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aklovekorn's review against another edition
dark
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
katlinmb's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Rape
hanarama's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Book at a Glance:
• Haunted house
• Gothic mystery
• Historic Mexico
• M/W pairing
• Witchcraft
• CWs: religious bigotry, racism, classism, colorism, blood, death, injury detail, psychological abuse, fire, sexual assault (mentioned), unwanted pregnancy (mentioned), abortion (mentioned)
Living in poverty following her father’s execution, Beatriz makes a bid for a better life by marrying the wealthy and handsome Don Rodolfo. Though his ancestral home San Isidro has seen better days, Beatriz is excited to begin repairs. She is confident that she can make the hacienda into a home for her and her mother.
However, San Isidro has more problems than general wear and tear. There is something possessing the land and which seems to hate Beatriz. Hunted by the darkness and pulled into the mysteries of San Isidro, Beatriz finds herself desperate for help. And the only person prepared to aid her is Padre Andrés, a strange priest whose history is also tied to the hacienda.
The Hacienda hits a lot of the typical gothic tropes. For people that love gothic stories, I think there will be a lot to love here. The feeling of isolation, the haunted house, dark family secrets, all play prominently within the story. However, it felt weak overall. Cañas does some things well, but struggles in others.
The atmosphere is beautifully written. Cañas crafts really beautiful scenes, with salient imagery that builds upon the emotions of the characters. As a result, San Isidro feels particularly lively, with even the weather reacting in accordance to the hacienda’s whims.
I have a soft spot for desert gothics. There’s something so isolating and haunting about dry expanses of rural deserts, and I am so happy that more authors are using this environment for their gothic tales.
Unfortunately, I did find the story really slow. I think this is in part due to Cañas’ over reliance on her prose. It felt like there was an inability to match the prose to the energy needed in every scene. As a result, scenes sometimes dragged much more than they should have. There were also descriptors that got overused. For example, emotions were often described as “curling” within a character’s chest/stomach/whatever. After the description occurred twice within one chapter, I found it distracting anytime I came across it.
The characters were mostly likeable, though I had issues with both of the leads. Of the two, Andrés is the more compelling. Cañas slowly reveals his backstory through flashbacks, making him feel more integral to the mystery. However, I don’t think he should have been a POV character as I felt like his knowledge of the situation took away from the danger. Further, I felt like his abilities made the haunting too easily solved.
Beatriz is better suited as a gothic protagonist, but often feels uninteresting when compared to Andrés. It felt like there wasn’t much to her personality beyond her initial desire to fix up the property. I also wasn’t very interested in their budding relationship. It didn’t add much to the story for me, and highlighted the issues I had with Beatriz as a character. Andrés frequently expounds her virtues, which weren’t really illustrated through the story. Overall, she just feels like a pretty face without a lot of personality or development.
The mystery was also fairly lackluster. I would have preferred for there to be a little more ambiguity with the mystery, which for how slowly it was developed reached a fairly manic end. This can be done well, but here it felt at odds with the rest of the story.
• Haunted house
• Gothic mystery
• Historic Mexico
• M/W pairing
• Witchcraft
• CWs: religious bigotry, racism, classism, colorism, blood, death, injury detail, psychological abuse, fire, sexual assault (mentioned), unwanted pregnancy (mentioned), abortion (mentioned)
Living in poverty following her father’s execution, Beatriz makes a bid for a better life by marrying the wealthy and handsome Don Rodolfo. Though his ancestral home San Isidro has seen better days, Beatriz is excited to begin repairs. She is confident that she can make the hacienda into a home for her and her mother.
However, San Isidro has more problems than general wear and tear. There is something possessing the land and which seems to hate Beatriz. Hunted by the darkness and pulled into the mysteries of San Isidro, Beatriz finds herself desperate for help. And the only person prepared to aid her is Padre Andrés, a strange priest whose history is also tied to the hacienda.
The Hacienda hits a lot of the typical gothic tropes. For people that love gothic stories, I think there will be a lot to love here. The feeling of isolation, the haunted house, dark family secrets, all play prominently within the story. However, it felt weak overall. Cañas does some things well, but struggles in others.
The atmosphere is beautifully written. Cañas crafts really beautiful scenes, with salient imagery that builds upon the emotions of the characters. As a result, San Isidro feels particularly lively, with even the weather reacting in accordance to the hacienda’s whims.
I have a soft spot for desert gothics. There’s something so isolating and haunting about dry expanses of rural deserts, and I am so happy that more authors are using this environment for their gothic tales.
