Reviews with content warning for War - The Hacienda

Reviews tagging 'War'

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

95 reviews

writingcaia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

A typical atypical house haunting in Mexico after the inquisition and power upheaval of the 19th century.
It is indeed Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic, although not as good as either, still a pretty solid horror book that kept wanting more.
Beatriz lost her father to politics and power changes, relegated with her mother to be a “servant” in her aunts house she jumps at the chance of marrying, even though the groom is involved in the same group that got her father killed, still she knows she will have her hacienda to rule over and finally the financial independence she wishes for. However, the house has other plans, and as soon as she arrives she feel the hatred and the malice of it.
Thankfully, the hacienda and farmlands are also the home base of the new padre Andrés, returned two years before Beatriz, he is now called again to his land to help the girl in need, and he is more than meets the eye, he has in him the heritage of the old witches.
This was such a great coming of age, romance, horror story, it kept glued to the pages to know what would happen next. It’s predictable from the start, at least it was for me, and struggles with very repetitive sentiments and sentences, still for a debut I found it quite good and entertaining.
No, I didn’t get scared, I never do, and no it’s not super gruesome although there’re a lot of grim, gory moments even, and a lot a lot of tense ones.
If the premises appeal to you I definitely recommend you to give it a try now that Spooky Season is coming 🎃👻🔪

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thirdeyeangel23's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

hunkydory's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

Content Warnings

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

disclaimer if you’ve read other reviews by me and are noticing a pattern: You’re correct that I don’t really give starred reviews because I don’t like leaving them. Most often, I will only leave them if I vehemently despised a book.I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not, regardless if I add stars or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial

premise:

historical fictional romance & supernatural horror & suspense set after the Mexican War for Independence
Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca is a great way to describe this! In the beginning, I initially thoguht Bluebeard too because I was very suspicious of the husband! I'd also add Haunting of Hill House to this mix!
rotating first-person POV of Beatriz Hernández Valenzuela and Andres (some POVs told in flashbacks)
themes of colonialism, social status, the syncretism of Catholicism and indigenous practices
In the aftermath of the war, Beatriz's father is executed and she accepts a marriage proposal from Don Rodolfo Solórzano, whose first wife's demise is the source of many rumors
Once Beatriz moves to the remote location of Hacienda San Isidro, and Rodolfo goes back to the capital for work, she begins having visions, hearing voices, and having accidents! She feels desperately unsafe and as if she is being watched
Juana, Rodolfo's sister, refuses to enter San Isidro at night, yet pokes fun at Beatriz's fears
Padre Andrés, a young priest and witch, comes at her behest to bless the house and perform an exorcism on it, and seems to be the only one who believes her about her experience at San Isidro
cw: murder, death, war, sexual assault, racism, abortion

thoughts:
Wow. I am unwell. This was breathtakingly written, and Isabel has immediately become an auto-buy author for me, just with this book! I am so, so, so, so impressed! (I am obviously *so* eloquent too hahaha).

This haunted house was everything I want when I think of one - it was creepy, and it was maliciously and ferociously intent on her demise! I had to remind myself to breathe during multiple scenes, because I would quickly tense up in my fear and dread for Beatriz. Isabel's writing of the setting was atmospheric,

I love the way that horror always has so many layers of what is actually scary. What I mean is that yes, there's a clear horror in a haunted house conspiring to kill you. However, the way society treats Beatriz, -both because of the caste system that was still prominent during this time period (and she wasn't "light-skinned"), and because of the rumored scandalous history of San Isidro- is a horror much more subtle, and much more nefarious because it hides behind acceptable societal landscapes of the time.

To be haunted, whether by *real* or mental/emotional demons, and for no one to believe you? OOF. That's a fear we can all relate to, (I think)! That's something that horror, when well and properly done, illustrates so well - the despair and desperation one feels when they come to the realization that no one is coming to save them, because at the very core of it, no one believes their pain, or believes that the things causing them pain are actually real or in the wrong In a macro-way, I think of the ways people brush off systems of oppression, like capitalism or white supremacy, and how harmful it is for our wellbeing when our experiences are dismissed or minimized. It's why being believed, or feeling seen/heard is so powerful. When you endure constant skepticism or perpetually feel the need to prove yourself, that wave of relief that comes with someone actually being in your corner is priceless.

It's why I loved Beatriz and Andres' slow-burn, quiet romance! They provided a space for the other to be brave, and affirmed the others' experiences. Andres was a fantastic character; he held complicated feelings towards how his practices intersected and differed, and I appreciated this illustration of how colonialism left cultures feeling fragmented or muddled up. He was reverent of his beliefs, and tried especially hard to stay away from Beatriz (she was a married woman! the horror! the scandal!). However, San Isidro really gave him no choice but to fight back, alongside Beatriz' side.

