SPOILERS
This was a great spooky book to read around Halloween! It was a little heavier than I expected, in that it deals with depression, generational trauma and coming to terms with yourself, all in the guise of a haunted demon. I thought the character of Alejandra was well written, and I liked how the author switched back and forth between characters and time periods. Clearly, she was going for the generational trauma but also the power that comes from linked generations of women, and I appreciated her exploring what this meant for Alejandra's lineage.
I don't usually get scared while reading, but I found the demon to be very scary and I'm glad the characters were able to defeat it in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Alejandra is a housewife and mother of three who is beginning to have visions of a woman in white. She sees her through the persistent steam of a warm shower. Then there's some kind of demon tearing apart a bird in her backyard. Suddenly she realizes her daughter is seeing something too. Then, her son. She's also plagued by intrusive thoughts about how worthless she is as mother. What a terrible person she is. How she should just give up. Die.

The creature itself has a voice. Describes itself as coming from a different world and arriving among inferior humans who are self-destructive and ripe for preying upon. Beginning with one desperate woman's attempt to save her child from the brutality of colonialism, a generational curse is born that feeds on the despair of women and their children.

The shifting perspectives of Alejandra's female ancestors and their stories fuels the tension of the story. I really enjoyed the creative storyline exploring motherhood, the role of women throughout history, and the effect of colonialism on everyday lives.

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

I really wanted to love this one, but it just wasn't what I expected. I think the premise is great, and the horror is (for the most part) well-done, but the book itself falls flat. I do think with some editing and some polishing this could still end up being a good book, but as it currently stands (unpublished, expected out in April), it needs some work.

The good:
*I thought that the monster was really well done! The descriptions of it and its actions were genuinely creepy. The little segments at the end of the flashback chapters where we learned more about its origins were interesting.
*The premise itself is very interesting. The idea of a monster preying on generations of women, and the cultural aspects from Mexico that were brought in were interesting, and I wish there had been more of them.

The less good:
*I found the dialogue really stilted and awkward throughout (no one in real life actually talks like the people in this book). There were a lot of weird monologues that very much felt out of place, and all of the therapy parts felt like they were copied straight out of a psychology textbook example conversation. Pretty much whenever the characters were having a serious conversation I got pulled straight out of the story because of how awkward the dialog felt.
*I felt like this relied a lot on body horror, lots of descriptions of periods and childbirth and general female pain, which is fine, but not my cup of tea. (TW for rape, blood, and suicide throughout)
*The alternating chapter structure could use some work. The ancestor stories aren't chronological so you don't really get a good grasp on how the generational trauma is building.
*The final flashback chapter, featuring the original La Llorona, felt tacked on at the end, kind of like an afterthought. It didn't feel necessary.
*The pace of the book was very slow. A lot of time was spent on Alejandra's mental state, which was fine, but it really felt repetitive and boring after awhile. A book this length would normally take me about a week to finish, but this took me over a month because I just wasn't invested enough to want to pick it up and keep reading.

Thanks netgalley and penguin for letting me read and review this book!

Alejandra thinks she is losing her mind- in her desperation and depression she is thinking of hurting her herlf and her children, and seeing a ghostly apparition of a woman in white. When her children are also affected by this spirit, she seeks help from a therapist/curandera and her mother to destroy the spirit and take back control and her life.

This book was a struggle for me. The prose and dialogue didn't flow in a way that seemed natural to me, which made it hard for me to fully commit to the story. The idea of generational trauma and curses effecting a family was very interesting, and the role of melanie as a curandera/therapist was fantastic, but it wasnt enough to make the rest enjoyable for me.

I really wanted to like this. I've read many tales of La Llorona, and reading the summary of this book where the protagonist's story loosely relates to that of the woman in white? Sold. But I struggled to get through this.

The storyline had potential, but I did not like the author's writing style at all. There was little to no buildup to certain scenes where there should have been some (the very few "horror" scenes), and other parts of the book were agonizingly dragged out--I don't need to read paragraph after paragraph of the main character Marie Kondo-ing her possessions in a supposed horror novel. I was bored after the first few chapters.

