Reviews with content warning for Cursing - The Hacienda

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

baearles's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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ktv's review against another edition

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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.

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karmapen's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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hannah_and_her_stories's review

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dark emotional 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

5.0

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yvo_about_books's review

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5.0

Finished reading: July 10th 2023

“When a man makes a promise, he makes it on his honor. When a witch makes a promise, they feel it in their bones.”

Ever come across a book that you just know you are going to love, but somehow it takes you ages to pick it up anyway? This is exactly what happened with The Hacienda for me. The blurb gave me Mexican Gothic vibes, which had me immediately intrigued. It is being compared to the classic Rebecca as well, which I confess I still have to read myself... But I'm definitely going to remedy that after finishing The Hacienda. Why? Let's just say that this debut blew me away completely, and I loved every single minute with this historical fiction/gothic horror/paranormal read. The pace in The Hacienda is actually quite a lot slower than I would usually like, but somehow it really worked for this story. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that the writing itself is fantastic; I fell in love with the way this story was written from the very beginning, and the gothic vibe is done is a sublime way. The building up of the tension, the uncertainty about what is really going on, the doubts about if the main character is just imagining things or something a lot more sinister (and supernatural) is going on... It was just all done in such a natural way, and the result was glorious. Add the historical fiction aspect with the 19th century Mexican setting, the religious aspect and the political/cultural issues, even the slowburn romance, and I couldn't give this debut anything less than the full 5 stars it deserved. Guess who will be reading a vampire book in the future even though she is usually allergic to any stories about vampires?

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lorriss's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

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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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