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Book Review: The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Cover art for The Hacienda by Isabel Canas.

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Berkley, 2022

ISBN-13: ‎978-0593436691

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook. ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

 

The Hacienda is a gothic horror, haunted house novel set in 1823, two years after the Mexican Revolution, in rural Mexico, told in alternating viewpoints, with gorgeous prose.

 

Beatriz is the new second wife of a politically connected, wealthy plantation owner. She is alone in the crumbling hacienda, the owners’ house, while her husband remains in the city. Andres is a local boy with occult abilities and hedge witch magic that he has kept hidden, who has recently returned to the area after his ordination as a priest.

 

When Beatriz can’t get anyone on the estate to believe the house is haunted, she requests an exorcism, which is unsuccessful. Andres and Beatriz believe the spirit haunting the house is her husband’s first wife. It is dangerous enough that Beatriz is only comfortable there in the company of the priest. It’s like a creepy Encanto. Andres begins to believe the only way to release the spirit is for him to let his dark powers out. In the meantime, Beatriz’s husband’s sister decides to speed Beatriz ‘s demise along by setting the house on fire.

 

The author says she was inspired by du Maurier and Shirley Jackson and you can certainly see that– the beginning has a very Rebecca vibe, and the descriptions of the house and fire definitely were influenced by The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The “forbidden romance” is gothic enough, but it didn’t seem relevant. It’s hard to root for a love affair with a priest sworn to celibacy.

 

Colonialism, racism, colorism, misogyny, patriarchy, and privilege all get attention, not in a didactic way, but through narration of the characters’ daily experiences. Beatriz’s obsession with keeping her skin light, the need for Andres to stay nearby to help with folk beliefs as well as Catholic rituals, the entitlement Beatriz’s husband felt in raping the girls on his estate… these and many other examples show that the possession of the house by a malicious spirit was far from the only horror on the estate.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on April 30, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Black Planet, Vols. 1-4 by Nikki Noir

Black Planet Books 1-4 by Nikki Noir

Black Planet, Books 1-4, by Nikki Noir

Blood Bound Books, 2020

ISBN: 9798675368907

Available: paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

With her short stories, author Nikki Noir has carved out a place for herself in the world of spleaze (that’s ‘splat and sleaze’) writing.  Black Planet was previously released electronically as four separate sections, now all combined into one paperback book.  It’s a decent effort, with the first two ‘setup’ sections being the best parts.  The third section, which carries the bulk of the story’s motion, is a bit of a letdown, with too many of the essential plot details held back.  Still, the first two sections help make up for the third.  The fourth section is basically just a lead-in to whatever comes next, as according to the author, there will be more.

 

The first section sets up the story beautifully, replete with the author’s usual trashy intensity.  Two teens eking out a living by doing sleazy online fetish films have the good fortune of a relative dying, thus giving them a dead body to use in their videos.  They hook up with a girl who is into the occult and crazier than they are. That concludes the excellent first section, and no question, it’s the best one.  Section 2 is a different thread but still setting the story up, and it’s almost as good as the first section.  This time it involves teen girl Haley, her younger brother, and weird mechanical owls in the woods.  There’s also a shade of what’s to come, with the introduction of the shadowy organization Stillwater.  

 

Where the first two parts ran at high speed, you’d expect the overdrive gear to kick in for the third section, where the plot threads start to tie together.  But, this section feels more like it’s stuck in neutral.  The author’s trademark freaky sex and messy murders are there, the writing is fine… it just doesn’t have the same sense of urgency as the first two sections.  Part of the problem is almost none of the “why” part is given in this section, and it would have been the perfect time to do it.  The organization called Stillwater keeps lurking in the background, but its presence is given very little time, or explanation.  To keep readers interested, an author have to give them something in the book for a bit of the ‘why’ things are happening.  Otherwise, it seems more like a linear sequence of events that happen for no real purpose, and it’s frustrating.  It’s playing the plot cards too close to the vest for a bit too long, you gotta throw a few cards on the table to keep the game going.  The storyline is good, it just needs to be less of a mystery.   

 

There’s some definite fun to be had with reading Black Planet, it just could have used a few tweaks to help keep reader interest higher.  Hopefully, the next sections will reveal more to the readers in terms of the overall plot.   

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on April 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Den by Cara Reinard

The Den by Cara Reinard

Thomas and Mercer, Dec. 2022

ISBN: 9781542039765

Availability: paperback, Kindle

 

Cara Reinard’s The Den recycles a tried and true plotline used countless times, and keeps it entertaining enough to ignore that there really aren’t any original twists to the plotline.  You know exactly what you’re getting ahead of time, but it’s fun enough that you don’t care about the lack of originality.

 

In this case, the plot is the trope”‘rich dad with estranged children is about to die and leave inheritance to offspring, all of whom have reason to want him dead.” If you’ve seen the movie Knives Out, then you know the majority of the book plot.  In The Den, the only stab at something new is that if any of the four siblings die before the old man, their share of the inheritance is split among the other siblings.  The rest is standard fare in the book: all the kids have financial problems, and they are all screw-ups in one way or another.  

 

Any of “inheritance plotline” books just need to follow some simple rules to be worth reading.  One, everyone needs to be a suspect and have motive.  Two, the killer or killers’ identities are well hidden until the end of the book.  Three, the author can’t get carried away with their own cleverness and make the mystery too convoluted.  Finally, the book needs to be entertaining.  With The Den, the author succeeds on all four counts.  There are other suspects besides the siblings: the housekeepers, servants and their families all have reason for murder, so there’s a big enough cast of characters to keep the reader guessing.  The identity of the villain(s) is well-concealed until the very end: the majority of readers probably won’t guess correctly, and that’s what is supposed to happen in a book like this.  The plot is twisting enough and clues are scattered throughout, but it doesn’t get too difficult to follow.  Readers will get to the end and feel it made sense. Most importantly, the book is entertaining.  The pacing is quick enough with no wasted time or pointless plot offshoots, and it’s enough to keep the pages flipping.  With a book like this, that’s all you’re looking for.

 

Bottom line: this is predictable fun.  Readers who enjoy mysteries are likely to enjoy this one.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on April 6, 2023 by , Reply
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