting of Alejandra, I was excited to learn more about her in what sounded like a super creepy horror story.

There were certainly parts of the story that were creepy, but most of the book was setting up the back story of Alejandra's haunting, and discussing the generations of women before her that experience La Llorona. I enjoyed the multiple timelines and the other women's stories, more than I did the actual haunting. I'd say the last 15% of the story was the creepiest and gave me some really ill feelings.

I considered putting The Haunting of Alejandra down right up until the halfway point, and by then I decided to just keep going and finish the story. The writing is beautiful, but the story just didn't fully grab me. However, I'm glad I pushed on and finished it.

Overall, it was a decent read.

Thank you Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book.

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro is a modern horror book like no other. Castro seamlessly weaves the struggles of motherhood and mental illness with the horridness of the Mexican folklore of La Llorona. It is a beautiful novel about facing generational trauma and having the courage to break the cycle.

Alejandra's life is perfect on the surface: stay at home mom to three charming children, new house, and a husband who makes the big bucks. Below the surface, Alejandra's mental state is all violence. Feeling trapped by her husband's indifferent misogyny and believing her existence is being wasted as a stay-at-home mother, she begins having dreams of ending her life, accompanied by visions of a terrifying figure in white which she identifies as the Mexican folk demon La Llorona. As Alejandra spirals further into madness, she turns to a therapist to help her unravel her thoughts, setting in play a deadly series of events that will threaten herself, her family, and all of her ancestors.

Pros:
- This turns into a genuinely interesting take on the La Llorona folktale, adding and expanding on the mythology and offering a completely different explanation for it. It's a good way to get some more out of a very well explored tale.
- Alejandra's plight in her life and marriage should offer some real sympathy, as her husband is easy to hate as a villain figure.

Cons:
- On the converse, the characters beyond Alejandra are fairly shallow, and her husband often falls into becoming a pantomime villain, spouting off dialogue that sounds like it's ripped straight from everyone's favorite misogynistic social media influencers.
- The exposition is often given in a way that very much feels like an information dump, and more showing instead of telling for the reader would have been nice.

Three stars. This is a disturbing look at mental illness and generational unhappiness, hampered by some pacing and dialogue issues. Alejandra's journey of empowerment leaves a generally good feeling upon completion, however.

FFO: folklore, generational curses, empowerment.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley*

The Haunting of Alejandra is a body horror about the struggles of motherhood and being female. Written from multiple points of view, the story does jump around a bit and I had trouble staying engaged. I like the depth that the author goes to in examining issues that affect us all. The book is a great example of feminist horror but I'm sorry to say I just didn't enjoy reading it. V Castro will always be a favorite author of mine but domestic dramas just aren't my bag.

Alejandra is having a bad time. She’s depressed, married to an absolute dickbag, and perilously close to lacking a will to live. She loves her three children, but she feels like she’s failing them. She’s also starting to see things, namely, a demonic presence that calls her all sorts of nasty names and is pushing her toward the edge of her personal cliff. Will she be able to defeat the demon or will it claim her and her children in the end?

Sad to say it, but this one was not for me at all. I found the characters to be incredibly flat and the conversation stilted and clunky — very few contractions in anyone’s speech made it unnatural for a contemporary setting. I considered DNFing at the halfway point but it’s a short read, so I pushed through. I can’t say I’m glad that I did, as the plot didn’t do anything for me either.

The horror elements were pretty successful, graphic and gross descriptions of the demon and its deeds, but otherwise the writing was tedious and droning for me. I found myself not at all invested.

Thank you anyways to V Castro, Del Ray, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to review this heart wrenching and brutal ARC.

V. Castro used her voice and wrote about the struggles that many mothers endure about motherhood and wrote about topics that seem “taboo.” This book hit home when it came to the topics of being a mother and that will forever stick with me about this book. It made me feel like I’m not alone and made me feel all the emotions. I read this at a time where I needed another woman to look up to and for guidance. She did that! Alejandra is such a respectable, relatable, bad ass woman.

The story was beautifully written, bringing in generational trauma, self-identity, marital problems, of course stigma with motherhood that isn’t discussed more, oppression, suicide etc.

This book is written with multiple perspectives and enjoyed being able to see all the characters with their own story, but I did not enjoy Flora’s perspective. I felt like it did not add much to the overall story because the author previously implied what her perspective entailed before getting to her perspective. I got a little bored reading her perspective and honestly just skimmed her perspective. I just loved Alejandra’s character so much I wanted more of her.

The body horror was fantastic and it was gut wrenching to imagine what Alejandra endured.

Overall I gave this 4 stars.

I really enjoyed how the cultural folk story of La Llorona mixed with a woman fighting a generational curse. The way that Alejandra was able to not only connect with her family's past but find herself in time to be there for her children was beautifully written.

