Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Donde termina la noche by Isabel Cañas

50 reviews

fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Beatriz is desperate to escape the household of her mother's cousin, where she is forced to work as a scullery maid due to her mestizo heritage, and she thinks marriage to Rodolfo Solorzano, a wealthy hacienda owner in the country, is the key to a life for her and her mother similar to the one they lost when her father was killed in the Mexican Revolution. However, the Hacienda is anything but a refuge. Servants and Rodolfo's sister avoid it at night, no one really knows what happened to Rodolfo's first wife, shadows move on their own, areas of the house are unnaturally cold, and Beatriz is haunted by visions of blood. Beatriz's only hope of rescue is Andres, a mestizo priest with ties to the hacienda and supernatural powers that he's suppressed out of fear of the Inquisition.

It's a horror and historic fiction hybrid, and while I don't read the former much and can't say how well it holds up to others (it's the best of the few I've read), but the historic fiction aspects are excellent. Isabel Canas shows an expertise of the era of history she has set this in, and I think she gets around the issue of delivering exposition about the setting to readers less familiar with life in the era by making its presence related to some of the emotional wounds of her primary characters and really most of the cast. Canas demonstrates an excellent knowledge of how social issues like sexism, racism, colorism, and classism impact people/characters, and I find it hard to completely hate most of the antagonists.

The prose is gorgeous and at times macabre. I (and a few members of the book club I read this for) quickly learned that reading it at night is not a good idea as we were quite jumpy afterwards.

It's not a flawless debut. While the book focuses heavily on the casta class system in Mexico, the few members of the servant class that get development is almost entirely Andres and his family, which I think slightly undercuts the theme. Rodolfo also feels more like a plot device than a character, which I'm not sure how I feel about it. His decision to leave the hacienda in Beatriz and Juana's hands while he rubs elbows with politicians in the capital is necessary for character motivation, it leaves him underdeveloped, and readers are left on their own to reconcile the Rodolfo who his first wife adores and the one who (sexual abuse mention and a spoiler)

rapes serving girls and hides Beatriz's letters from her mother.

There is also something about the ending that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Beatriz's mother inherits a small home from her husband's family and moves into it while Beatriz is surviving her husband's home and invites her to come. Something about the knowledge that if Beatriz waited she'd have a home that she didn't have to fight a malevolent spirit to survive in feels unsatisfactory. Returning to her mother fits with the other theme of home, and I don't know how else to do that in a way that isn't majorly depressing. Plus, Beatriz grows as a person and initiates healing for Andres and his extended family as well as the hacienda itself through her actions, so it's not a total let down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Vomit, Abortion, Alcohol, and War

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion and Alcohol

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

jordan_uhden's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: War

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, and Alcohol

caseythereader's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual violence, and Abortion

blissofalife's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

The inspirations for this book

Rebecca, Shirley Jackson novels

are obvious throughout but told through a fresh lens and seamlessly combined. The build-up was superb, the climax felt a little too fast. Would still recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Fatphobia, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abortion, and Alcohol

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, and Abortion

xangemtheelibrarian's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This debut book is absolutely incredible! I found the story to be believable and it was so easy to listen to as an audiobook. I adore Beatriz, Andrés, and Paloma. All three of them deserve the world.

There's so much that I want to say about the haunted hacienda. About Rudolfo and Juana and Ana Luisa and the first Doña. The complicated relationships and the tragedies that happened in that house. And how the caste system played into so much of what happened in the book! I want to talk about it and how incredible reading this book was but I don't want to give away any potential spoilers!! 

Just. Read it. It's amazing. And if Cañas writes anything else, I'm reading that too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Blood and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Alcohol