V. Castro has combined magic, horror, psychology, and the social issues women have dealt with throughout history to illustrate a compelling struggle for sanity and survival in “The Haunting of Alejandra.”

Alejandra is on the verge of losing it. The voice in her head speaks incessantly, feeding the message that she is worthless, that she is a poison to her children, that she is uselessly dragging the agony of her life out. She suspects this voice may be linked to La Llorona, the mythical ghost of Mexican folklore who drowned her own children. Pulsing just as strong is her suspicion she harbors a mental illness destined to suck her down the abyss.

“Death was easier than living. Difficult woman. Sick woman. Dead woman.”

Her marriage is a trap. Her husband, Matthew, is charging full speed ahead with his own career and is blind to her despair. In his mind they had mapped out what life was to be like and she needs to stay content, to keep to her side of their agreement. Alejandra even references lines from the Kate Bush song “Running Up That Hill.”

“And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places…”

There is a dream, a vision she keeps revisiting. In it a hidden body of water holds helplessly desperate women floating on their backs, unable to voice their message. Surrounding the water are rows of even more women generating a powerful energy Alejandra senses but cannot tap into.

Alejandra agrees with Matthew that she will seek mental help– but she adds a twist. She finds Melanie Ortiz, a therapist who is also a curandera, or native spiritual healer. The journey from here involves walking the line dividing psychology and magic. Is there a mental toughness which can defeat pure evil– a demon who has fed on the suffering of generations of women in this family?

This is a gripping story. It is initially painful to witness Alejandra’s mental state, but this is the setup to see if she can pull herself together to battle the assault on her and her family.

Thank you to the Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheHauntingofAlejandra #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and to Del Ray for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

Though I've always been an avid horror fan, I've been trying to read more horror that incorporates non-American folklore lately. So, I was very intrigued when I saw this book-- which is based on the Mexican legend of La Llorona, but told through the lens of a family's generational trauma. Alejandra is struggling with severe depression; she's feeling trapped as she stays at home day after day taking care of her three children while her neglectful husband works and frequently travels. She has started seeing a ghostly creature, who tells her terrible things. Eventually, Alejandra seeks professional help and discovers a curse has been following the women in her bloodline for generations. I was so excited to read a scary story focusing on both a paranormal entity and the systematic oppression of women-- it sounded like the perfect way to weave traditional horror with real life issues.

Unfortunately, reading this novel was much more of a chore than I expected. If this were not a NetGalley book, I likely would have put it down within the first 20%. I cannot emphasize enough how grim I found this story to be. Please search for trigger warnings before picking it up! The book starts with Alejandra struggling with the worst depression of her life. Right off the bat, we are given paragraphs and paragraphs detailing how much Alejandra hates her life, detests her husband, and resents her children. While I'm not a mental health professional, I think this is likely an accurate portrayal of depression (and particularly depression that mothers encounter). However, it is written in a nearly endless stream of Alejandra's negative thoughts; it gets exhausting quickly. The novel also includes chapters set in the past following Alejandra's ancestors as they face violence, assault, colonization, misogyny, and more. I am normally relatively unbothered by reading dark subject matter, but I legitimately found myself in a bad mood after each reading session of this book.

This novel could have been better if it began earlier in Alejandra's mental health struggles. Reading about Alejandra's descent into depression would have been easier to get through (rather than having to read through 100+ pages of her severe depression before seeing any improvement). It also would have maybe increased the scariness if we got to see the demon slowly start to haunt Alejandra (rather than immediately seeing the demon outright appear, which is what happens in the first chapter of the book).

Aside from the difficult subject matter, this novel is also hard to get through because of the writing. It is clunky and has too much exposition. The dialogue is especially rough, because the characters constantly speak in long, formal paragraphs. I can't imagine anyone in the modern world talking like this. Castro does have some good thoughts and ideas-- I found some beautiful sentences every once in a while that truly conveyed the themes well. However, those sentences were buried beneath far too much repetition. Everything was over-explained (often many times), and there was too much telling (rather than showing). When I did have the will to push through all of the characters' despair, I often still struggled to get through the cumbersome writing.

The Haunting of Alejandra isn't all bad, though. There are some really great ideas discussed. Castro does a phenomenal job of showing all of the ways women (and, in particular, women from Mexico) have suffered and have been forced to meet societal expectations throughout the centuries. It made me stop and consider what all of the women in my own family might have endured. It was also interesting to read about how similar trauma can be repeated through generations; maybe we're not as alone in our struggles as we think. This novel seems like it would spark engaging conversation in a book club.

I liked the novel's discussion about the importance of family. My favorite part was the middle, when we got to see Alejandra interact in a more positive way with her children and reconnect with her biological mother. I also enjoyed some of the flashbacks to their ancestors. Some of them were more interesting than others, though. I would argue that it would have been better to only include a few of the ancestor chapters (maybe one every third of the book). After awhile, they felt as if they dragged down the main plot.

