Reviews with content warning for War - The Hacienda

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Reviews tagging 'War'

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

100 reviews

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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vaguely_pink'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

3.5

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pipbiz's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-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

4.0

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panickat123'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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jordan_uhden's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

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juliana_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.0

Phew! I don’t think I have read a horror novel before. Short stories yes, but this had slow burn intensity that only a novel could achieve. I really enjoyed it, particularly the strong sense of place and time. Two things impacted my rating:
1) The prose was clunky and repetitive at times! Everyone was “worrying” their lips. There were a few “I knew two things to be true…” lists. But, this is the author’s first novel and I would 100% read another.
2) I could have done without one of the last chapters

when Beatriz and Andres slept together. I think their love and tenderness could have been expressed differently given the intense trauma they had both endured. It also seemed so contrary to Andres’ piety? Maybe they could have just kissed and embraced, I don’t know. But him receiving a letter six weeks after, and Beatriz mentioning her descendants using the house…seems suspicious.

But man, was it a creepy book. The visceral descriptions of the house really made it a page-turner.

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mandkips's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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namielle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

While there were some things I took minor issue with, this book was quite enjoyable, and I was eagerly turning pages to see what would happen next.

Beatriz moves to San Isidro, the hacienda owned by her new husband, Don Rodolfo Solórzano. She is his second wife, and she does her best to ignore the swirling rumors about the death of his first wife, Doña María Catalina. Soon after moving in, Beatriz begins to experience strange phenomena. With the help of Padre Andrés, Beatriz must unravel the secrets of the hacienda and fight of the evil presence within.

I really enjoyed Beatriz as the protagonist; she’s strong-willed and unafraid to ask for help with all of the spooky stuff she’s dealing with. Padre Andrés is also pretty likable, though I guess I didn’t get some of the angst over his abilities to fight against the evil. I mean, I guess part of it is that he didn’t want to be burned as a witch or whatever, but like, this was a life or death situation! I say bring on all the witch powers.

This wasn’t the scariest book that I’ve ever read, but things were very tense and caused me some anxiety. I was on the edge of my seat a couple of times because I was sure that surely really awful things were going to happen to the characters.

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symabee's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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blissofalife's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

The inspirations for this book

Rebecca, Shirley Jackson novels

are obvious throughout but told through a fresh lens and seamlessly combined. The build-up was superb, the climax felt a little too fast. Would still recommend it!

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