This is my favorite book of 2023 so far.

Alejandra is a wife and a mother and is seriously struggling. She feels as though she has no identity other than those two things and she isn't even good at them. As her depression gets deeper she starts to see a ghostly figure of a woman in white - La Llorona. After deciding to get therapy this entity starts wreaking havoc on not only her but her children. This leads Alejandra to connect more with her birth mother who gave her up at birth and to learn more about her family history. She wants to learn more about this woman in white and how she can get rid of her for good.

This book is the epitome of how much heart horror can have. To start, Alejandra is such a beautiful, flawed character. I am not married and have no children but as someone who has depression I felt her agony. I have many friends who have felt the way she felt about their own partners and children and I know that Alejandra's struggle will resonate with so many. Yet the strength and love she has for her children will have you cheering for her the whole way through the book.

I also loved the exploration of her family history and heritage. Alejandra is a woman that was adopted and raised by people that had no ties to her heritage which made her feel even more lost in her identity. Getting to go with her has she learned and connected with her family and the strength it gave her had me crying. It was truly beautiful seeing her and the women of her family line experience the very real emotions that come with being human but specifically Mexican American women.

Finally, La Llorona is terrifying. I know enough about this legend and this take on it was so unique. The way that the moments of horror were paced seriously left me on edge. This book is told through multiple POV's and multiple timelines that made the story unfold in a way that made it hard to put the book down. I highly recommend this book!

"We must listen to the women who came before us. We change the future by unloading the sorrow of the past. We sever the cord of generational curses."

The Haunting of Alejandra is a beautiful and haunting tale of mothers and daughters battling a monster of a generational curse. A cautionary tale not just of La Llorona, but of the idea that if you do not choose to break that generational curse, your lineage is forced to endure the cyclical trauma. This novel blew me away. Castro created incredibly strong characters within Alejandra and each of the women that we encounter throughout the story.

The Haunting of Alejandra follows Alejandra herself, as she battles what she believes is depression, suicidal thoughts, and hallucinations of a woman in a white dress. That is until her children, especially her oldest daughter, begin to encounter the same "hallucination" as she, La Llorona. Alejandra knows that La Llorona is after her and her family. With the help of her therapist and biological mother, Alejandra uncovers the truth about this monster that has been haunting her lineage for generations. Alejandra has to call on the spirits of her ancestors to rid the world of this curse before it devours her family.

This is a must-read for everyone!

Thank you Del Ray Books for approving this ARC!
After seeing this on Goodreads, I KNEW I had to read it and glad I did!

Alejandra is an overwhelmed mom of 3, after having her kids back to back. She is overworked, overwhelmed, has no time for herself (after being consumed with kids and housework) and has lost her identity.
One day, while trying to escape "mom/wife life", she sees an unknown dark entity. This entity begins to haunt Alejandra and tells her things like she's no good and a horrible person.
Alejandra is the only one who can see this entity and seeks out the help of therapist. She finds Melanie, who is also Mexican-American like Alejandra and helps Alejandra rediscover who is she and find the strength to fight this entity.

All in all, this is definitely a book I recommend.
It has a horror/supernatural element that I don't normally gravitate towards but I am glad I read this one!
I loved how V Castro included backstories to the women in Alejandra's family, and the realism of Alejandra. Being a mom myself, I can definitely identify with being overwhelmed, being consumed by kids, losing yourself and having a voice tell you that you are no good.
At first I believed that the dark entity was undiagnosed postpartum but the ending was my favorite part!

This is a book that I would definitely recommend.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of ***************************The Haunting of Alejandra*************************** in exchange for an honest review. ~

Oh, wow, this doesn’t shy away from the heaviness this book is going to be covering as we open our meeting with Alejandra and see how much she’s struggling with everyday tasks. Her depression has become so debilitating that she has a hard time taking care of her children and her shitty husband who guilt trips her for struggling. She’s come to resent her relationship with him and is now beginning to have visions of a woman in white. I deeply want to give this woman a hug and encourage her to get help— which thank god, she does. The therapist she finds is also Mexican American and they connect over the stories of La Llorona and La Catrina, which gave some depth to both pieces of folklore I wasn’t aware of.

