Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

5 reviews

ktv's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I’m so glad I keep coming back to this book and trying to finish it bc it was soooooo good. It kept me on my toes the entire time. I rly love a good gothic horror. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Classism, Body horror, Colonisation, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Cursing, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

fanique87'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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: War

Minor: Death of parent, Violence, Child abuse, and Rape

emzhay's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Rape, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Child abuse, and Animal death

lorriss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Racism, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Colonisation, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, and Gore

Moderate: Cursing, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical content, Grief, War, Rape, Abortion, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Addiction, Animal death, Pregnancy, and Forced institutionalization

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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