DAMN. The cover alone hooked me, and the synopsis had me BEGGING Dutton Books for access to this multicultural horror, and boy, oh boy, this baby followed through. I am so thankful to PRH Audio/Dutton Books, Raul Palma, and Netgalley for digital and audio access to this devilish thrill that will leave you both empathizing with and hating our main character from page one until the end. A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is set to be published on October 3, 2023.

Hugo Contreras is grieving the sudden loss of his beloved wife, and no sooner is she lowered into the ground, Hugo finds he's been attacked by collections companies looking for their money after the stacked-up medical bills got out of hand. The most intrusive debt collector of them all is a man named Alexei Ramirez, and Hugo is out to ruin that man's life.

Before he can do that, Alexei reaches out to Hugo for spiritual help to rid his home of ghosts and demons. Hugo, who hardly believes in the spirit world, agrees that his debts be eradicated in exchange for a cleansing. Soon, readers realize Hugo was more involved in this possession than we recognize, for his connections with the devil were more profound than he or anyone seemed to grasp.

This back-and-forth saga gives us glimpses into the past, explaining why I feel little empathy for Hugo and eye-opening into the demonic ties that won't leave our characters alone.

Hugo has many debts, but no way to repay them. There’s the monetary one owed to a collection agency run by Alexi Ramirez; a debt accrued mainly through the medical care of his dying wife. Then, there are the personal ones: to his madrina (godmother) who took care of Hugo and his brother when they were children; to his brother Victor, whose death opened the door for Hugo to leave Bolivia; to Santiago, a stranger, who smuggled him into the United States; to Lourdes who believes in him, seeing his special gifts; and to his dead wife. And then there is the one to the devil who has followed him all of his life: has this debt caused all that followed?

Maybe because of his nature, experiences, or a combination of both, Hugo doesn’t believe in anything. Which is interesting since he works for Lourdes as a babalawo (a diviner, healer; one who communicates and follows the advice of his ancestors). He approaches his spiritual ministrations as fact finding missions; a way of getting to know how best he can manipulate the suckers who seek his guidance. He uses the rituals, prayers, and items of the Yoriba adding pyrotechnic sleights-of-hands to ramp up the spectacle.

Alexi hires Hugo to rid his home of demons. If the babalawo is successful, the money lender will expunge his debt. Hugo now finds he has an opportunity to humiliate Alexi as he feels he has been. Will this opportunity be more than Hugo can deal with? Will he become a believer?

The only thing that I can say disappointed me is the continual disbelief that Hugo has in the rituals and religion of Yoriba that he exploits. He repeatedly disavows the existence of the paranormal even though he encounters it often.

“Hugo was not convinced that he’d done anything, or that anything
supernatural had occurred...The guilt had been in Wilfredo all along…
Most hauntings worked that way. Someone felt bad about something,
and the negativity manifested as a ghost.”

Otherwise, this is a very well-written and scary horror book. The characters are believable and multidimensional, and the dialogue flows smoothly. I highly recommend this multi-layered novel.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dutton fort the opportunity to read and review this book.

I struggled With this one for some reason. The writing is good! But I found My mind wandering through some of the more descriptive parts of the tale and I couldnt really stay focused. Overall a decent story but maybe I wasnt The reader for it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This will be a good story to add to anyone spooky tbr. The story is captivating and chilling. Easy to follow along and slightly scary.

I'll be honest, this book started off REALLY strong, and I was hooked from the beginning - regardless of the hateful and borderline racist comments towards the Cuban community - but the ending was SO disappointing. The end felt so weak, so lazy, and honestly, a bit dumb and confusing. It felt like there had been so much work put into the entire story, into each of the characters, but the end just felt so shallow, it fell flat. It was lazy because there was NO depth in the result whatsoever. Absolutely predictable, and honestly, kind of insulting. The main character, Hugo, was unbelievably flawed and insanely annoying; probably due to all of the hateful and at times distasteful comments towards Cubans. I did appreciate that towards the end the author specifies the racism towards the older Conservative Cubans, but still, it was a bit much. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it fell flat.

Whew. This book has layers, twists and apparently heart. When I'd find myself drifting in the book, Hugo would do something or a secret is revealed and I would be right back in. Nothing in this book is comfortable and that feels like the point. I went through so many complicated emotions with Hugo. I finished feeling at peace which was unexpected.
Would definitely recommend.