Prior to moving for her husband’s job, she’d been trying to reconnect with her birth mother and her culture that she wasn’t able to experience while growing up in the foster care system. I really love that she’s also trying to share the things she’s learned with her oldest daughter, Catrina, and am hopeful to see more of their relationship as Alejandra heals. The showcasing of generational trauma was exquisite. Each of the women in this family line’s perspectives felt similar and yet different enough to keep them distinct. We start with the first woman in the family line to interact with the demon. Her voice is just as somber and bitter but still stands apart from Alejandra’s. In all perspectives, though, La Llorona’s visits are so eerie and unsettling.

The plot itself is character focused as we watch Alejandra’s journey to learn more about her family line, and the troubles that have followed them, and work to heal from her own struggles so that she can save her children from suffering similar fates. I really adored the discussions around motherhood and identity in this story, the way these women took hold of their fates and made what they wanted up them. I felt just as empowered by their stories as Alejandra. The horror we see is in the visceral and gory descriptions of our character’s experiences and are amped up most when we see La Llorona, but I wanted more. There were a few moments that had me making disgusted faces, but nothing particularly memorable about the horror. I did, however, really like the final perspective and how it twisted the usual tale of La Llorona, showcasing her in a more sympathetic light.

My biggest complaint throughout this was the dialogue didn’t really seem authentic or flow naturally. Conversations feel long-winded or just unusual to how someone would speak. I also would have liked a bit more explanation of the demon in the end, it felt unresolved in the end and like a cop-out wrap-up.

A haunting, beautiful book that I think a lot of moms out there could or would greatly appreciate and relate to on some level. I think this is a great bookclub discussion book. There were moments when the dialogue felt weird and clunky, but the atmosphere, story, and general writing were phenomenal.

Happy Pub Day to The Haunting of Alejandra! This horror novel is super riveting and spooky and atmospheric. While it was all of those things, it was also deep, and not your average run of the mill thriller. It dealt with generational trauma in a way which I found interesting and so well done. Alejandra as a character was so complex and you really just felt for her. I think this is such an impactful one and I really hope people read it.

To be perfectly honest, I wanted to love this book more than I did. Alejandra, adoptee turned the young mother of three children, struggles with postpartum depression in a loveless marriage. But her burden is not only her own. The weight that follows her after childbirth is ancestral, embodied, and has traveled from mother to mother since the days of Cortes, feeding on the pain of the women in her line and driving each one to their death.

The book had such a wonderful premise! But more attention was paid to the social and historical issues at hand than to the development of Alejandra as a character, and because of this I left the overall experience feeling empty. The dialogue was over-explanatory, her husband's character was more of a caricature, and the creature that plagues her gets a hint of a backstory, only to be left behind. Rather than being immersed in a story that explored history, themes of intergenerational trauma and the lingering effects of a people subjugated, I frequently felt like I was receiving a history lesson in the general shape of a story. Perhaps for readers less aware of this history this is useful, but as a Mexican American young mother who grew up estranged from her heritage myself, I had hoped for a story I could feel deeply. This was not it.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Random House Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review. I am not usually a horror reader, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Alejandra is unhappy in her life. She loves her three children but is in an unhappy marriage that has just moved her cross country away from her home and the biological mother she was just getting to know. Soon she starts to see visions of a creature dressed in white, drawing parallels to the Mexican folk tale of La Llorona. Alejandra must quickly decipher the visions before they harm her or her children while learning about her past and those of her ancestors.

I found this to be a really intriguing way to delve into the folklore of La Llorona. As a Latinx but non-Mexican reader I found this an interesting way to learn about the legend and explore it in a contemporary setting. The different timeline in each chapter to explore different ancestors in Alejandra's bloodline was a really smart way to develop the story and give context to Alejandra's current situation. The ending does have some of those classic horror elements thrown in, so I wouldn't recommend if you are a little squeamish (and maybe wraps things up a little quickly and neatly for my taste) but I still found this incredibly readable.

I loved this retelling of la Llorona story. The Haunting of Alejandra follows the story of Alejandra, a mother of three who is profoundly depressed and unhappy with her life. Her husband makes good money but around the house is a helpless man-child and is unsupportive of Alejandra's mental health struggles. Soon Alejandra begins to be menaced by a ghostly apparition of la Llorona. Alejandra begins to visit a therapist who also specializes in traditional Mexican folk healing and together they tackle her apparent haunting. The book goes back and forth between timelines, telling the stories of several of Alejandra's ancestors. In doing so, it weaves a narrative of the generational trauma of racism, misogyny, and colonialist violence, and shows the way that it can become a very real, and physical, curse.

