Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

30 reviews

deepcurvesahead's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

Minor: Racism, Alcoholism, Rape, and Physical abuse

lorriss's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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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.

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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

itsheyfay's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Neat premise but it was nothing to sing home about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Classism, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Rape, Abortion, Cursing, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Confinement

Minor: Physical abuse, War, and Torture

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Violence, Racism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Physical abuse, Abortion, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Rape

tuesdaye's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Classism

Moderate: Body horror and Religious bigotry

Minor: Classism, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Rape

lauramparis's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Blood, Classism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape, Abortion, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

maeverose's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

My favorite tropes/themes from this book:
-🦇 gothic atmosphere 🦇
-beautiful prose
-clashing religious beliefs
-hot priest
-forbidden romance


I loved this!!! This was my first real horror novel (besides Dracula), I usually avoid horror because I really dislike gore, but this one sounded like it was tame enough gore-wise so I took a risk and I’m so glad I did. This felt a bit like a classic gothic novel. I LOVE the writing style. I’m a sucker for beautiful writing. That first chapter. Yes. I was a little surprised how much focus the romance got, but I’m not complaining at all because that was actually my favorite part, unexpectedly. This felt like a pretty even mix of historical romance, gothic horror and fantasy, which apparently is my thing. I need to find more.

The only negatives I can think of are that after finishing the book I can see how some things might’ve been a bit predictable to more avid horror readers, but I actually didn’t predict anything while reading lol. And secondly, I was never actually all that scared while reading.. I only found a few scenes a bit scary, about two thirds into the book. I think because a lot of the horror elements are so fantastical it didn’t really phase me? I’m more scared by real life horror (and there is a bit of that in this book too). It also didn’t have a ton of suspense, it kind of just throws stuff at you pretty early on after Beatriz moves in.

Anyway I need to go buy a copy of this book now

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Racism, Vomit, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, War, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Rape

As someone who doesn’t like gore, I’d say it was pretty mild. Only really injury descriptions (some detailed), blood, and a description of a partially decomposed body. I was fine reading it, but if you’re especially sensitive I’d say be careful. Minor memory loss from a concussion, and to my fellow hyperhidrosis sufferers: there is a negative sweaty hands/face comment in here :/

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Gaslighting and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

deserthare24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Classism, Body horror, Death, Blood, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Rape