I can't rate this novel any higher than 2 stars, because there were too many other aspects that I found unenjoyable. I'll briefly mention a few of those things here. For example, the characters are too one-dimensional. Alejandra's husband and children are not developed enough. Her therapist also seems extremely unrealistic. Another issue is that the horror is not actually very scary. The gore is certainly detailed, but the demon is explained in so much detail early on that it removes most of the spookiness. Additionally, everything just feels so flat... everyone speaks the same way, the tone is similar throughout most of the novel, and even the flashbacks read similarly to the present plot line. I could keep going, but essentially, this book just read like an early draft. If it had a lot more editing, it would have been better. Alternatively, maybe publishing it as a novella instead (and cutting all of the repetition) would have improved upon most of the issues.

I'm sure there is an audience that will love this novel, but I worry that most horror fans will be disappointed by this book (since it is a slow read without much actual horror), and literary fiction fans might find the large amount of gore unappealing. I would recommend The Haunting of Alejandra to readers who are interested in an in-depth exploration of the horrors of motherhood, colonization, and the generational trauma women experience. I think it could be a fun Halloween read for folks who are interested in women's fiction and/or Mexican myths, but who don't like to be too scared. Like I said, please just check trigger warnings before reading this one!

2 out of 5 stars.

Alejandra, an adopted Mexican American who was brought up in a strict Catholic household. After marrying, birthing and raising three (3) kids, and finally finding her birth mother, a darkness threatens to consume Alejandra. A ghostly vision appears in the form of a crying women in a ragged white gown similar to the Mexican folk demon myth, La Llorona.

Alejandra begins seeing a therapist who also specializes in Mexican healing rituals. Together, they learn about the darkness that haunts Alejandra and all the women in her familial tree before her. Alejandra, however, has also inherited strength and courage to overcome this situation once and for all.

The Haunting of Alejandra not only focuses on Mexican folklore and the idea of evil but also shows us what postpartum depression can look like, how to stand up against a once upon a time lover who is now an emotional abuser, how important it is for traditions to be upheld and expanded upon, the choices people make and why they do so.

I enjoyed the back and forth between Alejandra's timeline and those of her foremothers. What made this one extra special was the author's take on the La Llorona folklore highlighting how these become the way they are told versus what actually happened.

Some of my favorite quotes include:

▪︎ Live your life the best you can. Don't forget me. Don't forget your importance.

▪︎ You don’t need to make sense. That is part of the process. If everything made sense and was in perfect order, you wouldn’t need my help.

▪︎ Many times the truth in our lives remain veiled until the time is right and the blindfold is taken off for us, or we have no choice but to rip it off kicking and screaming to free ourselves.

▪︎ Life was meant to be lived so death could be a little easier when it came for you.

▪︎ Don’t ever think you can change people. Take them as they come or don’t take them at all.

▪︎ Don't doubt your voice. It's there for a reason.

▪︎ Blood dies and dries but the invisible particles of family are forever.

This is a book about generational trauma and a women's struggle to define and maintain her identity during motherhood.

As the main character struggles to find herself among a failing marriage and the demands of motherhood, a sinister figure begins to haunt her. Through flashbacks we find that this specter of darkness haunts all the women in her lineage tracing back hundreds of years. Each story of a woman touches on themes of identity, trauma, mental health, finding your power, and self-determination. You find yourself rooting for each to find peace and happiness, but the trauma only serves to pass onto the next generation.

As much as this book touches on topics that are underrepresented in horror and literature, I found myself not enjoying the reading experience. There was little reprieve from the solitude, self-loathing, and depression and the haunting imagery became background noise. As the main character learns to find her strength, it's still an upward battle to the end when the book was finally over.

The gorgeous cover sold me. This was my second book by this author and I'm loving them. This story was hard at the start, full of self doubt and intrusive thoughts. My heart broke for this mother. As the story continued, I liked the way the story gave us more perspectives and let us learn each story. I loved the connections of previous generations. I love the strength that grew in the story and the ability to love yourself shone through. It was a great horror story with the perfect amount of gore, demons and rage.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book

Atmospheric with loads of creeps. I really liked the theme of multigenerational, familial trauma and connecting it with the lore of La Llorona, which we all know is creepy as hell!! Unfortunately, I found large chunks of the story to be a bit dry and found myself skimming through those a bit.

I liked this story but strongly disliked the way it was told. The function of the troubles of motherhood alongside the legend of la Larrona is beautiful conceptually but the writing lacks description which made it a bit of a lethargic read, and prevented the characters from ever coming to life.

