A review by leweylibrary
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

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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