The idea behind the story is great--a badass woman finding herself and rediscovering her culture? Great. But the execution was subpar in my opinion. I would recommend this novel for anyone who has lost themselves and is on the verge of breaking up with their sh*tty husband but would not recommend to anyone looking to read a horror novel--because this isn't one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

2/5 stars

“The Haunting of Alejandra” is a creepy and sad little story packed full of themes, messages, and ideas it wants and needs you to know. For the most part it’s successful, but it does feel often heavy handed in its execution and overstuffed despite its shortness. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is awkward making all the human interactions fall flat. Alejandra’s husband is written more as a caricature of a bad husband as opposed to a normal human. Sometimes it feels as if the author doesn’t trust us to understand the story and its themes so she has to hammer us over the head with them. Also the time jumps killed the momentum of the story and all felt similar. I still enjoyed the book, but it was somewhat underwhelming. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

📖 Book Review: The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

The cover of this book is absolutely stunning and the description sounds so cool - a mother who is being haunted by La Llorona.

This book is labeled horror and I suppose I can see why, because there is an overall creepy aspect to it, and some of the events that transpire with the creature qualify, but overall this doesn’t feel like a horror book. The main theme of this book is generational trauma and breaking cycles to embrace and love the self. It’s very therapy-heavy which doesn’t necessarily bother me because y’all know I LOVE THERAPY, but it just felt a bit like a bait and switch when I was expecting a horror novel.

Also, before the action picks up and the protagonist goes to therapy, the pacing is incredibly slow and Alejandra is really hard to root for. I get that she is in the depths of her depression, but it felt like a slog until she started really unpacking her shit.

I am also not entirely sure how I feel about the multiple perspectives in this book! The chapters that are added in from the past in the bloodline and from the creature’s perspective feel like they could have been incorporated better.

Overall, I did see it through and ended up rooting for Alejandra as she saw her journey to its end, but I don’t know that I’d recommend this book to others. I gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 because maybe it’s not my jam but I do see how others could really like it.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When the reader first meets Alejandra, she is very unhappy and struggling in a darkness of which she cannot escape. She is a mother and is in a marriage she has outgrown but doesn’t have the courage to leave.

One day an apparition appears, encouraging her to harm herself. This figure becomes bolder and more physical. Her children start seeing it as well.

Always keenly interested in her genealogy, it’s through therapy that Alejandra finds the strength to begin to explore her past in earnest. She learns that this demon has haunted each of her female ancestors. Very early on, an ancestor had promised her bloodline to it.

This is a modern retelling of the Mexican folk demon, La Llorona as well as a story of the power of female strength and bonding. Through the terror, Alejandra finds the strength and courage to battle the demon and find her way out of the darkness into the light.

This was my first read from this author and will not be my last!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 50%. This book follows Alejandra, a burnt-out mother of three children who starts seeing La Llarona. I got really into it and really enjoyed Alejandra, but I quickly lost my interest. This was mainly due to the dialogue. EVERY CONVERSATION in this book feels extremely fake and unnatural. Characters would not have normal reactions to things. People would either be completely unfazed or overreact for no reason. And they would move on in conversations without completing it, a lot of times it didn’t make sense. There was a lot of telling how characters felt, but I didn’t understand because it wasn’t shown. Another thing I didn’t really like was La Llarona. It’s actually a fine plot point, but there would be chapters without an appearance. It started off with lots of appearances and it made sense, but then it seems like it was forgotten to Alejandra. I wish there were more ghost appearances. Overall, it started off great but then it became unbearable, at least for me. Thanks for NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.

The Haunting of Alejandra is an extremely spooky, creepy, yet even slightly familiar read. This is a story of family, love, strength, and heart as much as it is a haunting and horror story.

The story develops as many do but it uniquely goes back and forth through time and experience and allows the reader to connect with Alejandra as well as many different generations of her family. Each family member as a voice and a part of the story in some aspect and in doing so makes this so much creepier. The horror has roots, spans time, and has a deep hold; and if that doesn’t make the readers hairs stand on end, I don’t know what would.