I loved all the incredible Mexican women throughout time that made up Alejandra's family and were able to lend their strength to future generations when need be. The work of Melanie the curandera was beautiful, I loved the mixture of herbs and crystals with ancestral knowledge and magic. The representation was amazing to see.

This story follows a mother seemingly suffering from postpartum depression (and an absolute trash husband) who believes she is being haunted by La Llorona. The entity ends up being something even more terrifying; a demonic creature that feeds on trauma through a generational curse that affects mothers going back to the colonization of Mexico.

I really enjoyed this book and the stories told from multiple points of view. Castro did a great job of painting a picture of the creature that really terrified me. I found myself cheering for the main character through out the book. Well done.

This story has A LOT going for it. Castro really excels at incorporating folklore into a modern story. We follow Alejandra, a mother of three, who is feeling trapped by her marriage and motherhood. She begins seeing visions of a woman in white and recalls the story of La Llorona. With the help of her new curandero therapist, she learns what these visions mean and formulates a plan to stop the creature.

I loved the spirituality discussions that therapist Melanie brings to the narrative. She was a fascinating character who brought, in my opinion, the most intriguing portion of this story to life.

I do feel this should have been longer to really fill out the story and bring us more in tune with Alejandra. We are thrown in the deep end right from the beginning, with her perspective starting with a vision of the creature as well as thoughts of suicide. I feel a little more time at the beginning with Alejandra would have been beneficial in bringing the reader closer to Alejandra.

We also do a lot of jumping around in time to different members of Alejandra’s family, which I felt did not add to the story much. I would have rather had more time with Alejandra, which I think would have made the story feel less disjointed.

The horror elements were well realized with some pretty gnarly imaging, especially towards the end. Castro really does well with the body horror scenes!!

Thematically, we are exploring generational trauma/inherited trauma told through a horror lens, which was really cool. I liked the message, but felt like the story could have been a bit more cohesive and more time spent of bringing the reader and Alejandra closer together. I am excited to give V. Castor’s other works a try - I like what she is doing!

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A creepy novel that is also deeply poignant, this is the story of Alejandra’s literal and metaphorical haunting. Her evolution from the beginning to the end is very moving. Being of Spanish heritage, la Llorona kept me awake at night when I was little, so seeing her as the boogeyman here made my skin crawl. Castro writes in such beautiful prose, that it’s almost like the poetic images are planted directly in the reader’s mind. The characters are three-dimensional and deeply flawed. I liked how the author doesn’t fall in the usual feminist trap of making men unlikable evil cartoons, but just misguided people trying to do the right thing. The scary parts are truly horrifying and not for the faint of heart. I don’t usually enjoy books where people talk a lot about their feelings but this one somehow worked for me. Supernatural horror with a big, big heart.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey!

From start to finish, this was a depressing and unsatisfying read. It felt like an ode to postpartum depression and an unfulfilling marriage in the worst ways. Even the cultural references weren’t enough to redeem the plot that just completely missed the purpose of this “horror” of a book.

I loved The Haunting of Alejandra already just by its premise. La Llorona and generational trauma? Sign me up! I've definitely read enough mediocre to horrible magical realism works by male authors who write things from a tired patriarchal perspective and they think they know how to write body horror. Castro definitely shows us how it's done. Mary Shelley would be proud of all the body horror going on in this book. I'm only giving this four out of five stars because I felt all the descriptions of the generational trauma and Alejandra's daily migraine life a little too well; not sure if I'm a weakling or if some editing could have been done. (I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.)

This was a really hard one for me to rate because there was such a mix of things I really enjoyed as well as things I did not. The premise and the cultural background were all done so well but the story wasn’t a home run for me overall.

I went into this one just knowing we are following a woman severely struggling. She’s lost herself to being a mom and a wife. Darkness is consuming her. But what she doesn't know is that La Llorona has been haunting the women in her family for generations, feeding off their sadness and grief and coming after their children. Let me tell you, the premise is fascinating!

In these pages we not only follow Alejandra, but we also learn about the women of her past that were also haunted by La Llorona. My favorite chapters were the flashbacks to different times in history and learning about Alejandra’s ancestors. Adding those additional stories of the other women really added a deeper layer and understanding of what Alejandra was going through.

This is not just your standard horror story. There are so many different, deep elements here. I was instantly drawn into Alejandra’s struggle with feeling like she has lost herself to being a stay-at-home mom and wife to an ungrateful, distant husband. Speaking of horror, I will say Castro is a gifted horror writer. This story is graphic and dark.

The premise is there. The story is interesting. There were elements that I was completely invested in. It was a fast read, but overall, the story just wasn’t my favorite.