I LOVED the story of this book, but unfortunately the writing style was not to my taste. I found it very hard to get into the way V. Castro actually wrote her prose, and it ended up making me hesitate to pick up this book. The story is a five star, but the style of writing brings it down to three for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Haunting of Alejandra went back and forth between fascinating look at women and their place in the world, especially as it relates to reproduction rights and roles, to kind of boring and shallow interaction amongst characters and more boring fantasy life.

Book Review: The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro

The Haunting of Alejandra is a paranormal horror novel about a woman stalked by an ancient evil. It has elements of Latinx folk tales and historical fiction.
Alejandra is a married mother of three that is unhappy and isolated after moving to a Philadelphia suburb for her husband’s job. As she sinks further into misery a grotesque woman in white begins to appear to her. The demonic figure is pushing her to kill herself and become another mother in a long line of her ancestors that is cursed by “La Llorona”. As Alejandra begins to work on her mental health she reaches out to her birth mother to find out more about the women that came before her and discovers a curse that stretches back 500 years. She will have to use everything she’s learned about herself and the past to destroy “La Llorona” before her children become the next victims.
I enjoyed the historical parts of the novel that included POV’s of Alejandra’s ancestors stretching back to the very first in 1522. But, I had a harder time relating to Alejandra herself as she started in such a bad place at the beginning of the novel. She is whiny and miserable which makes her the target for the demon but also not the most enjoyable character for a reader to follow. Unfortunately, when she’s had a few weeks of therapy under her belt she swings the exact opposite direction and is constantly referring to techniques she’s learned in her sessions and is insufferable in a different way. But, my biggest critique was the dialogue. I found the way the characters spoke to each other unrealistic and it took me out of the story. There were many conversations that sounded like lectures or speeches that were drafted in advance instead of a natural back and forth between two people. Alejandra’s husband (Matthew) was such an nasty piece of work it was like he was set up for us to hate. For me personally, I prefer stories that focus on found family and tying people that aren’t biologically related together but this novel overemphasized biological and blood ties. This is evident in her constant reference (seventeen times according to Kindle word count) to the family that raised her as her “adoptive” mother/father/family who were painted in a bad light (white, religious and intolerant) whereas her biological family is loving and supportive. The high points for me were the tension around La Llorona’s sudden appearances and her general creepiness but the last two confrontation scenes were more weird and gross than scary.
Overall, The Haunting of Alejandra had a interesting take on the legend of “La Llorona” and readers might enjoy the feminist and Latinx centered approach to her story while they also have some chills.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I jumped at the chance to read The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro. The cover alone is gorgeous, I love Castro's IG account and I've been excited to read more of her work after reading House of Filth last summer.

One of the things I loved about House of Filth was the strong and natural storytelling voice of the main character. It was relatable and funny. The Haunting of Alejandra seems to stumble a little here and I had a hard time connecting to Alejandra as a dimensional character. I stayed with it for the supernatural knowing it was promised in the title. It fell a little flat but that just means I have time to read another of her books later this month.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and support authors I believe in.

I LOVED this book! Definitely not an easy read because it deals with some heavy topics. But I loved the storyline. It was so creative and the writing is so vivid. I really love how the author incorporates Mexican folklore into the story, giving it some creepy parts. If you’re looking to read something different, this is a must-read! Can’t believe this is a debut novel !

Alejandra is a wife, mother, and adopted daughter haunted by a darkness that others can't see. The vision is of a crying woman in a ragged white gown, and she soon learns that this is La Llorona, the weeping and vengeful spirit of Mexican legends. Alejandra's therapist explores her biological history, the heartbreak in past generations. While Alejandra has inherited that pain they had, she also inherited their strength. Now she will need to tap into that strength to banish La Llorona.

From the start, we see Alejandra caught in the life she built. She's a stay-at-home mother of three, her husband's occupied by his job and the traveling he loves so much, and they all expect her to cook and clean without complaint. She feels hollowed out and empty, unfulfilled and unloved. She sees the spirit and feels incredible despair. Those with depression and intense anxiety will recognize the feeling, and applaud her when she seeks out a therapist. Melanie is a curandera as well, so she works with the traditional Mexican legends, traditional healing, and spiritual work. That aspect helps to give Alejandra back a sense of her culture of origin, as well as a positive support to tell her that she has a right to her feelings, no matter what they are, and that she has internal strength born from love.

