Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

36 reviews

lanternsjourney's review

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Haunting of Alejandra is not just another retelling of La Llorona. It is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about finding strength by listening to your inner voice. It's about intergenerational trauma that can only be healed with confrontation, learning, and acceptance. It's about how women have been suppressed by the patriarchy over the years and how they survived, or didn't survive, with all they endured. Encasing all of that is a spooky ghost story where we also meet a curandera, or a traditional Mexican healer. They only thing that could make this book better is a family tree in the front of it. I highly recommend giving this one a read!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Child death, Colonisation, Blood, Body horror, Abandonment, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

edevoe8891's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Child death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Misogyny, Colonisation, Miscarriage, and Medical trauma

inky_cap's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

V Castro is a master at her craft, exposing the deep wounds of generational trauma and showing how they fester. How generations of pain can meld demons that feast on its descendants, the only hope of exorcising the evil is by confronting it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, and Rape

simplyammee's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Colonisation, War, Abandonment, and Death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Blood, Animal death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery

ticktock's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Rape, Suicide attempt, Grief, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

catwhisperer's review

dark emotional reflective slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Pregnancy, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Violence

laurenbookwitchbitch's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I’ve been a big fan of V. Castro since reading “Goddess of Filth,” so I was very excited for this new, even longer horror novel. First off I mean look at this gorgeous cover! I adore a grotesque book filled with ghosts and blood that has bright pastel flowers on the cover, five stars for the illustration! Alejandra is a mother, wife and home-maker plagued by depression, anxiety and recurring nightmares of a woman in white whispering encouraging her to kill her children. As Alejandra’s terror increases, she begins to delve into her ancestry to discover a long lineage of women, who have had similar encounters w/ this demon masquerading as La Llrona.  This book does that thing where it switches POV and goes back and forth in time between the different ancestral women who also encounter this demon in a way that is hard to pull off seamlessly but Castro nails it! “The Haunting of Alejandra is dark, emotional, fraught, frightening and will threaten to devour your own soul. But like, in a way that makes it a fantastic horror reading experience! 

My only criticism of this book is that it very much equates womanhood with motherhood. 🙁😐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Death, Grief, Suicide attempt, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Gore

jessreadreceipts's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child death, Body horror, Blood, Suicide, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Racism, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Colonisation, Abandonment, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Car accident, and Infertility

thebookworm_queen's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

A powerful story of Alejandra, a stay at home mother, who is feeling broken. She experiences negative thoughts and emotions towards herself as well as her family. These negative thoughts are followed by whispers from a woman dressed in white, La Llorona. Alejandra is plagued by visions of the spirit and they grow more gruesome as she continues to strain from the pressures from home and those she loves. Castro wrote a vulnerable, chilling as well as feminist story featuring the legendary La Llorana to explore themes like motherhood and generational trauma.

Readers won’t be able to sleep because of this page turner that will have them questioning both what may be hiding in their closets and the lack of support provided to mothers throughout history.

FULL REVIEW at thebookwormqueen.com

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse

megandherbook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry, War, and Rape