Reviews with content warning for War - The Hacienda

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The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

95 reviews

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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itsheyfay's review against another edition

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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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bookishcori's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

4.5

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ivy123's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

4.25

The Hacienda is a gothic haunted house story set in the aftermath of the war of independance in Mexico. The story was creepy enough to leave me looking around corners at nightime but also an interesting examination of the casta system and the effect this had. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition of the preist who was also a witch and how this both afforded him safety and danger at the same time. I also didnt see some of the twists and turns coming which is always great.

Although i did like the lyrical writing style i did find this took away from some of the scares at times. Overall highly recomend to people looking for a haunted house story as the culture threaded theoughout makes this a stand out read.

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gretchenplz'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? It's complicated

3.5

I did like this book. Especially the last 100 pages.

But, honestly, I’m a bit let down by this book. Maybe I just need to admit that horror isn’t my genre and move on, because I’m not sure I’ve read a horror that I’ve actually liked.

The writing screams debut novel: Great ideas, but not executed quite rightand lost in the details.

The first 200 pages of this book felt more like a history lesson than a horror. The details describing Mexico, the culture, the clothing, the location, etc. are so thorough, but the details that I actually wanted, aka the haunting, the witchcraft, etc., are so lacking.

There are some points in the plot where, if I hadn’t been reading deliberately, I might have skimmed over it completely. It was disappointing to have so much detail about what it meant to live in this time, both as a woman. a mixed race man, a servant, a haciendado, etc., but not have that same level of detail applied to key plot points.

I was also waiting for a big twist at the end that we just really didn’t get. The murder mystery was ok, but I totally expected something crazy to happen at the end. Like, give me

the FMC showing back up in the house as a ghost because she died on the road or something idk. I was half expecting her to have been dead the whole time, idk??? The way it ended was just more fantasy than horror!!

That all being said, I would definitely read another novel by this author! I liked the writing and the perspective, but could have just used a slight edit.

And I’ll be patiently waiting for a sequel (which I’m sure will never happen) because I want my bbs Andres y Beatriz to end up together sooooo much :(

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