I adore the message of this book. Yes, there are dark emotions and in this case, suffering from a curse that is supernatural in origin. But ignoring it gives that presence strength until it breaks others. We have flashes of Alejandra's ancestral mothers, what they dealt with in the name of family, and the creature's hunger for blood and pain. Together, Alejandra builds up her sense of self. It's not ignoring the pain and burying it, but focusing on the positive parts of herself and using that as a foundation to help build a future. At no point did it feel like toxic positivity or saying love conquers all. It's more that people can't function alone, they can't become shells of themselves, and can't find fulfillment through pain. She has a hard journey, but it's one that I loved reading.

I received this book as an advanced copy from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey. Thank you to the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Alejandra is a mother - but not in a happy place. Though she loves her children, her marriage feels like a trap and she begins to have dark thoughts. These feelings are more sinister than simply mental illness, and Alejandra must work to end the generational curse that follows her bloodline to escape La Llorona.

This book wasn't my cup of tea, but it had some good aspects that many horror readers will enjoy.

The good: The writing was beautiful and the characterization exquisite. I enjoyed seeing Alejandra's growth throughout the book and her connection to her children, Melanie, and Cathy. I was very drawn in to the first half of the book. The Mexican American representation was also very interesting and I loved that there was a curandera in the story.

The bad: I didn't quite understand the creature's motivations or how it was feeding off them per see. I understood it at a base level, but I'm someone who wants to understand everything deeply. I also felt the jumps between POV were jarring and some felt like they added nothing to the plot.

Overall, this is a great read for those who are into horror.

You will like this if you enjoy: horror, generational curses, self love journeys, motherhood, familial connections, and finding your power.

This will be posted on Instagram and StoryGraph on 4/18 under the account @lalareadsbooks. Links added below.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading this and saw it wasn't only just a story about Alejandra but about generations of her ancestors and the struggles they also faced. I think the discussion of mental health and the representation of depression / lack of purpose that Alejandra felt was real and raw. I Alejandra's relationship with Melanie almost as a motherly figure and mentor. Alejandra's journey from wanting to die to having the strength to not only fight the demon that's been haunting her bloodline was an uplifting ending that I think was necessary in this story.


I think the curse that follows Alejandra's blood line is a representation of mental illness and generational trauma. Each new member of the family we read about has their own trauma they need to deal with but are unable to deal with it for various reasons, most of which has something to do with repression of women in general and more specifically, women of color. Cathy, who is Alejandra's birth mother, is the first woman we see who is able to slightly break the cycle. While she still struggles with mental health a little bit and having to deal with the repercussions of her actions of giving Alejandra up at birth, she's made a life for herself in which she feels fulfilled in her career and her life. Her reconnection with Alejandra is really beautiful in the story.


The reason I'm giving this book 3 stars is because I found the writing to be a little lack luster. It felt very repetitive at times and the dialogue was a little unbelievable to me. In most of the conversations between two characters, it felt unnatural the way the conversation was flowing and how the dialogue read. There were also parts that felt like it went on a little too long and the writing was a little convoluted.


All in all, I'd recommend this book. It touches on important topics like mental health, generational trauma and exploring your ancestral roots.


Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

In the waking world, Alejandra is shackled by depression and anxiety. Her family sees her as only a source of giving, not thinking or caring about how this affects Alejandra. She's been uprooted from her ancestral homelands without consideration, and she has considered suicide as a way out.

And she's begun to be haunted by La Llorna, the crying woman. It's said that La Llorna brings violence and death.

Through her sessions with a curandera, Alejandra discovers how La Llorandora has tormented and fed off of the emotions and pain of her ancestors, Her struggles to defeat Lallorandora parallel her struggles to take her own life back and to become he own person instead of a shadow.

I enjoyed the presentation of Mexican heritage and folklore--rich traditions and histories have just begun to be covered in gothic and horror literature. However, the book could have used a bit tighter editing as there were portions, especially in the beginning, where I was waiting for the story or scenario to start.

Recommended: three and one-half stars

I had never heard of La Llorna until I got married. My husband who is Hispanic of course knew all about La Llorna and I absolutely fell in love with the Mexican ghost story. If you aren’t Hispanic you will likely be unfamiliar with the legend but you might be more familiar with the song La Llorna from the movie Coco! I am a big fan of horror and ghost stories and the folklore story really intrigued me so when this book came up for review, I had little hesitation before I screamed YES.