What an incredible story! I requested an ARC from Netgalley because it sounded interesting, but it far exceeded my expectations. The story of Alejandra spans centuries and generations. The origins seem to go all the way back to 1522 when the Spaniards conquered the Mexican indians, killed most of them and subjucated the rest. Although Alejandra is the main character, we also learn about Cathy, her mother who gave her up for adoption, Cathy’s mother Frances, who disappeared when she was a child, and Flor, a matriarch in the family’s past.

This is the story of generational trauma and the scars that it inflicts on people still living today. We learn the story of La Llorona, a woman who killed her children for a man, and when he rejected for doing so, she wandered the world searching for her children. She searches to this day. Therefore, when Alejandra first sees the apparition, she thinks it is La Llorona. But it is something far worse.

Alejandra is unhappy with her marriage to Matthew (“Lately his presence felt like a plastic bag over her head.”) and feels stressed by her three young children, so she seeks counseling with Melanie. Melanie helps her to work through her feelings and accept her self-worth. Luckily, Melanie is also a curandera, a spiritual medicine woman. Alex chooses her because she wants to know more about her Mexican roots, but it turns out to be very lucky that she chose Melanie because it’s unlikely anyone else could have helped with this evil entity that has been torturing generations of Alex’s family.

The descriptions of the bloodthirsty being that feeds off of the misery of the women in Alex’s family are disturbing and disgusting. It reminded me of the descriptions of the spirits, the three sisters, in Weave World by Clive Barker. Those are images that have stuck in my mind despite reading the book over 30 years ago, and I think this will too. This being is eternal and it would seem there is zero chance of destroying or escaping it, but after going through a ton of spiritual and personal growth, Alex is convinced she knows how to eradicate it so it will no longer torture the women who come after her.

Although there were many wonderful analogies and metaphors, this is the one that I loved most. Alex is struggling to take care of her children with virtually no help nor expressions of gratitude or appreciation. “...residing in the same space in her heart as her despair was her love for her children. That love was a sweet blossom she held on tightly to until the thorns on its stem made her bleed. These wounds were the stigmata of motherhood, precious and painful.”

I don’t want to include any spoilers, but I so want to stress just how powerful and evocative the descriptions were in this book. At key points in the book, I felt like I could have been there observing what was happening. I could feel the pain and fear of the characters, as well as the love. This book should get more than five stars.

I was initially attracted to this book because it was pitched by the author as a La Llorona retelling from her side of the story and what would drive her to kill her own children.

In my opinion, The Haunting of Alejandra read more like women's fiction with supernatural and darker overtones than horror. It wasn't particularly scary, and the supernatural elements felt more like a plot device than a source of genuine horror. The book relied more on psychological tension than jump scares.

I appreciated how V. Castro seamlessly blended Mexican folklore with topics of generational curses and postpartum depression. The resulting novel was an impressive display of how traditional stories can be used to explore modern themes.

Although it was a bit of a slow burn at first, I found The Haunting of Alejandra to be an eerie, compelling, and heart-wrenching story. It's a powerful exploration of family, identity, and sorrow. I highly recommend it to people who enjoy slower paced literary, supernatural, and psychological fiction!

Alejandra is a married woman with three small children who is struggling to find fulfillment in her life. She is becoming engulfed in her own particular gloom and misery. However, one evening when she is at her lowest, she witnesses a horrifying woman in a white gown weeping, telling her to accept her emotions. She begins to consult a therapist and investigate her family history, discovering that her misery and tragedy may be tied to something far worse than she had previously suspected.

This was a fantastic book idea, tracking multigenerational tragedy and difficulties through the lens of La Llorona lore. The author incorporated numerous fascinating cultural details as well as Alejandra's personal past and some Mexican folklore/history. This was the book's strongest point.

Unfortunately, I had difficulty engaging with this piece. The author's writing style was bland - he used repetitious sentence structure, which became a major issue due to the vast portions of exposition in this book.

We were given a lot of information about Alejandra and why she was feeling the way she was, but she never felt alive. There was no emotional connection or anything that made her feel like she was more than just some pages in a book, which was disappointing. The other characters were similar in that, although having chapters from their point of view, they all felt lifeless and disconnected.

In this story we follow Alejandra who has lost herself in marriage and motherhood. I enjoyed the horror premise of this story while incorporating mental health/self care and generational traumas.

I loved learning about the past women in Alejandra’s past. The last woman’s story was a surprise that I didn’t expect but I’m glad we got.

I’m looking forward to reading more of V. Castro’s work as I really enjoyed this story.

Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey for ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis:
"Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her.
Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown.
When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she never knew. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors."