Hugo, who considers himself a fake babaláwo is asked to cleanse the house of his nemesis, a debt-collecting lawyer. When his usual tricks don't work, Hugo realizes there something more sinister going on.

The best way I can describe this is to say it was like the Poltergeist movies from the 80's meets A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

In Poltergeist, a family is haunted by the ghost of an old timey preacher and relies on the help of an eccentric medium to stop him. In this book, Hugo, a Babalawo, must help a debt collector named Alexi figure out what his haunting him. If Hugo can stop the haunting, Alexi will cancel Hugo's debt.

While working with Alexi to solve the haunting, Hugo reflects on his "indebtedness" to Alexi, the past, his family, the universe, etc. He also has revelations through dreams and recovered memories that he later uses to shape his actions going forward. Hence the Christmas Carol reference because this part reminded me of Scrooge visiting past, present, future and gaining insight which he then uses to influence the present.

The writing had a lot of range and found success wherever it went. It would turn quickly from funny and playful to serious and sad. One minute, you'd be following Hugo's humorous ghost fighting antics, and the next minute you'd be reliving his childhood trauma. Discussions of colonialism, racism, and immigration were also woven into the plot.

This was original, thoughtful, fun and I would highly recommend.

Hugo Contreras will be the first to tell you that he’s a fraud at the same time that he sells you healing candles and charms at the botánica where he works. His boss, however, believes that Hugo actually has the ability to see and talk to the supernatural. Both of these facts contribute to the unbelievable job offer that lands in Hugo’s lap at the beginning of A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, the frightening and affecting new novel by Raul Palma. If Hugo agrees to work a cleansing for the man he considers his worst enemy, he can wipe out the debt that’s been following him for decades.

Hugo is followed not just by his debts but also by his grief for his deceased wife. Since her death, Hugo has lived a half life. His wages are garnished. No one except his friend who owns the botánica will hire him. The only joy in his life is the coffee and cubano he orders once a week at his favorite diner. He’s pretty much given up the hope that his life will ever get better than his weekly meal out. But then the call comes from a man Hugo hates more than anyone else on the planet. Alexei is a rich lawyer who buys and collects on debts. Hugo hated the man even before his wife died but the hatred became all-consuming after a collections notice arrived immediately after Hugo’s wife’s funeral. Alexei offers to wipe out all of Hugo’s debt if Hugo will rid Alexei’s house of whatever’s haunting it. After a little arm-twisting, Hugo agrees to do the song and dance routine he’s perfected over the years of selling magical remedies to believers.

Of course, Hugo regrets taking the job the instant he meets Alexei. The self-confident rich Alexei gets right up Hugo’s nose as soon as he starts talking about what’s been going on—a frightening encounter with what he describes as a demon at a construction sight, a near death experience in his pool, hints that whatever is after him might be after his daughter—while also bragging about his tacky house and all the money he’s made. Hugo keeps his babaláwo mask on as much as he can while handing out evil eye bracelets and providing more tangible “evidence” that something supernatural is after Alexei. And Hugo might have managed to pull off his con if his supernatural debt hadn’t knocked him off his stride.

At the same time that Hugo goes through the motions of cleansing Alexei’s haunting, Hugo’s depressed shell starts to crack. Long-repressed memories of his wife and his childhood in the shadow of Bolivia’s Cerro Rico surface. Before long, Hugo is a wreck who can’t stay in the present. Worse than the psychological torment of his memories, however, is the confusion and terror Hugo feels when he starts to experience his own definitely-not-normal apparitions and visions of a deity Hugo thought he left behind in Bolivia that begin to walk in his dreams. After a while, it’s hard to tell if Hugo’s really the haunted one instead of Alexei or if they’re both being hunted by vengeful supernatural beings.

This unexpected emotional ride adds a lot of depth to what starts out as the story of a conman pulling off an unbelievably big score. I was astounded by A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens. I definitely plan on recommending it to anyone looking for a great, scary read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma!

This is horror noir at its best. A worthy successor to Raymond Chandler with dashes of Walter Mosley.