I was aching for what Beatriz endured at San Isidro, yet the ending left room for a sprinkle of hope.

quotations that stood out to me:

“But if God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if He is three in one in the Trinity, then God knows nothing of loneliness. God knows nothing of standing with his back to a gray morning, of dropping to his knees in the dust.”

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

“Words can damn or bless in equal measure, and are never to be used lightly.”

“Our relationship was founded on one thing, and one thing only. My world was a dark, windowless room, and he was a door.”

“Should is an oddly powerful word. Shame and anger have a way of flying to it like coins to a lodestone.”

"She was a prophet in a land that had been stripped of its gods: a healer of the sick, a beacon in the night. She reached into steel-dark clouds to control the storms of the rainy season, seizing lightning as her reins and bending them to her will to turn harvests into gold. She called the voices to heel and banished them. I was not her."

“My eyes filled with tears. How scornful I had been of Mamá insisting I should marry for love. How convinced I was that I was right to be practical, to sacrifice a loving partnership like she and Papá had for an estate in the country and financial security”

“Fate had been unkind to me, but sometimes, its pettiness worked in my favor.”

“There is no draft more bitter than that of helplessness”

“Hacienda San Isidro—my home—was poisoned. It was hurting. Rot like this would spread beyond the house’s walls, leeching life from the earth, blighting the fields, lacing the homes of the village with affliction. It was a sickness. It must be contained, then eradicated.”

“Of course he did not question. Men do not trouble themselves with women's bodies, save when they can be of use to serve or to sate them.”

“Someone had died in this house. I needed help. And no one at Hacienda San Isidro was going to give it to me.”

“The Hacienda is a story about the terrible things people will do to cling to power. A story about resilience and resistance in the face of a world that would strip you of power. A story about a young mestiza woman’s battle of wills with a house and all it represents, a house haunted by both the supernatural and its colonial history.”

Content Warnings

amris's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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markieh's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? No

4.75

I really enjoyed this one. I did a little bit of research (a very fast Google search) to get a better understanding of the setting because I wasn't very familiar with the Mexican Revolution time period. That helped give me better context.

It never felt slow to me. It's been a long time since I stayed up all night to finish a book because I wanted to, and not because I had nothing else to do during ADHD insomnia.

Beatriz thinks she has made a practical choice to keep herself comfortable. That she can settle for contentment if it means safety and stability, but from the minute she enters the hacienda at San Isidro, something is wrong. It starts to slowly unfold. Maybe she imagined that. Maybe it was the wind. Maybe that was a cat, but we along with Beatriz know something is wrong.

The author did a great job mixing the prejudices of the time period with the horror element, adding to the tension when she's dismissed by the local priest.

Actually my only complaint about the book is that I wish Padres Andres had a better back story revelation. I feel like we missed a very key piece of who he was and had to sort of put it together in pieces, and not in a fun discovery way. At first I thought it had been a typo or something.

Still, this book was everything. A haunted house murder mystery with some forbidden love against the backdrop of a post war uneasy peace and racial divide. I can't wait for the next one.

Content Warnings

alisonvh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

I took half a star off my rating for ending on a sort of cliff hanger, but the book is very good and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook.

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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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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?

Content Warnings

horizonous's review against another edition

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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

4.25

Content Warnings

leweylibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The blurb on the front describes it as a mix of Mexican Gothic and Rebecca, and 100% yes absolutely lol. I do still like Mexican Gothic more because it's more about the horror than the romance, but I did enjoy this one nonetheless! I appreciate what the author was trying to do with the deeper messages of colonialism's ills and I liked Andres character a lot. Idk why but something about Beatriz bugged me, and THAT ENDING bugged me too lol ugh.

Quotes:

Our relationship was founded on one thing and one thing only: my world was a dark, windowless room, and he was a door. (29)
Roldolfo's message was plain: if San Isidro does not agree with you, come to the capital.
And do what? Wait on the generals who ordered my house to be burned and killed my father? Simper and smile with their obedient wives?
No. San Isidro was freedom. San Isidro was mine.
But San Isidro was also trying to break me, and I did not doubt the force of its will. (92)
A historical novel is more than the dates of its battles and politicians jockeying for power in affluent capitals. It is the sum of a thousand strokes of a mad artist's brush: it is droughts and floods, new inheritance laws, fabrics and building materials becoming cheap or too expensive, taxes imposed to be paid or ignored, the privilege of one language over another. It is the rhythms of daily life and towns that are silenced, the spirits that move in the shadows cast by the conquerors' history books. (340)
Reading historical fiction can teach us about world's long gone, but in doing so, It must also inspire reflections on the present. As a historian, a Mexican-American woman, and a fellow reader, I hope the novel inspires the courage, anger, and compassion. We all need to face the ghosts of colonialism that linger today. (342)

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