The legend of La Lalorna is brilliantly written and folded throughout the story. The foundation and the rules are set but also there is a strong women foundation that plays so nicely as the balance. As a woman I can connect to every aspect of this haunting story even if I haven’t yet experienced certain life milestones. The emotions this haunting pulled out of me were both expected and surprising.

The ending was stiller and a hit on every level. If you want a family story, a haunting. horror, and strong women, this is your story! I received an ARC via NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballentine and I am leaving my an review.

This story was terrifying, riveting, and left me unable to read it at night!

Alejandra is being haunted, but she isn't sure whether it's by an ancient being or herself. She has a perfect life that anyone would dream of having. A good husband who provides for her every need, three beautiful and healthy children, and her only job is to keep the family together. She should be overjoyed in life and yet, Alejandra can't help feeling like she's drowning.
Alejandra was left as a baby by her birth mother and raised in an Evangelical household so she doesn't believe in demons or evil spirits. However, she now fears for her mental health because she keeps seeing the form of a woman near surfaces of water and in her dreams they tell her horrible things that confirm her own troubled thoughts.

This story not only follows Alejandra, but generations of women in her family who deal with the weight of what it means to be a woman in a world of beastly men. I loved how this story blended old Spanish folklore about La Llorona, but then made it something completely different and even more terrifying. It tackles generational trauma, specifically for Mexican Americans, but I feel that anyone who has family that left their native homeland will find this relatable. This story though stayed true to the horror aspect and the way it was written made it easy to visualize every horrific scene. I can easily see this book being adapted into a tv series or film, and I would be sitting there front row!

Pick this up for a horrifying time that will have you looking over your shoulder at night!


(I'll post my favorite quotes and my moments when this book gets released)


*Thank you Netgalley and RandomHouse Publishing for an early e-copy in return for an honest review*

The cover is absolutely magnificent. The author is a beautiful writer. The plot and story were good but this was just not something I enjoyed myself. I feel as if others may really enjoy it! It was pretty slow for me and I feel like it was drawn out. Creepy for sure I really enjoyed that aspect. Thank you for letting me read it!

I was captivated by the cover but the story just wasn't for me. I had a hard time reading this one. thank you netgalley & the publisher for the arc, in exchange for an honest review.

I will not lie, the first thing that got my attention was the cover. The story is about a chicana, a mother of three who finds herself tormented by something. She is relatable and the author does a great job at making you want to help her through her struggles. The story starts a bit slow and somewhat repetitive but once you get into it, you are deep in it and will not want to put it down until all answers have been found. It goes back and forth, telling Alejandras story and the women in her past. I found this to be extremely interesting as it talked about each woman's struggle in their era. The tale of La Llorona is explored and as someone with a Latin background I was very spooked out while reading this. One of my favorite books and in my opinion a must read when published.

I want to thank Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

***(This review will be posted on Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/jrobrien99) on October 14, 2022.)

“Sometimes in life we have to endure the death of others and the death of parts of ourselves. But it is just transformation.”

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for sending me a galley of this book for review. It really was the perfect book to read during Spooky Season.

This book is very heavy with trigger warnings. There are explicit mentions of self-harm, suicide, and depression. Please be mindful of these themes going into the book.

The most basic plot of The Haunting of Alejandra is exactly what the title says. A Chicana mother is haunted by La Llorona, a haunting figure of Mexican folklore who is drawn to women in distress. However, this book alternates chapters between Alejandra’s story and other women throughout Mexican history.

There are wonderful conversations about generational trauma and female grief. The reader follows these women through time and experiences their pain firsthand. La Llorona is a symbolic representation of this female grief, so using that folk tale as the medium to discuss generational pain is an effective one. There are also enlightening discussions about Mexican culture and their relationship to death, specifically Día de los Muertos, La Catrina, and of course, La Llorona.

The Haunting of Alejandra also explores generational relationships between women. We see the relationship Alejandra has with her birth mother, having been adopted at an early age. The protagonist also struggles with connecting with her own daughters. It is a wonderful expression of female relationships and communication between generations.

The issues that I have with this novel stem mainly from the writing style. We are given very little exposition before the first interaction with the apparition, which comes literally on page 2. After that, a great deal of the exposition the reader is given is just explicitly stated instead of shown. For example, Castro tells the reader Alejandra has been having strange dreams and describes them in detail, instead of allowing Alejandra to experience a dream for herself and bring the reader along with her.