Unfortunately, I did find the story really slow. I think this is in part due to Cañas’ over reliance on her prose. It felt like there was an inability to match the prose to the energy needed in every scene. As a result, scenes sometimes dragged much more than they should have. There were also descriptors that got overused. For example, emotions were often described as “curling” within a character’s chest/stomach/whatever. After the description occurred twice within one chapter, I found it distracting anytime I came across it.
The characters were mostly likeable, though I had issues with both of the leads. Of the two, Andrés is the more compelling. Cañas slowly reveals his backstory through flashbacks, making him feel more integral to the mystery. However, I don’t think he should have been a POV character as I felt like his knowledge of the situation took away from the danger. Further, I felt like his abilities made the haunting too easily solved.
Beatriz is better suited as a gothic protagonist, but often feels uninteresting when compared to Andrés. It felt like there wasn’t much to her personality beyond her initial desire to fix up the property. I also wasn’t very interested in their budding relationship. It didn’t add much to the story for me, and highlighted the issues I had with Beatriz as a character. Andrés frequently expounds her virtues, which weren’t really illustrated through the story. Overall, she just feels like a pretty face without a lot of personality or development.
The mystery was also fairly lackluster. I would have preferred for there to be a little more ambiguity with the mystery, which for how slowly it was developed reached a fairly manic end. This can be done well, but here it felt at odds with the rest of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
Moderate: Sexual assault, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Minor: War
suz_n_van's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Violence and Gaslighting
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual violence, Abortion, and Alcohol
erandle's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
Minor: Rape, Abortion, Pregnancy, and War
thelittlestmermaid's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War
rorikae's review against another edition
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
4.0
'The Hacienda' by Isabel Cañas is a haunted house tale reminiscent of Rebecca and The Little Stranger.
Fleeing unfortunate circumstances, Beatriz arrives at Hacienda San Isidro, the new bride of Don Rodolfo. Hoping to find respite from her previous life, Beatriz instead finds a house haunted by Rodolfo's last wife. She begins to see strange things that disappear when she turns around. Confiding in the local priest, she begins to learn more about the late mistress of the house and why her spirit may still haunt the walls.
Cañas has written an incredibly evocative haunted house tale that builds off of previous works like Rebecca and Bluebeard to create something new yet familiar. The strongest part of this story is the atmosphere. As Beatriz explores the Hacienda, we get to see through her eyes apparent horrors and frights. Unlike Rebecca, these haunts are more overt though the watching eye of the former wife is an important piece of the story.
The narrative weaves between two narratives, Beatriz's and the local priest, who has had run ins with the house before as well as its past mistress. This did a good job of keeping the mystery through Beatriz's eyes while also peppering in insight from the priest.
Despite a really strong story, I did feel that the ending fell a bit flat. It didn't live up to the incredible atmosphere of the rest of the book and ultimately, Beatriz did far less than the story felt like it was setting her up for, which was a letdown. Even so, the atmosphere of this book is great and I think it would be interesting to see an in-depth piece that looks at it in the light of haunted house tales, especially those that deal with dead wives.
Fleeing unfortunate circumstances, Beatriz arrives at Hacienda San Isidro, the new bride of Don Rodolfo. Hoping to find respite from her previous life, Beatriz instead finds a house haunted by Rodolfo's last wife. She begins to see strange things that disappear when she turns around. Confiding in the local priest, she begins to learn more about the late mistress of the house and why her spirit may still haunt the walls.
Cañas has written an incredibly evocative haunted house tale that builds off of previous works like Rebecca and Bluebeard to create something new yet familiar. The strongest part of this story is the atmosphere. As Beatriz explores the Hacienda, we get to see through her eyes apparent horrors and frights. Unlike Rebecca, these haunts are more overt though the watching eye of the former wife is an important piece of the story.
The narrative weaves between two narratives, Beatriz's and the local priest, who has had run ins with the house before as well as its past mistress. This did a good job of keeping the mystery through Beatriz's eyes while also peppering in insight from the priest.
Despite a really strong story, I did feel that the ending fell a bit flat. It didn't live up to the incredible atmosphere of the rest of the book and ultimately, Beatriz did far less than the story felt like it was setting her up for, which was a letdown. Even so, the atmosphere of this book is great and I think it would be interesting to see an in-depth piece that looks at it in the light of haunted house tales, especially those that deal with dead wives.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Rape and Pregnancy
aromarrie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
i rarely read haunted house stories and there was never a concrete reason for it, maybe just for the fact that i never came across one that brought alive a house with so much visual and pure feeling as this one did, and it wasn’t until isabel cañas put this book out to the world that i found the it factor that makes for a perfect haunted house story for me.