My Thoughts:
This is a medium paced book about a generational curse of the women in Alejandra's family. It also focuses heavily on the mental health struggles and resilience of a woman who feels like she has lost herself in marriage and motherhood. Alejandra grabbles with understanding if the images she is seeing is a complete mental break or something much worse.
While Alejandra is our main narrator, we also flash back to the women in her family that have had similar experiences. What I found frustrating in this book is that the curse is never spoken about through the generations, leaving each woman to try to figure out what is happening and to fend for themselves. As a result there is a lot of tragedy in Alejandra's family. However, this is also what kept me reading to find out what actually was happening. Please don't go into this book expecting much horror and twists, this is story of family curses and tragedies passed down through generations until someone finally takes a stand.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for the gifted copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this creepy tale of a Mexican American woman haunted by a demon. I loved the generational trauma aspect. I think it’s a fascinating topic and this was a really unique and interesting way to explore it in a way. The writing was good and the pacing of the story kept my attention the entire time. I will say that some of it felt like it was tied up a little too neatly to be believable, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the story. I’ll definitely check out more from this author in the future.

Alejandra is being haunted by La Llorona due to a multi generation curse that was placed on the women in her family centuries ago. She will do anything to banish the demon once and for all!

I liked this La Llorona retelling/spin-off but found some of the storylines were more interesting than others. I wouldn’t say this was a literary masterpiece but I enjoyed the folklore and atmospheric writing. It was definitely creepy but felt repetitive. I liked how each chapter focused on different characters, especially when they skipped around in time/generation. The caveat with that is the characters were a bit one dimensional for the most part. I thought this was a unique story and many people might really enjoy this!

This book started off so strong for me, I identified quite a bit with Alejandra who was well articulated within her inner dialogue. I loved the concept of generational curses and family. However, the blocks of emotionless dialogue between characters made me put the book down more times than I could count. It started to feel like a New Age workshop since the deep significance of the cultural rituals was combined with lifeless monologue that read like an instructional manual which just leeched all beauty from the scenes. I wanted more depth since the concepts and culture surrounding the lore is so good. It scratched the surface unfortunately.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

This book is the tale of two halves. The first half of this book really dives into conversations surrounding postpartum depression. I think the author does a good job of putting you into the perspective of the title character as she deals with this seemingly impossible feeling of guilt and shame. The second half of this book puts the plot into action and the pacing picks up.

I really enjoyed the quieter moments of the book where we delved into Alejandra's struggles and the women of her past. I think the way the author approached the subject with the "demon" representing her feelings and the feelings of past generations.

All that being said, I struggled getting through this book. Despite the interesting exploration of the theme, I think the plot got tedious and I didn't necessarily get the horror feels I was looking for.

I liked sections of this and loved the opening, but the further in I read, the more I found myself unable to lose myself in the story. The dialogue was heavy handed and awkward in so many sections that it was hard to not see it as such.

This novel has important things to say, but I fear they are lost in clunky storytelling.

Thanks to the publisher and author for the advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

Thank you, Random House Publishing, V. Castro, & Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was the most beautiful and creepy book I have ever read. This will be a must read I pass down to my daughters and future granddaughters.

This was definitely a scary and creepy La Llorna retelling, but it was so much more than that. Sprinkled with historical fiction about the inquisition and struggles of women before we were considered human. It touched on toxic societal standards set for women, spiritual beliefs, Hispanic cultural beliefs, Hispanic folklore, generational trauma and curses, and struggles women have faced throughout history!

10/10 every woman should read this!

3.5
I was so excited to see a La Llorona horror story, I grew up hearing the story all the time, so I had high expectations.
I wish I had ended up liking it more.
The idea is interesting, but I found the only parts keeping me engaged were the present chapters from Alejandra’s perspective.
The past chapters didn’t hold my attention, which is unfortunate since the plot heavily relies on the past.
This isn’t really what I was hoping for from a story about La Llorona.

Alejandra is mother to three exhausting kids and wife to an epic jackass. She is seriously depressed and unsatisfied with her life. When she is crying in the shower while her kids bang on the door, she sees a ghostly image of a sobbing woman in white in the bathroom. It is La Llorona, the vengeful mother of famous Mexican legend. When she begins seeing a therapist, she starts looking into the history of the women in her family and discovers that her family has a connection to La Llorona and a creature that wants to pull Alejandra down into the darkness with her ancestors. Alejandra will need to summon all the strength she has to banish La Llorona for good.

What I didn’t like: I DNF’d this at about 50%. The sentence structure was super repetitive and sorta cheesy at times. And despite there being so much focus on Alejandra’s emotional and life issues, I just couldn’t connect with her as a character (or anyone else for that matter).

What I did like: Good “grass is always greener” reminder. Alejandra has three kids that love her, money, a huge house, and she doesn’t need to work. But she is miserable AF. Granted, she was being haunted by La Llorona. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve seen a lot of good reviews for this one, so give it a shot if the story sounds good to you. Just not for me. 2023 is my year of DNF’ing without guilt if a book is not for me! Thank you to netgalley and del ray for the advanced review copy in exchange for a review.