Immediately engaging! The writing is so emotional and real, the characters so relatable. I love the discussion on connecting to culture, and reclaiming identity. This book is great for fans of Nightbitch (Yoder), with a touch a of creature horror similar to Slewfoot (Brom). Also, fans of Sylvia Moreno-Garcia will feel at home in this book.

I would include content warnings for suicide and suicidal ideation, as well as for emotional abuse/gaslighting/grooming.

There is potentially problematic messaging in mental health (depression) being linked to supernatural causes, but I think in this book the author sidesteps that by making the creature attracted to the mental anguish and generational trauma in the first place. The problem is that there is a family curse and the women's symptoms are exacerbated by being haunted by this creature, which toes a fine line as far as the portrayal of mental health as a real vs supernatural issue. The inclusion of counseling/therapy in the story is great.

The book ended up losing my interest so that I couldn't even finish the last 20%. My biggest problem was with the dialogue. Not believable at all.

This was everything and more. I will read anything by V. Castro, and have yet to be disappointed.

Alejandra's story is a story most can relate to - until the supernatural happenings begin, at least. She is a daughter, mother, wife: but is dissatisfied with her current life. While her relationship with her newly found bio-mother is going well, her husband moved the whole family states away, making Alejandra feel alone. Her relationship with her husband and kids is... complicated.

To top it all off, weird things have been happening to Alejandra.

Weaved into Alejandra's story are the stories of other women in the past with similar struggles. And the story of La Llorona.

This is a fantastic story drawing on both emotional and supernatural elements to build the torment and horror. I fully recommend this to everyone.

Thanks to Netgally for a copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

the Haunting of Alejandra is a wonderful that follows a strong mother, trying to protect her children, as well as tracing the folk story of La Llorona. The writing just seemed to flow and was easy to read.

Well this book packed a punch. We follow 30 something year old Alejandra. Recently moved from Texas to Philadelphia with her husband and three children, she feels adrift. You initially think that maybe Alejandra is suffering from post-partum depression. However, the book quickly moves that something seems to be haunting Alejandra. Telling her that she's a bad mother, that her children would be better off with her, and that in the end she may take a road many of her ancestors did, and allows whatever is haunting to take her and then her eldest daughter.

The book characters were great IMHO. I loved how we get to see Alejandra wake all the way up by the end of the book. She's indifferent to her husband and her children at first. But you feel the love she has for her children starting to break through. When she realizes something may be haunting her and could hurt them, she decides to do whatever it takes to kill the thing that stalks them. And I thought it was interesting that Castro shows how Alejandra being adopted (even though by a half Mexican woman and white man) ended up harming her and many of the children they raised because of the hyper religious parents she had. Because of them many roads that Alejandra would have taken she did not, it seems she was afraid of disappointing two people she didn't even really like. When Alejandra meets her birth mother Cathy though, you start to see she part of her started to wake up before she departed Texas for Philadelphia. Her husband just seems to be there. He's not a a good guy, and not bad, just someone that always pushes his needs first and doesn't really seem to care about Alejandra unless it is going to mess up his schedule. 

Castro takes us back at some points in time to a time when the Spanish came to Mexico and a woman who was left with nothing after being repeatedly raped agrees to a bargain that has repercussions for all of her descendants. The book not only follows Alejandra, but her mother Cathy, her grandmother, and others. I loved how Castro loops in the Mexican folklore of La Llorona, a spirit of a vengeful woman who drowned her own children and still searches for them but also hunts women as well. I think I honestly felt for Cathy's mother. She was in love with someone who did not love her and when the "curse" starts to come for her she really doesn't have a sense of how to get out, but wants to keep her children safe. The thread through all of these stories was the love a mother has for her children, and how these mothers would do anything for them. 

The writing was really good and so was the flow. 

The ending was a bit gory, but I liked how the big turns the events into just one more chapter and we can begin to see how the future may be shaped now.

