The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

The Haunting of Alejandra follows a woman and various ancestors, who all feel like they’ve lost hope and no longer want to continue living for one reason or another. All of these women have children that they love unconditionally and want to protect over anything else, but a dangerous La Llorona-esque creature stalks their every move.

I had very high expectations for this book. I love the story of La Llorona and don’t see it as a central theme overly often. I was really excited to dive into Mexican folklore and really get a sense for the tale, but I don’t feel like that happened. This book was focused more on exposition instead of storytelling, that I feel like La Llorona got relegated to the background.

To that end, this didn’t read as a horror book. There were sections that had the potential to be genuinely scary, but they were followed up with an overwhelming amount of fluff that it lacked any horror potential. The creature didn’t feel threatening to me at all; it felt like only a vague idea that I should be aware of. I needed that to be more of a danger and more of a presence, I was practically begging for it, but it wasn’t meant to be.

I didn’t feel a connection to these characters at all. Some of the flashbacks to different ancestors felt unnecessary, and they were such a short snapshot that I couldn’t get involved with any of those people. The characters overall were so flat and underdeveloped that there just wasn’t anything for me to root for or to connect with.

It’s unfortunate because I really wanted to like this, but it just wasn’t there for me.