the energy in this book was absolutely electric and haunted the hell out of me as i was reading it in the daylight, so slow-moving in the way the darkness teased at beatriz and then suddenly knocked her off her feet until she was left reeling. the main characters beatriz & padre andrés had such compelling voices that each brought forth the reverence and darkness that Hacienda San Isidro evoked, and their dynamic only further ignited my interest in this story as we saw how their individual personal journeys connected in this gothic horror.
the author’s themes reflecting the horror that the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain resulted in was very visceral as it struck on the classism that was at such dangerous levels, striking a wall between those of the lower class that were left with so much grief & little money after the war while the upper classes had their huge houses out on the country to lavish in with more money. the women, especially, being left to hold the forte as their men hovered around the capital or had been left for dead created this imbalance in power that ultimately shifted a large part of this story.
this is also what made beatriz’ role hit so hard because here she is in the beginning, entering herself into a loveless marriage simply for the sake of finding solid footing for herself & her mother after the loss of the patriarch. even though we didn’t see much of her mom in the present, the relationship beatriz shares with her was read with so much love and care as beatriz was so desperate to try and make things better for the both of them after this war took away any source of stability. seeing the way she took on San Isidro and relied on the guidance her father gave during his time as general added a strength to her character that near the end completely swept me away. even more so was seeing how even in all that power she collected for herself, she still was beaten down and left barely standing.
and padre andrés was left no good either, as his own powers as a witch leave him at an impasse as we see him struggle over what’s right and what’s not when handling his powers and the darkness he carried with it, when all he wants is to be able to protect his own family. the relationship he shared with his Titi was also something where her presence stuck firmly to the past and yet in the present, every bit of her guidance and nurture towards him followed andrés with each step he took forward.
seeing how he & beatriz navigated this darkness that faced them together made for a very tense but also thrilling reading journey because the stakes felt so high and yet there was no chaos that reigned but just simply silence—silence that was then suddenly interrupted by the furious knocking of doors and rushing footsteps that followed after the peering of bright red eyes glowing in the dark. the fear that both beatriz & andrés felt was as harrowing as it was personal, as it connected me even more to the story than i could’ve ever hoped for, and i loved every bit of it.
the energy in this book was absolutely electric and haunted the hell out of me as i was reading it in the daylight, so slow-moving in the way the darkness teased at beatriz and then suddenly knocked her off her feet until she was left reeling. the main characters beatriz & padre andrés had such compelling voices that each brought forth the reverence and darkness that Hacienda San Isidro evoked, and their dynamic only further ignited my interest in this story as we saw how their individual personal journeys connected in this gothic horror.
the author’s themes reflecting the horror that the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain resulted in was very visceral as it struck on the classism that was at such dangerous levels, striking a wall between those of the lower class that were left with so much grief & little money after the war while the upper classes had their huge houses out on the country to lavish in with more money. the women, especially, being left to hold the forte as their men hovered around the capital or had been left for dead created this imbalance in power that ultimately shifted a large part of this story.
this is also what made beatriz’ role hit so hard because here she is in the beginning, entering herself into a loveless marriage simply for the sake of finding solid footing for herself & her mother after the loss of the patriarch. even though we didn’t see much of her mom in the present, the relationship beatriz shares with her was read with so much love and care as beatriz was so desperate to try and make things better for the both of them after this war took away any source of stability. seeing the way she took on San Isidro and relied on the guidance her father gave during his time as general added a strength to her character that near the end completely swept me away. even more so was seeing how even in all that power she collected for herself, she still was beaten down and left barely standing.
and padre andrés was left no good either, as his own powers as a witch leave him at an impasse as we see him struggle over what’s right and what’s not when handling his powers and the darkness he carried with it, when all he wants is to be able to protect his own family. the relationship he shared with his Titi was also something where her presence stuck firmly to the past and yet in the present, every bit of her guidance and nurture towards him followed andrés with each step he took forward.
seeing how he & beatriz navigated this darkness that faced them together made for a very tense but also thrilling reading journey because the stakes felt so high and yet there was no chaos that reigned but just simply silence—silence that was then suddenly interrupted by the furious knocking of doors and rushing footsteps that followed after the peering of bright red eyes glowing in the dark. the fear that both beatriz & andrés felt was as harrowing as it was personal, as it connected me even more to the story than i could’ve ever hoped for, and i loved every bit of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Colonisation, and Classism
lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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? No
4.25
Rebecca meets Crimson Peak. Remarkable gothic horror that doesn’t shy away from hard topics of colonialism and racism in the wake of Mexico’s War of Independence. There’s also a hot priest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Racism, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death of parent