Alejandra is all of us who've tried to do it all and be it all. She's dissatisfied with her current situation, and wondering how to fix it, or if she deserves to fix it - is this her lot in life, and is she a bad mother/woman/person for not being satisfied? Whether Alejandra's list heritage arrives to liberate her or doom her... well, that's a matter of perception. Every person who reads this will take something different from it, and this makes the story even richer. This is on the best non-required reading list in YA imo, and I want my kids & students to read it.

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro
Before I begin my review, I would like to extend a “thank you” to Random House Publishing Group and to V. Castro for giving me access to this eARC via NetGalley. This is my honest review of The Haunting of Alejandra.

Synopsis: (No Spoilers)
Alejandra is a mother of three young children and a devoted wife. Like many women who have devoted their lives to their family, Alejandra feels that she has given so much of herself to her spoils every and children that she has lost herself. The more she extracts to give to them, the emptier she feels. She lives her day-to-day chasing after her beautiful children and spends her nights feeling lonely while her husband is on business trips. She feels even longer when he is home. This is a story that women often tell and Alejandra is just one among many. However, what makes Alejandra’s journey unique is that her emptiness is being filled with a haunting reality. Her loneliness turns into a terrifying reality that proves to her that she is never alone. Her depression has taken the shape of an ancient entity that is set on using Alejandra’s mental condition to feed it’s hunger for life force. This entity has followed the women in Alejandra’s ancestral line and is never satisfied. It feeds their sadness until they can no longer endure life and the entity takes it for it’s own. Alejandra has to dig deep into her family history and find the courage from her ancestors to find the answers she needs so she can defeat this curse.

Review:
V. Castro did an extraordinary thing when she wrote this novel. She created a memory for me. I would like to start by explaining that this book reached out and clutched my attention from the very first page. Castro introduces us to Alejandra, who is struggling with her present. This character’s relatability was through the roof for me, Like Alejandra, I am a mother of three, Xicana and face struggles with depression occasionally. Alejandra wants to connect with her past and her life depends on it. I loved the connection Castro made with Alejandra and her ancestors, from Meso-American life to the Mexican Revolution (Viva Zapata!) we take a journey in to a past that can be shared by some and captivating to many. We learn about reconnecting to our roots and the special connection that women have with one another on an ancestral plane.
I found this to be quite easy to dive into, the writing was engaging and her descriptions were extremely vivid. I had no issues keeping up with any part of the book. I recommend this book to anyone who struggles with things such as generational trauma or displacement. I find that this book had me appreciate my own ancestors a million times more and was happy to be able to relate with the main character so much.

The Haunting of Alejandra stands apart from other domestic thriller type literature through interwoven elements of horror and Mexican folklore. Mother to three and unhappy in her marriage, Alejandra starts to experience terrifying hallucinations. As she discovers more about her heritage, she grapples with how to break a generational curse before it devours the ones she loves most.

The Haunting of Alejandra is vibrant with modern family issues, historical badass women, and interesting cultural references. There is a lot to intrigue the reader, but I almost felt that we didn't get enough of each to truly click. Alejandra's ancestry seemed promising, but it was hard to become attached to any one person. The horror aspects were disturbing but nothing that would keep you up at night, and the marital issues could have been juicier. Nothing to prevent me from reading another book by the author, however.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of The Haunting of Alejandra from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

“The Haunting of Alejandra” touched on heavy topics such as mental health, toxic and unhealthy relationships, abuse, myths/legends, hauntings and more. Most importantly: La Llorona.

If you weren’t already aware—"The Weeping Woman" or "The Wailer" is a Hispanic-American mythical vengeful ghost—better known as La Llorona—who is said to roam waterfront areas mourning her children whom she drowned. Growing up in a Hispanic household, my brothers and I were told of the folktale when we were young and being firm believers that she is real—I was immediately drawn to this story and was anticipating the author's take on this infamous being.

Was I disappointed by this take? Yes and no. From page one, I was immersed by the eerie atmosphere, realistic and broken down characters (Alejandra for obvious reasons), the story and the background of “The Weeping Woman ''.

