Thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC of V. Castro's 'The Haunting of Alejandra.'

Like in her other novel 'The Queen of the Cicadas' and her short story collection 'Mestiza Blood' V. Castro draws deep and wide from her Mexican and Latina heritage. In 'The Queen of the Cicadas' she created her own supernatural creature but in 'The Haunting of Alejandra' she draws on the established Mexican-American folk horror of character 'La Llorona' and weaves it into a tale of multi- and cross-generational trauma and the sometimes trauma of parenthood.

Recently I read Gemma Amor's 'Full Immersion' and in some ways I see this as a companion piece. Amor's novel deals with the often unspoken horrors of post-natal depression and Castro's new book deals with the fact that parenthood is difficult and sometimes you don't like your kids or feel like you can't spend another minute with them for their own good because you're such a failure as a parent. Both books bring non-human figures into that world of pain and in both books, the female characters at the center of the story has to figure out how to defeat or deal with the 'creature.'

This novel also deals with issues of racism, misogyny, abandonment, abuse, toxic relationships and weaves them all expertly into the fabric of the developing story. What's interesting here is the introduction of cosmic horror which was present in some of her short stories, if I remember correctly, but is given it's full leash here, and to great effect, melding and merging with the folk horror narrative.

As with her other fiction the reader is steeped in Mexican and Latinx history and legend as part of the overall plot.

Also as with her other novels, Castro is comfortable bringing the sensuality, sexuality, and the erotic into the story without it seeming gratuitous or unnecessary.

Stunning cover, by the way.

Congratulations to all on another triumph.

I wasn't too sure what to expect going into this book, but it fell a little flat for me. Obviously the story is a metaphor for generational trauma, which was interesting, but the horror aspect just...wasn't scary. I wanted a little more information on the La Llorona creature, which I didn't get. I liked how the author portrayed the dichotomy of Alejandra loving her children and wanting the best for them while also feeling stretched far too thin, questioning her marriage, and not having wanted a third child at all. I also liked how her ancestors' stories were interwoven with her own. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if the horror part was taken out entirely and if it was just the story of a family line.

A fantastic and haunting work from author V. Castro! I was on the edge of my seat and thoroughly spooked.

As someone not from this culture, it was a lovingly crafted tale which encompassed the exploration of generational trauma, Latinx culture, LGBTQIA+ themes, and more.

Please check trigger and content warnings before reading, as this book is quite graphic in it's depictions of sensitive material.

A perfect book for spooky season!

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group, I received this book; I loved it; every suspenseful moment as I turned each page. Alejandra is like most mothers, overwhelmed and feeling like she needs a break, but there is more; a generational mystery is haunting her. If you know anything about La Llorona, this book will have you devour the pages as I did just to find out what was happening, watch over your shoulders as it spooks you. This is an excellent read!

Thank you so much for granting my wish to read this book.
I freaking love La Llorona. Here is the west it isn't a story you can avoid. It is part of the culture.
The thoughts the protagonist battles in this book were extremely relatable to me. I had obsessive thoughts for years after my twins were born and I did not know how to calm them. Medication finally slowed them down but they still creep up from time to time. It is like being haunted. It is brutal. After my first child I also had hallucinations.
I felt like the author has been there. I felt seen. She nailed all the emotions and terror I felt and found a way to bring it to life and make it tangible. She made it something someone could fight, a physical beast.

To me, this is like therapy. It was validating. This may not be the experience for anyone else but we do not tend to talk about the thoughts we battle when we are going through depression.
"Humans have so many curses to contend with."

Oh and Matthew throwing a food tantrum. My husband used to do that. I ignored it enough that he will make his own food or go to the store. I was like "go girl! Ignore that man!"

Anyway this was beautiful and terrifying and why I love horror novels so much.
This might be the best book I read all season.

This book was terrifying, creepy, and very well-written. Loved how the themes of generational trauma and mental illness were interwoven with the horror story.

WOWOWOWOWOW. Just wow. V. Castro shines a unique light on multi-generational trauma, shattering the things we carry as our very own and personalized “curses” through the power of love, ancestry, and self-acceptance. At it’s core, this is a horror book. The thrills and scares are never lost, but it’s also so much more!

