By Jim Mcleod 
So who is this book for? It is for anyone who appreciates horror with profound emotional depth. It is for mothers who have felt invisible. It is for those grappling with the shadows of their own family history. This novel offers no easy answers.
A Review of The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro: The Weight of a Bloodline
V Castro’s The Haunting of Alejandra is not just a ghost story. It is an exploration of motherhood and the inheritance of pain. The novel carves a new space in horror literature, one where the monster is both a folkloric demon and the very real spectre of generational trauma.
Alejandra’s life looks perfect from the outside. A mother of three. A comfortable home. But inside, she is drowning. A profound emptiness consumes her. Then, the figure appears. A woman in white, weeping. This is La Llorona, but not as you know her. She is a primal thing of flaps and strips of pale flesh. She whispers terrible suggestions. She urges Alejandra toward the same darkness that claimed the women before her.
This is a haunting passed down through blood. Alejandra’s struggle is not her own alone. It is a legacy. The narrative masterfully weaves her present-day crisis with the stories of her female ancestors. We meet them across centuries. A woman facing colonial violence in 1522. Another was battling societal constraints in the 1960s. Each one faced the same entity, tailored to their specific despair. The curse is the chain that binds them.
The novel’s power lies in its themes. It tackles the crushing weight of motherhood with unflinching honesty. Alejandra loves her children, but she has lost herself. The constant demands obliterate her identity. This portrayal is raw and deeply relatable. Her pain is a quiet scream in a busy house. The book also brilliantly blurs the line between supernatural terror and mental illness. Alejandra’s depression is real. The entity that feeds on it is also real. The solution is not to deny one for the other, but to confront both. She finds help in Melanie, a therapist who also practices as a curandera, a traditional healer. This fusion of science and spirituality feels fresh and culturally specific.
V Castro’s prose is immersive. She describes emotional decay and supernatural horror with equal skill. The descriptions of the demon are genuinely unsettling. Its belt of severed umbilical cords is an image that lingers. The book’s structure, although ambitious, is mostly effective. The historical chapters give the curse a profound sense of history and scope. They show how trauma echoes.
The book’s most outstanding achievement is its reclamation of La Llorona. V Castro transforms the legend. This is not a simple cautionary tale. It is a story about the accumulated grief and rage of generations of women. La Llorona becomes a symbol of the pain they were forced to swallow. Understanding her origin is key to breaking the cycle.
The Haunting of Alejandra is a deeply demanding and emotionally intense read that requires careful attention. It explores several heavy and challenging themes throughout the story. Postpartum depression, suicidal ideation, and the impact of historical violence are all central elements that drive the plot forward. Readers should approach this book with an awareness of its serious subject matter and be prepared for the emotional depth it presents.
So who is this book for? It is for anyone who appreciates horror with profound emotional depth. It is for mothers who have felt invisible. It is for those grappling with the shadows of their own family history. This novel offers no easy answers. However, it does provide a fierce and cathartic journey. It argues that we inherit more than pain from our ancestors. We also inherit their strength. Alejandra’s fight is for her soul, for her children, and for the women who came before her. It is a battle that will leave you breathless.
V Castro has crafted a modern horror classic. The Haunting of Alejandra is a terrifying, thoughtful, and ultimately triumphant work. It is a vital, roaring addition to the genre. Please pick it up. You will not look at family, motherhood, or the shadows in the corner the same way again.
The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro
The story of a woman haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona as she unravels the dark secrets of her family history in this ravishing and provocative horror novel from the author of Goddess of Filth.
Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. But Alejandra is struggling and times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, a crying woman in a ragged white gown. When Alejandra begins exploring her family’s history, she learns that tragedy is not the only thing she shares with her ancestors. Because the crying woman was with them, too…
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Cat Treadwell