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lareske's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
harriett4's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
chaiteaandbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you to PRH Audio for the copy, all thoughts are my own.
Haunting is absolutely the exact word I would use to describe this story. This story takes depression and post-partum to a new level, adding in supernatural entities into a familial line of cursed women. V Castro takes absolutely normal feelings in motherhood and adds in outside forces that amplify them. I wasn't prepared for the turn this took with the La Llorna story, but I'm not mad about it. Overall a good listen.
Alejandra has 3 children who she loves very much, but is constantly overwhelmed with. Her spouse is not a partner, and is no help. They moved away from her birth mother not long after she found her. But she needs help. She seeks out a therapist who might be able to help. Because she is seeing things. Things that shouldn't be there. Things that are telling her to do terrible things. And it's time she stood up to the things she is seeing.
Haunting is absolutely the exact word I would use to describe this story. This story takes depression and post-partum to a new level, adding in supernatural entities into a familial line of cursed women. V Castro takes absolutely normal feelings in motherhood and adds in outside forces that amplify them. I wasn't prepared for the turn this took with the La Llorna story, but I'm not mad about it. Overall a good listen.
Alejandra has 3 children who she loves very much, but is constantly overwhelmed with. Her spouse is not a partner, and is no help. They moved away from her birth mother not long after she found her. But she needs help. She seeks out a therapist who might be able to help. Because she is seeing things. Things that shouldn't be there. Things that are telling her to do terrible things. And it's time she stood up to the things she is seeing.
mericat's review
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
sheepinthenight's review
Alejandra is one of the most annoying characters ever. She’s a weak willed woman with no personality and La Llorona is just shoe horned into to the story the myth and culture don’t matter at all. The dialogue is unnatural and out of place and all the characters are the same. This author one has one voice and all the characters sound and act exactly the same. I personally feel like this author is very out of touch with the culture she’s writing about because her writing doesn’t show any deep understanding of the topics she brings up
literarygoblin's review
This book felt like such a waste of my time. It was advertised as something totally different from what it actually is, no one in this book has any characterization, the horror was nonexistent, and there were all these half-baked ideas that became jumbled together. Castro has a repetitive narrative style that's very boring, and quite unsuited to horror. This book is more of a contemporary with dashes of mild horror elements, but even then it doesn't do contemporary very well either. Really turned off from even giving this author another go after trying to read this.
tatyanavogt's review
4.0
So I wasn't sure at first. Not a fan of some of the way things were talked about BUT I liked the conversations and the direction that the story went. The farther I got into it the more I enjoyed it.
moth_dance's review
5.0
Visceral, in all the ways that also turn out to be therapeutic and revolutionary. Reading this felt like a screaming circle of women from past, present, and future.
V. is quite simply my favorite contemporary author of the decade. Just like my favorite contemporary author of previous decades, [a:Francesca Lia Block|9072|Francesca Lia Block|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530045619p2/9072.jpg], I find myself in these stories, and by extension I learn about others so much more too.
There are so many lines in this book that took my breath away, so many moments that helped soothe my own trauma (I'm childfree by choice for life, but I have mother-wounds that refuse to heal). The connective tissue of learning about and utilizing therapy with magic for a Latinx woman was exceptionally represented, too.
Mothers are hard for me to connect with--as mentioned above, I have mother-wounds and actively fight for my right to not carry/birth/raise a child--but I felt myself empathizing, screaming, crying, laughing, and loving Alejandra and her kids throughout the entire story.
I hope V. continues to bend genres and represent all aspects of Latinx life.
V. is quite simply my favorite contemporary author of the decade. Just like my favorite contemporary author of previous decades, [a:Francesca Lia Block|9072|Francesca Lia Block|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530045619p2/9072.jpg], I find myself in these stories, and by extension I learn about others so much more too.
There are so many lines in this book that took my breath away, so many moments that helped soothe my own trauma (I'm childfree by choice for life, but I have mother-wounds that refuse to heal). The connective tissue of learning about and utilizing therapy with magic for a Latinx woman was exceptionally represented, too.
Mothers are hard for me to connect with--as mentioned above, I have mother-wounds and actively fight for my right to not carry/birth/raise a child--but I felt myself empathizing, screaming, crying, laughing, and loving Alejandra and her kids throughout the entire story.
I hope V. continues to bend genres and represent all aspects of Latinx life.
hat_hanna's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75