The slow build up for the first 80% of the novel was absolute perfection. The author had a unique writing style that fit perfectly with the novel’s themes and despite it being hard to frighten someone with the written word—there were moments where I felt like something was about to jump through the pages. And I think if the author continued this momentum in the remaining 20% of the novel, this would have received a 5/5 star rating.

What dropped the initial high rating I was going to provide this new to me author? The climax. Once we reached the climax, the story took a 180 and lost its momentum as the build up and suspense was often scarier and more fun than the payoff. I was not satisfied with the rushed ending and wished the author took the time to really flesh it out even if it meant adding additional chapters.

Nonetheless, with some revisions and reworkings—“The Haunting of Alejandra” has the potential to be one of the best reads of 2023.

I’m having a hard time giving this book a rating. Part of me really enjoyed the way this author set up the horror vibes, but I also struggled to get into the story. I felt more interested in the haunting parts than the parts about Alejandra’s life. I found myself wanting to skim over the parts about how much she hated her life and husband and get to the parts where she was dealing with the entity haunting her. I also enjoyed the play on generational curses. Overall if you like books that are slow paced and heavy on the life details, this one’s for you.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing for providing this eARC.

I understand that the eARC is an uncorrected proof and changes will be made before the book releases. These are my opinions on the current state of the book.

First off, I would like to say that the cover of this book is stunning! I am a big fan of spooky ghost stories and urban legends, so I was very interested to see a "horror" book centered around the folklore of La Llorona. I also appreciate the author's efforts in writing about women's issues.

As much as I loved the themes of this book, I did not have the best time while reading it. The writing style, sentence structure, dialogue etc just aren't for me. The ending didn't really make sense to me either - like I get that we got the end of the story but how we got there didn't really make sense to me.

I started off really liking this book. But towards the middle it just made me feel bored and angry. Maybe when I'm in a better headspace I can go back and reread it and see if it's any better.

“The Haunting of Alejandra,”

WOW! V. Castro wrote a powerful multigenerational horror story. It is a retelling of the Mexican legend La Llorona through generational trauma.

Alejandra, the protagonist, loses her sense of self, causing reality to shift and the ghostly Llorona to haunt her. Alejandra is in a pretty dark place. She is a full-time stay at home mom who has moved away from her family because of her husband’s job. She is depressed and questioning her life. Furthermore, she is trying to figure out what she wants and if these thoughts are healthy.

Aside from Alejandra, the book includes other stories: The ancestral tale of Atzi who curses her captor, Cathy, Alejandra’s mom, and Francis, Cathy’s mom. All These women were haunted and passed the curse from one generation to another.

V. Castro was able to switch timelines and characters flawlessly without confusing the reader. The novel unfolds slowly. Castro wove Alejandra’s adoption and her journey towards understanding her Mexican heritage. I felt the book was repetitive at times, which affected the pacing for me. There was a good amount of tension.

Overall, it’s a phenomenal horror story

This book was amazingly spooky. I had chills while reading and I am not easily scared while reading horror books.
Alejandra is a mother of three, who is being haunted by the demon La Llorona. She keeps seeing visions of the creature. She finally goes to see a therapist Melanie, who is also a curandera, to help her put and end to this demon,

Kicking off spooky season the right way. This story was phenomenal. Generations of Mexican mothers haunted by La Llorona and her desire for their lives and their children’s lives. The story was written so well and broken into sections of each mother going back generations as well as chapters dedicated to La Llorona herself. Mother after mother being haunted and trying to figure out how to rid their family of this awful curse. Alejandra, like her ancestors had many struggles within herself and her role as a mother and wife. I really enjoyed reading about her journey not only to protect her family, but to fight for herself with the strength of the women that came before her. This story truly wrapped everything up so nicely and I can’t think of anything that was missing or I wish would’ve been included.

The Haunting of Alejandra is a tale about a mother's love and what she won't do to end a curse that's been plaguing her family for multiple generations; an entity that feeds on the misery and self-loathing of the eldest females of the family, as well as feeding on the innocence of newborns and small children.

