#v castro

[autumnsaesthetics]

🎃 Horror Books For Halloween 🎃

Part One!

(Row One) 🎃

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

(Row Two) 🎃

She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

The Haunting Of Alejandra by V. Castro

(Row Three) 🎃

The Getaway by Lamar Giles

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury

House Of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

[agwhaan]

Okay, the commonly held attitude that "the book is better than the movie" isn't supposed to apply to novelizations where the movie comes first

BUT HERE WE FUCKING ARE

[intotheescape]

this one intrigued me, too

[nocturnal-milk-dud]

The book starts getting steamy

"Being this close to him makes my pussy feel like it's full of bees"

[pianostrings]

Rebel Moon Part One – A Child of Fire: Official Movie Novelization by V. Castro

[lilibetbombshell]

[mndvx]

REBEL MOON NOVELIZATION EYYYYOOOO

[literarysiren]

V. Castro!!!!! Queer latin horror maestro after my own heart!!!!!!!! I got to read this book exactly when I needed it, and it is a dark, beautiful, haunting little thing about not letting go of yourself even when you do sometimes need to let go of some pieces.

[bluesey-182]

novellas, i think, are even more hit or miss than full length novels cause i always end up leaving them thinking either "holy shit i can't believe this author accomplished a story like that in so few pages" or "eh. the author needed way more space to achieve any of the things they attempted in this" and there is so very, very rarely any in between

[thebookocean]

the haunting of alejandra.......

man what a book. this is the second of my five stars for this year that centers heavily on motherhood, which is kind of a funny thing considering the strength of my own choice to never have children. and because i don't have children i know there's a lot in the haunting of alejandra that i can't directly relate to, but the way it's written made me feel like i understood at least a little bit. i feel like it somehow bridged a little bit of the gap between me and the people around me whose experiences i've never been able to connect to in any way.

i feel like if i'd been any younger reading this book it wouldn't have hit as hard? having people my age around me talking, even obliquely, about how difficult motherhood has been on them was definitely a factor in me loving the haunting of alejandra so much. the way it deals with womanhood and motherhood and the way those two connect felt very raw and emotional, and the approach to generational trauma was incredible.

the supernatural horror aspect almost felt like it took a backseat for me? even though it was satisfying, this book definitely uses the horror to explore its themes and not the other way around.

idk man, it was honestly incredible and one of my favorites of this year so far. sometimes i felt like the dialogue wasn't the most realistic thing in the world (who speaks like that) but it didn't even bother me as a literary device because that's what it is and it worked really well.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Haunting of Alejandra | Author: V. Castro | Publisher: Del Rey (2023)

[hasmoneanbulbasaur]

I would like to inform people that there is a vampire book coming out next year by V. Castro entitled Immortal Pleasures. It is about the Mexican historical figure La Malinche as a vampire.

From the publisher:

An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra.

Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people.

In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands.

But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love.

When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways.

For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart.

Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.

[lilibetbombshell]

[famousblueraincoatmp3]

when people are like "cozy gothic horror!" ok so its not gothic horror then got it

[nerdynatreads]

 ☆☆YouTube | Tumblr | Instagram | Storygraph ☆☆

book review || The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

video review || ARC Reading Vlog — The Haunting of Alejandra and Yours Truly

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Haunting of Alejandra in exchange for an honest review. ~

Oh, wow, this doesn’t shy away from the heaviness this book is going to be covering as we open our meeting with Alejandra and see how much she’s struggling with everyday tasks. Her depression has become so debilitating that she has a hard time taking care of her children and her shitty husband who guilt trips her for struggling. She’s come to resent her relationship with him and is now beginning to have visions of a woman in white. I deeply want to give this woman a hug and encourage her to get help— which thank god, she does. The therapist she finds is also Mexican American and they connect over the stories of La Llorona and La Catrina, which gave some depth to both pieces of folklore I wasn’t aware of.

Prior to moving for her husband’s job, she’d been trying to reconnect with her birth mother and her culture that she wasn’t able to experience while growing up in the foster care system. I really love that she’s also trying to share the things she’s learned with her oldest daughter, Catrina, and am hopeful to see more of their relationship as Alejandra heals. The showcasing of generational trauma was exquisite. Each of the women in this family line’s perspectives felt similar and yet different enough to keep them distinct. We start with the first woman in the family line to interact with the demon. Her voice is just as somber and bitter but still stands apart from Alejandra’s. In all perspectives, though, La Llorona’s visits are so eerie and unsettling.

The plot itself is character focused as we watch Alejandra’s journey to learn more about her family line, and the troubles that have followed them, and work to heal from her own struggles so that she can save her children from suffering similar fates. I really adored the discussions around motherhood and identity in this story, the way these women took hold of their fates and made what they wanted up them. I felt just as empowered by their stories as Alejandra. The horror we see is in the visceral and gory descriptions of our character’s experiences and are amped up most when we see La Llorona, but I wanted more. There were a few moments that had me making disgusted faces, but nothing particularly memorable about the horror. I did, however, really like the final perspective and how it twisted the usual tale of La Llorona, showcasing her in a more sympathetic light.

My biggest complaint throughout this was the dialogue didn’t really seem authentic or flow naturally. Conversations feel long-winded or just unusual to how someone would speak. I also would have liked a bit more explanation of the demon in the end, it felt unresolved in the end and like a cop-out wrap-up.

4 / 5 stars