Actual Rating 3.5

TW: Drug Abuse and Overdose, Physical Abuse, Animal Harm (off page)

Candelaria’s granddaughters are not what she expected. Bianca is an archaeologist who had to leave her work behind due to a workplace entanglement. Paola has been missing for over a decade, though Candelaria knows she simply ran off with some man. Candy is a recovering addict struggling to get by. But Candelaria has found it easy to ignore, until reality starts to bend and a seemingly apocalyptic earthquake hits, awakening the dead. Candelaria and her family find themselves brought together in unexpected ways as the world falls apart around them.

This work of speculative fiction is told from multiple POVs in a somewhat nonlinear timeline. One of the POVs is told in the second person present, which did take a little getting used to. This story also has many darker themes on top of having some post-apocalyptic aspects that showed up partway through.

I enjoyed the relationships between the characters, and the dynamics and issues present in the mother/daughter and sibling relationships. The author also did an excellent job incorporating the characters’ culture throughout the read, ranging from their history to bilingual struggles – it added much to the characters and the overall feel of the read. But this book gets weird. I’m honestly not quite sure what to say about it without giving too much away. It’s also rather dark, though I don’t believe it ever got too explicit.

There’s a brief section about the history that the work is loosely based on, which added much to the read. I appreciated the author including this. I also quite liked that the audiobook included the author’s acknowledgements – every audiobook should do this!

If you like speculative fiction that includes cults and zombies, then you’ll love this. If you don’t prefer books that get weird and out there, you probably won’t like this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to read this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for an alc. I enjoyed the story, but I can't deny there were moments when I was confused. There was so much going on that tracking what was happening during certain chapters was hard. I enjoyed our unhinged characters and would recommend readers give this book a chance. I assume the audiobook needs to be edited since I heard moments of background noise, movement, and shuffling throughout the narration.


3.75/5

AUDIO UPDATE: This book still slaps. I loved listening to it on audio, and had such a great time revisiting this family. MLO is a freak and we love her for it.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I loved this strange little book. The story (and Melissa Lozada-Oliva's writing voice) perfectly captured the vibe of some of my favorite horror movies—as chaos, destruction, and otherworldly/evil forces reign, the characters maintain a sort of flippant self-centeredness throughout it all. All of the horror was somehow completely unexpected, and felt really visceral and surreal. At the core of the story is a family trying to deal with the various betrayals, traumas, and failed expectations they've all endured collectively and individually. Even outside of the horror elements, this story got really dark, but I appreciated the way all of the sisters loved and hated each other so forcefully throughout the novel. It felt very familiar, like yeah your sister is a bitch, but you would still brave an apocalypse for her. There were a few elements of the story that could have been tied up a little more, but I'm not one for nitpicking the enjoyment out of a horror romp. There were here were a handful of typos/mistakes in the digital ARC, and that, combined with the PDF format made it a little tricky to follow at times. But either way, I'm so excited to pre-order and read this again (and make all my horror-loving friends read it, too).

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor for this ALC.

Sadly I had to DNF this book and it is not because of the story itself but because I think a physical copy would work better for me than the audio did so I can keep track of details and go back and forth while reading.

But I do love the "weirdness" that characterizes Melissa Lozada-Oliva's writing. And this book did that so well (from what I read). I love books that explore familial relationships and I love how all these women were flawed but I still felt connected to them all.

I can't wait to get a physical copy so I can continue reading!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

I am unsure that I can adequately rate this book. I listened to the book and at first was taken in by Candelaria and her granddaughters. Then the story just kept getting more chaotic and I became annoyed by every one of the sisters. There were so many storylines going on at once it was hard to keep up. This is my first time reading this author and I learned that the inspiration for this book stemmed from some poetry. I’m not that great with poetry and that could be why I couldn’t really get into this book. I wish I liked it more given the hype I’ve seen for it but I just don’t think it was for me.

