Title: The Haunting Of Alejandra
Author: V. Castro
Pub. Date: April 18th 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction/Horror/Retelling
Format: DRC
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 272 / 10hrs + 13 min 🎧
GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | LIBROFM | AMAZON
☆☆ARC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆
When we meet Alejandra she is a wife and a mother living her days feeling invisible, under appreciated and unloved. She’s in a dark place and any moment of solace she comes across allows her the introspection that otherwise she doesn’t have time for. Mother to three children, Alejandra struggles with the feelings she’s having towards motherhood as a whole. Her third child was unexpected after a tubal ligation didn’t prevent her pregnancy. She’s not exactly in a loving marriage, her husband dismisses her cries for help and feels she should be satisfied in the life he has provided her with. Her adoptive parents (father) were just as dismissive of her struggles with mental health while growing up, as her husband is now. No one seems to really understand or want to acknowledge that Alejandra is not ok and is struggling daily with some dark thoughts. Soon enough she starts seeing a woman crying in ragged white gown, always catching glimpses as she leaves or enters a room. When her daughter mentions having seen the woman in white to a teacher, Alejandra is called in to discuss these dreams her child is having. This gives Alejandra the push she needs to seek therapy for herself.
In what feels like kismet, her therapist is also a Mexican Curandera and she knows all about the legend of La Llorona. As she begins to delve deeper into her family history, track down her biological mother and get in touch with her roots and spirituality, Alejandra discovers some truths. She is not alone in her struggles, the women in her lineage have all been haunted by La Llorona who is an angry vengeful mother who killed her own children. La Llorona has appeared to all of the women in her family and pushed them into dark places in an attempt to take them with her. This is one generational curse Alejandra will need help with breaking before she too has a tragic ending.
This was an audiobook read although I was also very lucky to have been granted a DRC from Del Rey. Immediately when I heard Alejandra’s voice narrated my first thoughts were this woman is tired. This woman is haunted. The bathtub scene in the first few pages where she’s just trying to get a few more minutes alone but her very young children need her and her husband is not trying to help was tough. Readers should really take care to look into content warnings, suicide ideation is prominent as is depression. This story is told in alternate timelines between present day Alejandra’s POV and one of her ancestors. Personally, I did find myself wanting to spend more time in the chapters told by her ancestor who was waging her own war against the patriarchy and reclaiming her body. These chapters have a different tone overall and gave me the break I needed from being in Alejandra’s main story line.
I appreciated how learning of her ancestors gave Alejandra the motivation to take the reigns in her own life. The road to this discovery however is heavy with the thoughts of a woman who is close to losing her mind. It was interesting to see the way V. Castro wove in themes of body autonomy or lack thereof for all of the women being haunted by La Llorona. I was expecting this story to lean in a bit more into the horror vibes tied to the Mexican folklore of La Llorona. We still get a healthy dose of the legendary woman in white but it’s definitely taken up a notch towards the end of the book. This could just be me since I do not watch horror movies AT ALL but do enjoy reading the genre, so I was surprised when I didn’t really find myself spooked whenever I was reading this story. I’d recommend The Haunting Of Alejandra to readers who enjoy psychological horror, motherhood explored, folklore, spirituality, and stories of breaking generational curses.
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