The Haunting of Alejandra
A Novel
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- $119.00
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- $119.00
Descripción editorial
A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona in this “utterly terrifying and wholly immersive . . . story about generational trauma, colonization, systemic oppression, and the horror at the heart of motherhood” (Library Journal, starred review).
“Castro is one of the most exciting genre authors on the scene right now, and this might be her most powerful book yet.”—Paste
A POPSUGAR AND CRIMEREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her.
Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown.
When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she never knew. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors.
Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her mother, her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness.
But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers—and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Castro (Mestiza Blood) puts a unique twist on the Mexican legend of La Llorona in this eerie contemporary horror story of a woman's struggle against both her inner demons and the demons of her family's past. From the outside, Alejandra has the perfect life, complete with a well-off husband, a nice house in Philadelphia, and three healthy children. But on the inside, Alejandra has lost her sense of identity and finds herself falling deeper into a hole of darkness and despair. Alejandra fears she's losing her mind when she starts hearing voices and sees the ghostly apparition of a crying woman in a white dress. She reaches out to Melanie Ortiz, a therapist and curandera, and together they uncover that the curse of La Llorona, the crying woman, has plagued the women in Alejandra's family for generations. Alejandra must draw on her own inner strength and the strength of her ancestors, who readers meet in flashbacks, to break the cycle of torment. Castro cleverly uses Mexican folklore to shine a light on multigenerational trauma, but the jumping timelines and stilted dialogue create a level of remove from the more visceral chills. Still, horror fans who prefer psychological scares will find plenty to enjoy here.