Bolivian immigrant Hugo Contreras is employed as a babaláwo in a Miami botanica. Hugo’s life is one of painful losses, most recently that of his wife Meli to cancer and in childhood of the death of his older brother in the mines. Meli’s heavy medical bills bear down on Hugo, especially since Alexi Ramirez, a wealthy collector attorney, hounds him relentlessly. But Ramirez is himself desperate to rid his life of perceived hauntings and turns to Hugo and his boss Lourdes for help. Hugo is a skeptic of the rituals but has survived by putting on a good show with customers. If Hugo can eradicate the hauntings, Ramirez will wipe away Hugo’s debt, and Hugo cannot refuse this. From there, the engrossing tale opens wider.

The story is effectively woven together in jumps in time back to Hugo’s childhood and at other times to earlier in his marriage displaying his own weaknesses and regrets – then back to the present, revealing connections. Throughout, Hugo feels this heavy weight of his indebtedness like a curse. Shades of a Christmas Carol’s path seem to appear by Hugo being pulled back to revisit scenes of the past and the present, chains and all, and the shared timing of Christmas. Yet this story broadens into a tale of demons and the supernatural, Miami and cultures, indebtedness financial and emotional, deep-seated anger and resentments, guilt and trauma, longing for family, and the long-felt effects of colonization, poverty, and economic inequities – all of it coming together. The humor even at moments of horror works, such as Hugo’s nightmare of a “big box” store where he is frantic to get out and cannot. Again, the writer inserts these moments expertly, without jarring the narrative.

I had no expectations of what might lie ahead in this superb book, especially since I am not a reader of horror stories. But every turn in the story or genre style was salient and the characters were memorable. I could not put it down, and I hope to read more by this author in the future.

I am grateful to Dutton (Penguin), NetGalley, and Raul Palma for the opportunity to read this remarkable book. This opinion is all my own.

There are so many fantastic aspects to this book, but going into it, know that it's a tragedy with a ray of hope. The ending is ambiguous so many of the storylines are left up to do to decide what lessons the characters took from the events that unfolded. I choose to see everyone involved in a light of growth.

The author brings Miami to live with vivid descriptions of culture and people. There is so much life in the pages of this story. From his own job as the resident babaláwo to displaying different walks of life that live in Miami. I loved the insight to Hugo's job, his thoughts on rituals within a very ritualistic line of work really make his character more grounded in the plot. The fact that his feelings on it all are really only a step away from Alexi's wife's feelings make it all hit harder for me. Had he been a tried and true believer it would have been less interesting.

While I am left with a lot of questions, they are more curiosities than feeling like there should have been more information within the pages. I want to know what Alexi does next, and Hugo's boss drops cookies in every scene she is in that just leave me wanting to deep dive into her life. But alas, she is not the main character of this story.

Hugo's life is relatable, 'cough' student debt 'cough', the pain he is going through is palpable and gave me pause with my own life and spending. Life is short, are you living yours to the fullest? Are you cherishing the people in your life? Are you living within your means? So many good questions arise from the plot of this one.

How many immigrants come to America from a life that we can only imagine (childhood working mines) only to fall into a life we all know to well, the American dream of massive amounts of debt? Hugo's emotional rollercoaster through the stages of grief, and being a person filled with hate for Alexi is so well written. Many points had me teary, and rooting that Hugo would find true happiness.

You'll love this book if you enjoy diving into different cultures, and exploring their religious beliefs. Stories with tragedy wrapped in a blanket of self discovery and magic in plain sight.

This was a really unique take on a ghost story and an engaging read.

Our main character, Hugo, works as a babalawo where he pretends to have powers that allow him to cleanse people of their hauntings. He owes significant amounts of money to a debt collector, Alexi, who comes to Hugo for help with a haunting. Alexi promises Hugo that if Hugo can make the ghosts go away, then he'll forgive Hugo's debts. Hugo struggles with guilt over the death of his wife, whose hospital bills contributed to the debt. He feels the indebtedness as a presence that is constantly with him.

The book explores themes of hauntings by things other than ghosts (guilt, debt, etc). It's very believable as Hugo the skeptic encounters the supernatural but tries to explain it away. I really enjoyed the resolution of the book; I was worried about how it was going to end, since nothing ruins a good book faster than a bad ending, but it was a very satisfying ending and not what I was expecting.

