sabet_af 's review for:

The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

3.0

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what was missing for me was the delicious discussion of race and class in her previous books. there are certainly elements here (Elias is half moor, the mine workers are indigenous), but these elements could have been removed from the story and nothing would change. what i liked so much about her previous novels is that race and class were the bad guys! the foe was a physical manifestation of both. this was just a horror romance, punctuated with religious trauma. i dont have that, nor do i know bible lore, so this one didnt land the same for me.

edit: in retrospect, the inquisition coming and destroying the indigenous spirituality is racism, and there is definitely tension there, i just wish these themes were more overt? rather than something that felt a little like an afterthought.