"The Haunting of Alejandra" follows Alejandra, and overwhelmed mother of three children and wife to an unsupportive, dismissive husband as she fights to save her family from a malevolent force that's been stalking them through generation.

I loved this book! It's a gorgeous exploration of very heavy, very real themes of generational trauma, motherhood, and existing as a woman today and throughout history. The book gives us glimpses into the past through Alejandra's ancestors, detailing their encounter with the entity stalking the women of their bloodline and demonstrating how the trauma of colonialism, misogyny, and mental illness manifest through generations. The descriptions of Alejandra's torment and depression are visceral and real; I felt genuinely anxious and angry for her, and her feelings and experiences were so true to life.

The use of the supernatural to embody the complex experience of generational trauma is phenomenal, and you'll find yourself rooting for Alejandra and all of her ancestors to break the cycle and kill the creature following them once and for all.

Cannot recommend this book enough. You'll like this if you like supernatural horror based in real-world issues of misogyny, racism and colonialism, feelings of loss of identity in motherhood, and generational trauma.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC; this has been my honest review!

The haunting of Alejandra had so much potential but ultimately fell flat for me. I was very intrigued by the idea of using generational trauma and a bit of spooky ghost ( la Llorona). Still, the multiple viewpoints from different people and times were hard to digest.

There were multiple times in the book when I felt the writing was immature, and I'd actually stop reading to google if this was supposed to be a YA book. Additionally, Alejandra's character would go off on these long monologues that left nothing for the reader to imagine or connect to because the author told you exactly how and what you were to feel about the situations.

One thing I did enjoy was the acknowledgment of regret some women face when having children. The author did an excellent job of getting the readers to understand that sometimes women get lost in their motherhood identity and it’s all-consuming.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC.

I loved The Haunting of Alejandra.
Even though Alejandra led a very different life from me, I felt her struggle and pain and guilt as she juggled 3 kids and a clueless husband and the loss of her identity.
I loved the way the story tied together with the previous generations and the curse of La Llorona. The book didn’t feel very scary, but a little bit dark and atmospheric with ties to the past and curses. Overall, it was a story about women and I think that’s what I enjoyed the most. Watching Alejandra grow into herself, fight the entity plaguing her and her family, and connecting with her biological parents as well as her cultural roots was amazing. And despite her frustrations as a parent, there was never a question that she loved her children.
I will mention that the beginning was a tad tough the read because you can’t help but feel for her as a character while she feels like she’s drowning, but she does find her footing and it’s worth the effort to see her find it.
I highly recommend this book if you’re a fan of books like those by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

This book is my first ever ARC and first ever book tour with @hearourvoices and I am so excited to share it with you! This book is not one I would normally read because it is a horror book but when @bookventureswithdivi shared the tour info and I read the book description I immediately wanted to read it since it mentioned La Llorona.

I grew up hearing stories about La Llorona so I was intrigued but when I started reading I realized that it was so much more than just the folklore I grew up hearing about. The book delve into Mental Health, Depression and Healing! This made me so happy because I have been on this healing journey for quite some time and it was like the universe aligned this ARC for me perfectly! The book had so many similarities to true life when it comes to healing. I related to it so much!

In addition, the book touched heavily on how trauma carries over from generation to generation. & it had so much history I had no idea about! From the Spanish conquest of the Aztec to Emiliano Zapata. The author did such a phenomenal job weaving together the main characters healing, history and the ghost that was haunting her, La Llorona.

Lastly it is important to note that there are a lot of triggers in this book: Depression, Suicide and Self Harm.

Thank you so much to @hearourvoices for giving me an opportunity to participate in this tour. & thank you to #Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me the ARC.

This review will be posted on
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yesiolvera/?hl=en
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/yesiolvera
Podcast: TBD but can be found on instagram

<i>The Haunting of Alejandra</i> is a book primarily concerned with a woman's agency and fulfillment, much like other fiction from V. Castro. Here, Castro blends together Mexican folklore with ideas from modern feminism, exploring the pains, horrors, and loneliness of motherhood and marriage while also examining the depths of a mother's love. The book relies heavily on this counterbalancing of ideas--the longing for self-possession weighed against the obligations one has to family.

One of the things I love about Castro's fiction is that she really does work hard to make sure her point is clear, that her characters' actions and thoughts and feelings align with the cogent political statement she intends to make. Castro's voice cannot be louder in <i>The Haunting of Alejandra</i>; she speaks plainly and boldly about real psychological and political issues facing women--and especially women of color--in a patriarchal society that still has yet to relinquish its power over women. Much of the experience of Alejandra, the book's protagonist, is centered on the many ways she lacks agency, and Castro uses the folklore of La Llorona as a metaphor for the oppressive culture that ends up trapping women in generational cycles of unhappiness. Alejandra's eventual determination to confront that cycle is an important component of Castro's vision for her literature: it is the tool by which we may discover our own empowerment.