The book jumps back and forth between the present and past as we learn more about Hugo. It was done well, but it's not my favorite style of telling a story, and it started to feel like we were being teased with the details of what happened to his wife and then -boom- back in the present. There's some Spanish in the book, but it wasn't always clear what the Spanish meant. Other books will have a sentence in Spanish and then the answer in English formatted in a way that explains what the Spanish was asking. This didn't have that so that was a little frustrating. It wasn't a ton, but enough with me needing to Google or just not know what was said to be irritating.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

A stunning horror debut! Raul Palma crafts an intricately nuanced Miami, a city composed of many cities layered upon one another. Rich Miami, poor Miami, magical Miami, mundane Miami....all come into dramatic conflict here. Protagonist Hugo is prickly but sweet, angry but loving, always complicated, never one-dimensional. The supernatural elements express the inner lives of the characters and the horrifying legacies of colonialism here and abroad. I will be thinking about this one for a long time!

This was okay, but I think the vibes are a bit misrepresented in the "sale" of this book. I was expecting a Grady Hendrix vibe, but I think this book is a bit more morose than that. There were parts that I enjoyed, but I think this will be the kind of haunting you need to be in the mood for, rather than one you can just pick up and dig into whenever.

I felt so bad for the main character, Hugo. A dead wife and a mountain of debt that can only be repaid by going up against a malevolent spirit. This novel is more about Hugo grappling with his inner demons than anything else and I appreciated this character driven plot. It was refreshing! You'll find yourself rooting for Hugo.

This book is full of unexpected surprises.

Hugo’s wife, Meli, died in her thirties and he was left was left with $14,476 of mostly medical debt which was a constant drain. He was overwhelmed by harassing calls he received from Alexi Ramirez & Associates to pay for what he owed. His wages were partially garnished at his job at the Miami Botanica and Spa in Hialeah.

Hugo had a reputation at the shop for being able to clear negative energies with items like incense, candles and special bracelets. When he was approached by the attorney, Alexi Ramirez, his immediate reaction was to run away with fear. Yet, Alexi got his attention when he offered to clear all his debt if he could remove the hauntings on his property. Now as someone who really didn’t believe in the spiritual relics, he had to figure out how this was going to work.

The book was nonstop with an original plot that kept moving with Hugo desperately trying to stop the hauntings. Parts were sad. Yet, other times, I found myself laughing out loud. The only awkwardness was when the author used Spanish phrases as an emphasis which went above my head.. It's one of the books that at the end, I was glad I read it.

My thanks to Dutton and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy with an expected release date of October 3, 2023.

This is an unusual book — think Silvia Moreno-Garcia crossed with Carl Hiaasen — though maybe I think that because it's set in Miami and has elements of magical realism and horror. I wasn't familiar with what a babaláwo is, but I got the gist of it. I enjoyed the storytelling and liked how we learned more about Hugo and his relationship with his deceased wife. There were some interesting tidbits about their past and how it affected his life now. I don't know that I would have gravitated to this story on my own, but I enjoyed reading it and would recommend.

Poor Hugo. Not only is he dealing with the death of his wife following a bout of cancer, but the resulting medical bills have left him with crippling debt, and heavily garnished wages.

Hugo focuses all his hate on one man, Alexi, a prolific debt collector and generally entitled ass. So when Alexi reaches out to Hugo to make use of his specialist skills, Hugo sees an opportunity to not only erase his debt, but get some revenge. You see, Hugo is a babaláwo, and he can help banish the evil spirits currently plaguing Alexi’s family.

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens was a genuine surprise. I was instantly drawn in by bumbling Hugo. As the novel progresses, we learn more about Hugo’s devastating life, and his escape to the US. Hugo is such a well-rounded, wonderfully flawed character, who carries so much weight on his shoulders. His relationship with ailing wife is so raw and real; I’m sure anyone who has had to deal with a sick loved one will recognize some of these scenes.

But the supernatural elements of the book are what really interested me. The sections about Hugo’s childhood in the Bolvian mines, and the demon El Tio, were fantastic. And the ending is just out of this world. Palma creates some really terrifying images within these pages.

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is a thoughtful, intelligent horror novel, with some truly touching, human moments. An absolute pleasure to read.