This book had it's fair share of good and bad. I thoroughly felt the love that the main character, Alejandra, had for her children. I understood the sacrifice she was willing to make; one any mother would make without hesitation to ensure the safety and happiness of her family. But the book was hard to finish... The author laid the feeling of sadness on too thick, in my personal opinion, and the book took too long to kick-off.

I enjoyed the pieces about Alejandra reuniting with her mother and meeting with other members of her family that she didn't know she had; A few good parts that tugged at my heart strings and brought a tear to my eye... But the story's climax was lack-luster and the brief backstory about La Llorona fell flat.

V. Castro was definitely onto something here though. The premise of the story was very good. I just felt that perhaps it was too disorganized and the execution just wasn't there...

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-book advanced readers copy!

V. Castro is an extremely important voice in the modern horror genre, providing some of the best feminist-Latinx representation whilst also providing original and expertly written stories. So far, every book I've read by V. Castro has been impactful and a favorite to the point I can't stop gushing about it, which is yet again the same case with this book.

The Haunting of Alejandra was an outstanding and gruesome read. In this story, we are following Alejandra, a house wife, mother of three, and severely depressed woman. Alejandra gives every piece of herself to her children and husband, making her feel like she's lost her own self. In midst of this personal turmoil, Alejandra starts seeing and hearing strange things; a woman that looks just like la llorona. Who/what is this thing/person and why is it "haunting" Alejandra? In regards to the tone, Castro does an excellent job of hooking you into the story from the first page. You're immediately pulled into the plot and are submerged into this tense, and terrifying atmosphere surrounding Alejandra. As the story unravels, we are given a look into Alejandra's family and heritage and how her family may play a part in this haunting. Readers get a look into a lineage of Latinx women at different eras of time and read about their stories and struggles they had to face and overcome. This representation is so wonderful to see as so many people can see themselves in Alejandra or in one of her family members. In addition, Alejandra as a character is so relatable making readers really invested in her and the outcome of her story and really scared as a lot of the events feel like they could happen to any of us. In regards to the horror this book delivers. There were a few scenes that included some quite gory scenes that had me cringing (good cringe), and the tense, haunting tone of the writing worked really well throughout. Overall, if you love horror that is scary, has a unique spin on the supernatural/hauntings trope, and has a powerful message, you can't go wrong with this release.

The Haunting of Alejandra is an interesting examination of La Llorona and the concept of generational trauma. Through the book we explore the disconnect Alejandra is experiencing from her children, and take a deep dive into her past. By exploring the history of her ancestors we uncover the origins of La Llorona.

This book was equal parts terrifying and sad, making for a great horror! I thoroughly enjoyed how the layers of this story were masterfully revealed.

This is not a book I would typically read but I am so happy I did. This was such an intresting take on the La Llorona story. The main character went through so much and overcame so much. I really enjoyed this one.

This is a really good book if you like reading about a woman trying to find herself. It's a little dark and really interesting. Just not typically something that I would pick out for myself. I was looking for more horror and thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey/Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I first saw this book mentioned on booktok. A woman being haunted by La Llorona sounded so interesting I immediately put it on my TBR list.
I was a bit nervous though, as the parent of two young children, that the story was going to be a bit too much for me. I’m not usually a fan of suburban horror.
However, The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro was eye opening for me. It really helped me to unpack some mental health biases I hadn’t realized I had. As well as recognize some mental health issues of my own.
Alejandra’s experience raising young children in a new city with no family or friends nearby was extremely relatable. As was the generational trauma she was forced to unpack while learning to parent.
The chapter about her grandmother gave me a whole new perspective about my own Catholic grandmothers experience as a military wife in the 50’s/60’s.
I finished the book a few weeks ago and really had to sit with it. I wasn’t even sure how to write a review of it because so much was still going on in my head.
The thing that brought me to the book, La Llorona, ended up being such an after thought for me as I read the story. Alejandra, her ancestors and even her experience of learning about and working to reclaim her culture were all so familiar and relatable. This was a story I didn’t know I needed to read but I’m glad I did.
Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read the Haunting of Alejandra.