It was no surprise at the end to learn that the author is a poet, as this book is filled with vivid, descriptive language that creates scenes, interior monologue, and dialogue that are supremely moving and entertaining whether or not you keep up with the time and character jumps of the supernatural plot.
Candelaria is ostensibly the black sheep of her sisters, with a life tormented by drug use and misfortune. However, this somewhat hides a supernatural power that has mysterious forces pulling the strings of her life, leading up to a ritual-laden birth they hope will change the world.
Mixed in with all of this is academic and sexual power dynamics, colonizer/archeological roles and obligations to the past, and the meaning of familial and other relationships.
A fun ride to be sure.

4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tantor Audio for approving the audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review!

I went into this knowing absolutely nothing about the plot or what to expect and what I got was not what I anticipated, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. This book is so weird and I mean that in the best possible way. I love how from the first chapter, everything feels very trippy and somewhat ominous, like the audience was just dropped into this world and has to quickly acclimate and catch their bearings. Just when you feel like you understand what is happening, Melissa Lozada-Oliva throws you a curveball and trips you up.

I loved how this story centered around the women in this family and how multilayered and complex they all felt, in their own respective ways. Not a single one of them was flawless, perfect, or necessarily "good" and there was a least one moment where I was irritated with all of them, but I still really empathized with them and their struggles and could understand why they made certain choices that they did. I also really liked how complicated each relationship that they had with each other was. There is so much love there between everyone, but also a lot of trauma, resentment, and anger. It was interesting seeing the cycles of generational trauma and how the mothers unintentionally passed that onto their daughters. It was also fascinating to see how each daughter internalized and coped with those traumas and the directions that they went in their lives as a result.

I feel like Lozada-Oliva blends literary fiction, speculative fiction, and horror within this book very seamlessly. I also appreciate the moments of humor that she added, because it just feels so natural to this book and the world. Everything is both slightly over-the-top and leans into the silliness 0f life at times, while also feeling very grounded and poignant. There are very real themes regarding trauma, addiction and how addicts are viewed and treated, body autonomy, cults and how they target and prey on vulnerable people, etc. I feel like the author did a great job touching on these discussions in a way that felt very natural and added depth to the story and its characters. I also have to say that I loved Lozada-Oliva's narration and how she brought her words to life, especially as someone who became a fan of her through her spoken word poems.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this book. It has been a while since I have read a book in one day due to how interested I was in the characters and where they were headed. I'm excited to read Lozada-Oliva's verse book, as well as her future prose books.

Thanks to Melissa Lozada-Oliva, NetGalley and Astra House for the audiobook version of CANDELARIA.

First off, the author did an absolutely fantastic job recording this audio herself. I saw another review that mentioned how noticeable the mouth sounds were, but I always listen to audio sped up to x 1.25, so I didn't even notice them. She voiced her different characters so well and her regular cadence and narration were on point. So even if I had heard some mouth sounds I wouldn't of cared. Audiobooks are astronomically expensive to make, with shockingly low margins, so I'm always willing to forgive a few things like this when the author did the work themselves (and did it so well!).

SETTING: I loved that this was set in modern day America/Boston during a zombie apocalypse, because I love to see how a setting is affected by a major disaster. That being said, the setting wasn't particularly atmospheric or immersive. The story was more about the relationships between the sisters and the other people in their lives. Everything is much more internal than external, which was a bit of a disappointment. Half the time I wasn't sure where the scenes were taking place at all, or we could have been literally anywhere.

PlOT: Horror + zombie apocalypse + cult leader + family dysfunction + sisters! All those elements are some of my favourite on their own, but unfortunately they did feel more like a mishmash in this story, rather than distinct qualities that worked well together. I appreciated the efforts to make each storyline fraught with individual issues, but I did find it all overwhelming at times. I was definitely lost for large chunks of the time. Even so, I feel like this would be an interesting book to dissect in a classroom setting.

PACING: I loved the creeping unease that slowly builds throughout this weird, little novel. It never felt stale or drawn out. The pacing is actually pretty quick, despite the slow motion zombie apocalypse. The whole thing felt like a bit of a fever dream. It's the sort of book you just have to let wash over you and enjoy for its quirkiness, no overthinking allowed.

CHARACTERS: The alternating POVs were all unique and voicey enough that I didn't have a hard time tracking whose section we were in, but I think it would have been a lot more interesting to just be inside ONE of the character's heads. Candy was the stand out character for me, and her arc was the most relatable/interesting. There were a ton of supporting characters that I didn't even try to keep track of because I knew I wouldn't stand a chance.