In The Haunting of Alejandra, we follow a woman who is on the brink of a mental breakdown after losing her sense of self in marriage and motherhood. Alejandra was adopted by an extremely religious family at a young age, left to cater to the siblings younger than herself and oftentimes made to feel isolated and abandoned. We learn that Alejandra’s life, which is seemingly perfect on the outside, is actually all doom and gloom on the inside as she battles feelings of inadequacy… feelings that might not be fully of her own making. And while Castro explores the strength of blood bonds through the various POV’s of Alejandra’s ancestors, spanning all the way back to the 14th century, Alejandra remains the central character.

Here’s a bullet list of things I loved about this book:

1. Alejandra is a bisexual queen
2. Throughout the story, she goes on a journey to reclaim the culture life and circumstance stripped away from her
3. All of the side characters truly feel like main characters (except Matthew, he’s a trash husband 🗑)
4. The relationship she has with Catrina is the purest most wonderful thing, but I also loved seeing the connection between Alejandra and her children evolve
5. It’s hella graphic and gory and genuinely made it hard for me to sleep lol (but pls check TWs/CWs before requesting the ARC or reading when it’s released). Left me feeling super unsettled!
6. I like that the stigma behind curanderas was taken away with Melanie’a portrayal
7. Castro did an incredible job at making me care about each of the women in Alejandra’s family
8. The last woman was such a surprise but definitely put a beautifully tragic twist on the tale of La Llorona that I hadn’t expected
9. I always want to give a standing ovation when machismo is shut down in any book 👏👏👏
10. Whoever did the cover is INCREDIBLE
11. Wrapped up nicely
12. There was something else I forgot so I’ll edit it in when I remember, anyway besties… ADD THIS TO YOUR TBR

This book was terrifying. I felt the need to sage as soon as I started reading it.

Alejandra is a mother/wife/woman in despair. The book beginnings with her having a breakdown in the shower while trying to hide from her family. That is where she sees La Llorona for the first time. La Llorona is a Mexican folk demon that has haunted Alejandra’s family for centuries, but Alejandra is adopted and is just starting to discover her ancestors. With the help of her therapist, she dives into her past and hopes to find a way to defeat La Llorona before it takes her just like all the other women in her family.

This book is intense and graphic and terrifying. Highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I...I just...WOW. I have never devoured a book so thoroughly and immensely. I don't want to end up spoiling the story but this was immensely captivating.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Haunting of Alejandra is extremely well written, so much so that I actually felt like I was experiencing what the main character was feeling (despair, anger, etc). This book is a very dark tale about a generational curse, but this book was unique in that it also addressed mental illness, the expected roles of women in society, and motherhood.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a gothic/spooky read.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an early eARC.

I think this is very well written but I also just think I’m not the target audience for this story. I struggled to connect with the main character (and absolutely could not stand her husband) and when the perspective shifted to her birth mother, I realized I just didn’t care. I’m confident this is will be a compelling story for some but it sadly just wasn’t for me.

Yes - this book is as good as it’s cover (isn’t it amazing??). I felt immense empathy for Alejandra, her family, and their troubles. The atmosphere was the perfect amount of creepiness. I loved the claustrophobic feeling of the horrors lurking in the darkness. The demon was terrifying and harassed the characters in the worst way without being gimmicky. What a well done folksy haunting. Definitely add this to your tbr list!

First I have to say this stunning cover is absolutely beautiful! It's so eye-catching and I can't wait to have one on my bookshelf.

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro was a fantastic horror/fantasy novel.
This author certainly created a unique plot with characters that leaped off the pages!
V. Castro had an outstanding way with setting the mood. Her writing was amazing.
Every bit of her writing and setting comes together into this wonderful, gothic sense that penatrate absolutely every bit of the book.
This is a plot and mystery driven novel.
The descriptions used by the author immerses you and transport you until the last page.
A well written, intriguing and quiet addicting, once I started reading I truly couldn't, I didn't want to stop.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Random House, Ballantine & Del Rey,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my blog, platforms, BookBub, B&N, Kobo and Waterstone closer to pub date.

This book was AMAZING. It has that gothic horror feel that I am loving right now. I love the way it flows through the different time lines. I also love how it incorporates mental illness. Great work!

First things first, HUGE shout out to the illustrator on this beautiful, creepy cover! That and the title alone grabbed my attention right away. The legend of La Llorona has always been intriguing to me and I couldn't wait to start reading. I was immediately engrossed in this very dark and chilling, atmospheric tale where Mexican folklore has come to life. The horrors depicted in this novel were very vivid and so intense that I felt like I was experiencing them myself. The Haunting of Alejandra is not just about the "haunting" of La Llorona. It is the deep, emotional feelings of sadness, injustice and powerlessness that have consumed and plagued Alejandra and her female descendants over centuries of time. Dating back to the 1500s where the ancestral curse of La Llorona begins, the story will bounce back and forth between Alejandra's present POV and the past POVs of one of her many descendants.