There just tends to be an over-saturation of description and internal characterization as well. The reader understands that Alejandra is not in a good state of mind and struggling with depression – we don’t need to be reminded of it every other sentence. It seems that almost every object she looks at is a cause for reflection about her mental state. I wish there was more characterization through dialogue instead of such internal reflection.

The supernatural elements were also not as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. This apparition and “creature” sometimes has its own POV in the stories, which was a bit confusing for me at times. It seemed a bit all over the place, and I wish that it would have been more of an ethereal specter that the reader was also afraid of. Because we saw into its mind, I was not scared of it because I knew its motivation.

The book definitely improved as it went on – it was a bit difficult for me to get into at the beginning. I found that I was more interested and invested in the stories that weren’t Alejandra’s sadly. The little snippets of other womens’ stories were more interesting to me than the protagonist, which makes me wonder if this book would function better as a short story collection.

Overall, The Haunting of Alejandra has great themes and is an important dive into Chicana generational trauma, mental health issues, and dealing with grief. I learned a lot from this book, as it showed me a perspective on a culture I am personally unfamiliar with. However, the writing style and sometimes shaky plot kept me from investing fully into the characters and story. 3/5 stars.

In October, I like to get into the spirit of things and read something spooky. Fortunately, publishers and promoters who participate in the Netgalley program have noticed. I recently received an offer to review a book by one such promoter. Without further ado, I present a review of V. Castro’s The Haunting of Alejandra.
Alejandra feels like she is losing her mind. She knows she has lost her identity. An adopted child, Alejandra has always tried to please those in her life and her husband is no exception. Ever since marrying Matthew, she has done everything to please him, with one exception – after the third child, she had her tubes tied. Otherwise, she has always dropped everything to please her husband. She left her job to take care of their children for him. After finding her mother through a family tree DNA testing site and establishing a connection with her, Alejandra found herself moving from Texas to Philadelphia to better Matthew’s career. In the process, Alejandra has lost her career, her mother, and any connection to her Mexican roots.
But now, she is starting to see and hear things she can’t explain…things that make her feel less…things that make her want to cease to exist. Little does Alejandra know that a demon has attached itself to her bloodline. The demon presents itself as La Llorona, a white-veiled woman of Mexican legend who drowned her children so she could be with her new lover only to discover that her actions would push him away. The demon feeds on pain and anguish and relishes the day when it can feed on Alejandra’s soul and that of her daughter and her daughter’s daughters. Always with her, the demon has become stronger thanks to Alejandra’s stress and depression over her move to Philadelphia.
But Alejandra is perhaps stronger than the demon believes, seeking help from a therapist and curandera (healer who uses folk remedies). The help she receives causes the demon to become angry, retaliating through her children. Alejandra refuses to allow La Llorona to continue to terrorize her children and will do whatever it takes to end this stain on her bloodline. With the help of her therapist, her mother, and her strong female ancestors, Alejandra sets out on a journey to defeat this demon and banish it from her bloodline forever, but will the fight be too much for her to bear?
The Haunting of Alejandra offers up something different from what I usually read when it comes to horror. This is not your average ghost tale. When I first started the novel, I thought that Alejandra’s new home was haunted, but it was actually Alejandra herself that had a demon attached to her…and not just to her, but to most of the females in her bloodline. Now, that’s a terrifying thought! V. Castro uses Mexican folklore to weave a horrific tale of demonic attachment that results in extreme depression followed by a soul-sucking death that continues on past the original soul, consuming every descendant it can mark. Castro’s descriptiveness allows the reader to visualize the entire tale and her use of flashbacks helps tie the whole mystery behind this demonic attachment together. I loved the inclusion of Mexican folklore into this tale. I don't know enough about this culture's folklore except for a bit about Dios de los Muertos, so I can honestly say that V. Castro has done quite a bit to further my knowledge in the subject.
The story is fast-paced and the eventual battle between Alejandra and her demon is edge-of-your seat stuff. Though I felt the battle was awesome, the epilogue left a bit to be desired. That being said, I enjoyed what I read – a fast paced novel with some nasty scares and a formidable demon that presents itself as a thing of legends. The Haunting of Alejandra was so enjoyable, I completed it in a week’s time. Definitely a nice addition to my horror collection.

