⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. ( )

Very well written and thought out. The lives of women generations past mixed with the current really completed the story. Alejandra's power to overcome "a curse" really portrays a true strength in this Mother. Would definitely recommend! ( )

I was SO EXCITED to snag this ARC, I read The Queen of the Cicadas last month and just immediately needed more Castro!

This was an excellent, slow-burn character study of a thoroughly burned out mother, generational trauma passed down from mother to daughter, and a journey of self-discovery and growth. Except... add that all up with a literal family haunting over the span of 400 years.

It was *so* good. Through Alejandra's struggles with the La Llorona creature, she reclaims her own identity and finds strength she didn't know she possessed. All of her inner turmoil resonated a lot and made this whole book emotionally heavy. She's in a bad place and does the hard work to crawl out.

I also loved that we spend a lot of chapters in throwbacks to women earlier in Alejandra's family line. You get bits and pieces of where she came from that eventually form a larger picture. And even though you really only set one section with each of these women (other than Alejandra herself, of course), it's enough to flesh them out and make you truly understand what they each went through. Actually seeing all these links in the chain of the curse invests you even more deeply in Alejandra's fight to break it.

Amazing book and will especially resonate with horror readers that have struggled with depression or breaking their own chain of generational traumas. Comes out April 2023!

Thank you to #NetGalley and #DelReyBooks for a digital copy of The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.

On the surface, Alejandra seems to have it all...a husband, children, financial stability...everything you could possibly want. Yet, she's unfulfilled and getting lost in the darkness taking over her life. She no longer loves the dream life that everyone thinks she has. Alejandra has dark thoughts and doesn't know what to do about them. Then, she starts seeing a dark figure during her lowest points, and it keeps getting worse. The figure starts preying on her children, and Alejandra knows that she has to do something before tragedy strikes. In the heart of her depression, Alejandra starts seeing a therapist who helps to guide her in the right direction, but it is up to Alejandra to put a stop to the figure.

To help with her therapy, Alejandra starts to connect to her ancestors, all of whom had their own trials and darkness. Interspersed throughout the novel were the stories of each of these ancestors, and how this being came into their lives. Many strong women in Alejandra's lineage had been plagued by this shadow figure, and she is determined to be the last one, before it can get it's claws into her own children.

All in all, this was an interesting look into Mexican culture and folklore surrounding La Llorona. ( )

"You don't have to be the woman anyone else wants you to be or tell you you should be to make them more comfortable in their own existence."

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro was a fantastic retelling and reimagining of the folklore of La Llorona stories. Castro's ability to blend genres seamlessly and give us a horrifying yet beautiful tale is her special gift. In this one she gives you a multi-generational story about grief, loss of children, mental illness & suicidal ideations/attempts, post-partum depression, effects of colonialism, the loss of language/culture through trans-racial adoption, motherhood, patriarchy, and feminism. Castro gives us an often gory yet realistic depiction of what healing looks like through reconnection with ancestral knowledge and lineage through reclamation of identity and the past.

The theme of motherhood runs deeply and is at the root of this story. It exposes how society has failed mothers through patriarchal expectations and taking away of choices. You see the difficulties of maintaining self autonomy and the dangers of removing women's abilities to tell their own stories. Alejandra navigates so much generational trauma and takes a bold leap to end generational curses through therapy that us culturally competent. I loved that Melanie was not only a therapist but also a curandera which allowed her to take a holistic approach to how she helped Alejandra. Cultural competency is something that is lacking in therapy and seeing how impactful it is to the healing process was a breath of fresh air. Spinning the narrative of La Llorona as being a woman who needed empathy, support and understanding rather than someone to be constantly feared is a reminder that the human experience is not black and white and that everyone has deep rooted issues that need to be explored and worked on to prevent the vicious cycles of trauma and pain.

If you love stories about complicated motherhood, ancestral power, feminism and grief/trauma work then pair this one up with:
✨️ River Woman, River Demon- Jennifer Givhan (fiction)
✨️Woman Who Glows in the Dark- Elena Avila & Joy Parker ( )