Reviews with content warning for Death - Donde termina la noche

it's definitely a book.

overall, this book isn't offensive and it's not bad by any means: either i went into this book with different expectations or the execution could've been better.

CONS:

the author focused way too much on the Romance, and I wasn't expecting that but maybe that's on me if I didn't read the synopsis correctly. Beatriz and Andres are kind of cute but also they basically just trauma bonded and they don't know much about each other so i couldn't root for them and i didn't care about them until the very end

as for the 'horror' part of this book, we kept hearing how bad all these people were but we didn't see any of it until the end. we were told the Solorzanos are so bad but we're not shown much of it, and what we are shown goes by in a flash and it doesn't leave a lasting impression. it is also shown right at the very end, which would've been fine if we were taken along for the ride and didn't know they were bad from literally day 1.

sure some dark stuff happens before our story
Catalina and Mariana's death, and the assaults from Rodolfo
but with the descriptions given by the author, I didn't feel the creepiness or the eeriness of what Beatriz was feeling in the Hacienda and while reading it was hard to feel like she was in any real danger.
if it was all in her head, she was letting the entity in and she had the power to not experience all the hallucinations then what was the point ??? the only thing she had to do was grow a pair ??? some confidence could've solved all our problems, lol ok

how am i supposed to care that she wants to be with her mom at the end over her hunky man if we didn't see that relationship? I have no emotional tie to Beatriz's love for her mom, and sure it kinda made sense, but I just didn't care

there were parts that felt like they dragged on and it would've worked better with 100 less pages

PROS:

the final 1/3 was definitely the best part for me: it was finally fun, we finally saw more of people's dark side, it felt like we were getting somewhere and this is when i started to feel tense and oh my gosh is she going to be okay? I did like Beatriz's friendship with Paloma: honestly that was the best thing about this book for me and I was definitely more scared for Paloma than for our MC

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Thanks to PRH Audio for the free copy of this book.

- If you read REBECCA and wished it was about a literal haunting instead of a psychological one, THE HACIENDA is the book for you.
- The audio version of this book is a tense, visceral experience, with narrators Lee Osorio and Victoria Villarreal infusing the words with urgency and painting vivid images of the terrifying scenes at San Isidro.

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mamawantsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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leahkarge's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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mandkips's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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on_your_raedar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I genuinely enjoyed this book! I listened to it and I think that helped a lot, I'm sure I'd still be reading if I read it instead because it can be pretty slow. The author spent unnecessarily time trying to build anticipation with the ghost in the house and the "twist" was not a twist so the book felt about 1-1.5 hours too long.

Some things I loved:
1. Love a good ghost story
2. In incorporation of a culture different than mine
3. The dual POV
4. A strong mother/daughter relationship (though this is is minimal at the beginning and end)

Some things I didn't enjoy:
1. The priest that made his flaws everyones problems
2. The dutiful marriage trope
3. Any level/ amount of DV

Overall, I would recommend. This is my first Gothic thriller/horror and I will be exploring more in this genre.

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