I really like the premise. La Llorona is always an interesting tale to explore, and The Haunting of Alejandra tells it beautifully in this generational saga. The plot is good. It’s the writing style that made me struggle to finish. The first chapter feels extremely redundant. We get it, Alejandra is miserable. She is stuck with a miserable husband, she’s lonely, and her kids give her a hard time. She is a deep and relatable main character, but so much of this book is how much her life sucks and it’s almost unbearable. The use of metaphors throughout is odd. If her heart was outside her chest it would sound like a car crash… really?

I really wanted to love this book - it sounded like the perfect spooky season read! But it just wasn't for me. I had a hard time with the writing, the conversations didn't feel natural and I couldn't stay engaged. The story of La Llorona was interesting and the horror aspects were great, I just didn't love it as much as I was hoping to.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC!

Alejandra is married with three young children, but she is struggling finding satisfaction with her life. She is becoming lost in a personal darkness and despair. But one evening when she feels at her lowest, she sees a ghastly woman in a white dress weeping, encouraging her to embrace her feelings. She begins to see a therapist and explore her family history, discovering that the despair and tragedy may be linked to something much darker than she first thought.

This was such a cool idea for a book, following multigenerational trauma and struggles using La Llorona lore. The author included many fascinating cultural details and was able to seamlessly incorporate Alejandra’s personal history and some Mexican folklore/history. This was the strongest aspect of the book and the part that I most enjoyed.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to engage with this work. The author’s writing style was bland – there was a use of repetitive sentence structure, which became a huge problem due to the massive chunks of exposition this book is made up of. Even the dialogue was often large monologues that overexplained things in a way that felt absurd. The dialogue was stilted and somewhat formal, making it feel forced and unrealistic. There were also large sections of introspection by different characters, which while adding to their depth, didn’t do so in a smooth or meaningful way, making it feel like a chore to read. Related to this, the author told more than showed, adding to the disconnect. All of this took away from any amount of fright I might have felt at the monster and made it where there were only a few parts that were slightly suspenseful.

We were given so much information about Alejandra and why she was feeling what she was, but despite all this, she never felt alive. There was no emotional connection there and nothing that made her feel like more than some pages in a book, which was disappointing. The other characters were similar – despite having chapters from their POV, they all felt like they were lacking life and any real connection.

I was disappointed by this read, especially as I didn’t find this to be scary. This book has potential but needs some definite reworking. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read and review this work, which will be published April 18th, 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received this book at the very end of August and have been taking my time with it. I wanted to enjoy the story and not speed read it to hit a yearly reading goal. That being said, I loved this book from start to finish.

What can I say about The Haunting of Alejandra?

It’s dark. It’s painful. It’s a generational curse. But it’s also about Alejandra’s personal struggles. I personally believe a lot of people will relate to Alejandra’s mental health in this book. It’s a really well written display of postpartum depression and loss of identity after having children. V.castro’s writing constantly reminds us that Alejandra loves her children, but laments about losing herself and her interests in the process of raising them. That, plus a useless husband who berates her for not being happy with the comfortable life that he’s “given” her only adds fire to the fuel. This is a horror book but it’s more than just a ghost story. It’s a woman struggle with taking care of herself.

Castro takes the tale of La Llorona and makes it her own in this story. Using the imagery of La Llorana, she’s created a horror that lingers with you after you’ve finished the book. She created a being that’s been pursuing Alejandra’s family for generations with a hunger that can’t be satisfied. The moments of horror are full of gore and suspense, especially with the final confrontation at the end. Usually, i find multiple POVs a little too much after awhile but because all of the POVs were connected to Alejandra in some way, it really showed how this creature has impacted the women through the years.

This was a beautiful book and I think V. Castro deserves all the praise she’s getting already for this. This book doesn’t come out until April 18, 2023 but I was very kindly given a digital ARC through Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine. Thank you for the early access and all opinions are my own. V. Castro is one of my favorite authors and I loved this.