While Castro's vision for the novel's story is both necessary and deliberate, I do feel as though her prose and dialogue are not quite as polished. Her prose can get a bit repetitive and does not often flow well on the page. The same can be said for her dialogue, which often comes off as stilted or clunky; her style reminds me a lot of V.C. Andrews in this regard, for better or for worse. Readers accustomed to highly polished prose may struggle to connect with this story on account of its style.

Nevertheless, <i>The Haunting of Alejandra</i> is a worthy contribution to horror's recent boom, a valuable study of the need for a woman's agency and fulfillment. It is at times tender, painful, horrifying, and edifying, the kind of literature that showcases what horror is best capable of doing for us as humans with complex needs and desires. Castro understands especially the need for horror to address real issues women face in our modern world, and her voice serves as a bolstering call to action, empathy, and empowerment.

2 stars, only because I’ve read worse books and I appreciate the ideas of this even if the execution was so miserably poor. Alejandra commits the sin of being both corny and gory, making both the moments of hope and the moments of despair that much…goofier. This book about women committing suicide and murdering their children is so goofy, no joke. But it’s a joke that lands so flat.

About 50 pages in I realized that this was going to follow the typical horror movie formula, with a monster from a spooky legend and people not believing the protagonist and the demon tormenting the kids, haunted house, yada yada. I was like, okay, whatever, I can deal with cliches. By far the most successful part of the book is when Alejandra is called in to parent / teacher / school counselor meeting where these white women are like ummmm your daughter is being SO SPOOKY. & they judge the shit out of her for telling Catrina the La Llorona story. Even though it is just a standard little spooky urban legend ghost story, they treat it as SO WEIRD and BAD PARENTING and it’s one of the only moments where race impacts the story in a way that is scary!! Yeah there’s a demon running around but there are also these bitches accusing Alejandra of being a bad mother because she shared a bit of culture with her daughter!!

The biggest problem is that there are no hills and valleys to the narrative. The mystery of the spooks and the scares is solved very, very early on — we even get the demon’s POV — and so any rising tension in the book is cut so short. We know exactly what the villain is and what it wants, but we have hundreds of pages left to go.

Similarly, the secondary villain — Alejandra’s terrible husband, Matthew, sucks so hard right from the get go. We spend no time with him thinking “aw he isn’t so bad” and “maybe they can make it work.” Instead he is an amalgamation of like, every misogynist ever. It’s not that he is unbelievable (men do act this way. Often, even) but having Matthew’s villainy start at 10 and never rise or fall from there…it’s such a lost opportunity. I feel like I'm reading misogynists on r/AITA instead of dialogue. I’m not an expert on gothic literature but the book was sorely missing tension, a mystery, a third act reveal, a realization of what the demon was, how bad Matthew really was. But we get the information far, far too early, making the entire book a drag as you sit through scene after scene of gore.




!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spoilers and CW for gore below. Like for real gross and nasty !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






The gore was incredibly unsettling. I respect the hell out of Castro for deciding to go ham with the horror of reproduction of it all. Like yeah whatever the monstrous feminine, motherhood = scary gross or whatever. Castro takes this so much higher and grosser & it does evoke the classic “ewww” of slasher movies.

I think what I do take issue with is that the gore doesn’t seem to serve the politics of the book very well. Like, I’m never going to forget the scene of Alejandra in the bathtub like…un-birthing the demon and having it eat her reproductive organs is so massively nasty but I’m like okay so what does this say. Is the solution to the horror of motherhood and misogyny internalizing….it? Letting that demon inside you and then passing it as a menstrual clot? Like genuinely I don’t understand what is going on here. The rest of the book seems pretty standard “solidarity among women” but that’s a theme we are TOLD instead of shown over and over again. Alejandra’s final battle with the demon involves sending her kids away, her mother barred from her side, and a horrifying showdown when the demon is literally EATING HER BODY? Is the demon a child? Is it a predator? Is it sexual trauma? Is it depression? Who knows but it sure is munching on her ovaries!

It lines up with the book’s overarching problems of telling not showing wrt the characters feelings, politics, the world-building, the mysteries, etc. If you are writing the slasher the gore should be saying something!! At best I think it’s saying “lol gross right” and at worst “actually women do need to face their demons and the trauma of motherhood alone <3” which contradicts . The rest of the book.

I was prepared for this review to be even more negative but the combination of the bathtub scene and strangling the little menstrual clot cyclops finally pushes into camp territory. like fucking. Hell yeah!! Go Alejandra!!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.