WRITING: I loved the Spanish phrases woven into the story. And despite the fact that this is classified as horror, there were lines that really struck me as oddly poetic: "Life is a torn dress, a cup of vinegar holding dead flies, a shoe of a coworker splattered with her own blood, tossed underneath the toilet." Do I completely understand the meaning? Mm, not entirely. But much like my own experience with poetry, that doesn't stop me from finding some enjoyment in a particular arrangement of words.

THE ENDING: Very... experimental?

Candelaria has seen some shit in her long years on earth, but she wakes up one december morning to find the world is literally ending, and its kinda her families fault. Her granddaughters - zoe (fka paola) the runaway cycling women's cultist, bianca the atcheologust badly damaged by her father sudden death, and candy who is fully of rage and trove of rehab stories, each played their own part in bringing about the end of days. It all comes together in this fever dream of a story that is part humor, part horror, part history.

I found myself literally laughing out loud during parts of this book as i listened along (which was great, because the author was the narrator of the audiobook, and i hope she knows how great she was), and getting choked up at others. I thought this was a truly, wildly, weird story and the concept kind of blew my mind. The first and the last hours of the book truly threw me for a loop, and the middle pulled me along in all its grotesque glory. In the midst of all the chaos, i liked how much was said about what it means to find/yourself out with age, as well a find yourself in a culture where you feel like an outsider.

Thanks netgalley and tantor for letting me review this book!

It was chaotic and oddly funny at times a fast paced read. A creative way to intertwine multiple storylines with the sisters and the emerging zombie apocalypse.

I believe this is classified as horror and it definitely has many a horrific thing in it but the sweeping generational story of the three generations of Guatemalan women was so heartfelt, dramatic and funny.

In it we follow a few different storylines as the sisters, mother and grandmother stretch away from each other and find their way back to each other as shit hits the fan. We have zombies, a cult, nightmares, a lil bit of cannibalism.

I really like when we have many storylines and they all weave together really well and this was such a fun weird experience. I enjoyed it.

I will say that someone did the author and narrator DIRTY. The book was so interesting and the narrator was a great narrator but. Someone didn’t edit out when the narrator took a sip of water? I hope it gets a little edit soon because it was great but that was distracting.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for an eARC

This is weird and beautiful. I felt like I was floating while listening to this. It was also hilarious. I love the weird aspects of the grandmothers perspective and the cult aspects. This was nothing like any book I have read/listened to before.
It is flawless.
The narration was wonderful as well!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

This book was just so crazy and unhinged I absolutely loved it!!!! lol it had creepy moments, funny moments, loving moments. I loved all of the sisters and their stories. It was so weird but in such a great way! I highly recommend!

Candelaria is an utterly unhinged, chaotic end-of-world zombie apocalypse story with a complicated matriarchal family at its heart.

The story is gruesome, bizarre, and at times so compelling I forgot the real world, but at times the plot became muddled and lost my interest. The ending didn’t work for me, but I’m not a horror reader in general and was drawn to this by the family dynamics (the character backstories and realistic family moments remain my favorite part of the story.

Read this if you like:
- weird stories
- confronting (second person at times!) narration
- multiple POVs with distinct voices
- books that give you nightmares
- vivid imagery
- feminist horror

Thanks, NetGalley and Astra House, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review

I'll be nice first... I really liked the story, and the blend of a literary story of three sisters was perfectly combined with the slow emergence of a zombie apocalypse. It actually felt like an authentic emergency (including how long it took people to notice things were happening even as they happened TO THEM). And overall, I thought the narration was really well done. I tend to cringe a little at authors reading their own books but she did a great job. Mostly...

There were frequent moments during the book where it sounded like she took a drink of water. Understandable, necessary, but there has to be a mute or sneeze button to cover that sort of thing up. Or edit it out. I've never noticed it in other books, and it happened SO MANY TIMES in this one. I winced every time I heard it. Like hearing someone swallow right in my ear. It was jarring enough to make a note of it.