Kudos to the author on a beautifully written novel! I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. I know that this will be a big hit with all of the gothic horror fans out there.

Thank you to the author, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for granting my wish and allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

The Haunting of Alejandra was… haunting. I learned a lot about the legend of La Llorona.

This is a really dark story. I expected it to be so, but I also expected it to have some admirable qualities. As the reader, you are stuck in Alejandra’s thoughts. And she is not in a good place. All I wanted to do was help Alejandra!

This book was beautiful and haunting in all the right ways.

A telling of La Llorona and how the curse of weeping woman has haunted a particular bloodline of women for centuries. While this story primarily focuses on Alejandra the current target of the La Llorona curse, we get to experience the stories of women who came before her and how this bloodline curse affected them. Love how the story tackles the struggles of womanhood, motherhood, mental health, societal expectations, and more through this folklore legend of La Llorona.

“The Haunting of Alejandra”
by V. Castro

Generational Curse of La Llorona

Atmospherically gothic and descriptively rich in characterization and place, “The Haunting of Alejandra,” by V. Castro, yanks readers into the oppressive sadness of the protagonist as ghoulish visions of a lady in white assault her mental and physical health.

Told from many points of view over long periods, “Haunting” is Castro’s fantastical origination story of Mexico’s folklore tale of the demon La Llorona—the wailing woman who drowned her children.
Unfamiliar with this ‘grim’ fairy tale, I was captivated by this Latin story of evil spirit possession and how it was linked generationally in “Haunted” because of misjudgments made by early ancestors of Alejandra’s.

Languishing in despair, Alejandra is stressed to the breaking point until she finds the courage to fight the demonic-force face-to-face. To save her children and their future children from the same fate, she will make the ultimate sacrifice to end the ancestral curse of La Llorona. Will Alejandra’s strategy end the suffering long inflicted by the wailing woman on her family line? Will she survive the ordeal?

Although the beginning of “Haunting” is a slow build, the book is a fun, fantasy horror story. In addition, I learned about an ancient cultural tale most likely rooted in history, dating back to the conquest of the Americas.

========================///=======================
Title: “The Haunting of Alejandra”
Author: V. Castro
Genre: Fiction (Adult) | Horror | Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Publication Date: 18 April 2023
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey

My sincere thanks and appreciation goes to NetGalley, Author V. Castro, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey for this Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) for review.

STAR RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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””Just be happy”, he snipped. Look how lucky you are to be home all the time in a nice home with no worries. You want for nothing”. Ok this like had me rolling 🤣 like if my husband told me that he’d be dead. Wow. The entitlement of this man! I strongly hope none of y’all are in a relationship where your PARTNER speak to you this way - it would not go over well at my house, to say the least. Then I read another page and OMG Matthew is not winning a prize from me! Thankfully he ended up redeeming himself over the course of the book but his storyline was comically horrible.

Alejandra is a stay at home mother to 3 children of which she wanted only 2. She had gone along with what her husband had said as he was the provider but she starts to long for something more. She starts seeing visions and believes it’s La Llorana, a woman who killed both her daughters to free them from torment by their step father. Alejandra was given up for adoption, and had just connected with her birth mom when she had to move for her husbands job. She now seeks out help from a therapist who has a deep understanding of her Mexican culture and folklore. The shape she’s seeing begins haunting her daughter and son and her therapist is convinced it’s a multi-generational curse. Determined to save her family from the harm of this monster Alejandra seeks out assistance from her birth mother. Together they work with the therapist to rid their family of this curse that has afflicted the first born daughter of their family for generations.

I loved the multiple viewpoints of this story - all the generations prior to Alejandra. They added so much depth to the overall story. And Matthew, Alejandra’s husband, provided me some much needed comic breaks from the seriousness of the main story. It also added to the creating the story of Alejandra and showing her morphing into the person she wants to be.

I gave this 4.5 stars. I was so excited to get this book from @netgalley and the publisher Random House - Ballantine for my e-ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book to read for an honest review. This book is the story of a generational curse. I really enjoyed it. Check this book out when it’s published on 4/18/23