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[xoxomissm]

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

a review

As soon as the sun sets on Hacienda San Isidro, the trapped souls in the walls come to life to get revenge on the unfortunate souls who walk its halls. Those who know how it became that way find ways to protect themselves inside the haunted house or decide to avoid it altogether, but they are always dubious when asked to speak about it. The walls are always listening.

Along with Don Rodolfo Solórzano’s proposal of status via marriage to Beatriz, he offers her the opportunity to escape a home life where Beatriz is constantly begrudged for her complexion and parentage to a place where she and her mother can be comfortable again. The new Doña excitedly, but unknowingly, moves into the hacienda after she accepts Rodolfo’s proposal against her mother's wishes. 

When Doña Beatriz arrives at San Isidro, she seeks to reclaim the house as her own to replace the home and land her family lost when her father was betrayed and assassinated in the overthrow of the Mexican government following the Mexican War of Independence. She must quickly adjust her expectations when her politician husband returns to Mexico City very shortly after they are married and Beatriz’s mother refuses to return her letters. She is left feeling alone in a house that seems to be speaking to her through a voice that only she is tormented by.  

In country society, as Beatriz distinguishes, she is repeatedly compared to the last Doña of San Isidro, Rodolfo’s first wife who suffered the apparent misfortune of dying of mysterious circumstances. When she attempts to recruit allies to confirm the evil spirit of the house she is always immediately deflected to more polite conversation. Even though Rodolfo’s sister, Doña Juana Solórzano refuses to be in the house at night and the head of the household, constantly burns copal incense, the only person willing to confirm that Doña Beatriz is indeed being haunted by the hacienda is Padre Andrés, the local priest who has recently returned under contentious circumstances after joining the priesthood. Padre Andrés agrees to return to Hacienda San Isidro where he grew up visiting his family under the guise of offering mass to all the workers on the hacienda to help Beatriz. With the disreputable priest and his cousin, Paloma, as her only allies Beatriz works tirelessly to restore the hacienda.

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas is a gothic thriller that takes place in the chilling Hacienda San Isidro. Beatriz is determined to defeat the evil spirits haunting her new home so that she can be reunited in a place her mother will be comfortable. Doña Beatriz relies on Padre Andrés' power as a witch to free the hacienda that he once considered a second home. of the demons haunting the home the new Doña was promised.

I enjoyed the main character’s sass and resolve as she fought tirelessly against the formidable cursed souls of Hacienda San Isidro, which was beautifully described throughout the story. The author also engages with the themes of colorism, colonialism, and the Casta system by employing Beatriz as a bold and ambitious woman, aware of her dark complexion, intent on surviving the curse that is San Isidro to raise her family’s station.  

If you liked Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, let’s be friends, please! I think you’ll like this one, let me know. This was one of my favorites read in 2023.

-xoxo, miss m