The horror or paranormal genre might not be for everyone and that’s ok. I know that I love a good ghost story and for me personally, I would rather read it in the fall when it’s the ‘spooky’ time of year, but I am usually up for a good ghost story any time truth be told! I read The Hacienda last year and absolutely loved it, after reading that book, the legend go La Llorna was the first thing on my mind. La Llorna isn’t a well known tale but it sure is creepy and I thought it would make for a great mainstream-ish story if executed properly.

Author V Castro has written other horror stories seeped in Mexican history and culture. If there was anyone who could make this story come alive, it’s Castro. I haven’t read any other books by her but I have seen Queen of the Cicadas around the blog-o-sphere and know that she has an established fan base. Needless to say I was thrilled to be asked to review this one and check out Castro’s storytelling style for myself!

Summary

A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona as she unravels the dark secrets of her family history in this ravishing and provocative horror novel.

Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. 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.

Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her mother, her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness.

But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers—and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever. (summary from Goodreads)

Review

When I first started this book, my first thought was—it feels short. The book comes in at just under 300 pages (270 ish) and for me, I feel like most novels tend to run around 320-350 pages and that feels a bit more adequate for character and plot development. However I know in the horror genre some of the books tend to run around 250-300 pages so this fits within that genre as far as length goes. Though I will say even if this book is short on pages, it really didn’t feel that way. This story has substance and things for readers to unpack and themes that many female readers will connect with. It read quickly but it didn’t feel short if that makes sense. The middle did seem to loose a little bit of steam but generally it was paced well and I enjoyed my time with this book.

The other thing that was a bit puzzling was, I thought this book was going to be about the actual La Llorona but it was actually about Alejandra so it was a little disorientating for me at first. But then I started reading Alejandra and got hooked into her story. I thought the main protagonist, Alejandra, was a very relatable main character especially for mothers. She is a full time stay at home mom who by all outward appearances should have the perfect life. Except she does’t. She has given up her own career in favor of her husband’s and she is struggling with a number of things. In our culture of social media I think many new mothers get sucked into believing people have the perfect lives and women can do it all—–but we don’t know the full story which is what makes Alejandra so compelling as the heroine. I could identify with her struggles in so many ways! We as women and mothers carry so much of the family emotional burden and it’s hard. I loved that this theme can carry over through cultures and ages of women because being a mother is hard!

This book was a little more light on the horror that I expected but still good. It had a lot to recommend itself when it came to the main character and it was creepy and haunting but I just expected more horror in a way but in looking back I still think it worked out ok for the book. I think die hard horror fans might want more horror but if horror isn’t really your genre but maybe you like ghost stories then I think you will find a lot to enjoy in this one. I am eager to read more by this author, I really loved the blending of culture into this novel and it felt different and exciting. It’s out now so take a look and see if this book is something you might enjoy!

Book Info and Rating

Format 272 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication April 18, 2023 by Del Rey

ISBN 9780593499696 (ISBN10: 0593499697)

Free review copy provided by publisher, Del Rey, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: horror, paranormal

Quick synopsis: Alejandra is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona as she unravels the dark secrets of her family’s history.

Honesty, I knew nothing of this folklore and found myself falling down a Google rabbit hole while reading. A simplified version of the legend is that La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) is a ghost of a mother who drowns her children so her husband can experience the pain he inflicted upon her. She immediately regrets the drowning and kills herself. Now, she’s often seen in white roaming near water, mourning her children.

Although the topics are dark, I enjoy exploring motherhood, marriage, mental health, and generational trauma. While the folklore envelopes horror, Alejandra’s true horror happens with her eyes wide open as she tries to survive the grind of motherhood, a neglectful husband, and a lack of understanding of why her mother left her so many years ago.

Through therapy, Alejandra discovers that La Llorona has haunted the women in her family for generations. The story’s timeline reverses, so the reader also discovers these generational stories. I love the narration by Raquel Beattie, but with the generational stories, I often re-read passages in the e-book to fully understands the depths and interconnectedness of these stories.

Highly recommend this to readers who enjoy:
✨Exploration of motherhood and mental illness
✨Mexican Folklore: unique spin on the La Llorona Legend
✨Horror: vivid descriptions of the supernatural that sometimes border on gruesome.

A gripping and haunting tale of family secrets, folklore, and horror! This book is well-written! I really enjoyed the writing. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!