A New Haunted House to Haunt My Nightmares: A Review of The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

I have once again returned to my beloved Gothic literature. I can never stay away too long. I shook things up a little these past few weeks. We talked historical fiction and romance. Therefore I deserve to treat myself to my favorite genre.

So please give a warm welcome to The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a quick content and trigger warning to give before continuing on with the review. The Hacienda has mentions of sexual assault, rape, and various forms of abuse. These topics are pretty relevant to the plot so please take care while reading. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

At the end of Mexico’s War of Independence, and the start of the story, Beatriz and her mother nearly lose their lives in a house fire started by the same men who came to execute Beatriz’s father. The family’s fall from grace forces the two women to move in with Beatriz’s vindictive aunt. Though Beatriz has a plan to escape said aunt. Using her feminine wiles, Beatriz secures a proposal from the handsome, influential, and wealthy Rodolfo Solórzano.

Rodolfo’s first wife died suddenly a few years back under mysterious circumstances. Rumors float around about what may have happened to her, but Beatriz ignores them all. Her eyes are on Rodolfo’s country estate and the security it provides. But this is a horror story, and Hacienda San Isidro is nothing like Beatriz envisioned.

Disembodied voices float down the halls, visions of dead bodies in the walls invade Beatriz’s mind, it feels like unseen beings watch her every move, and Juana, her new sister-in-law, takes a dislike to Beatriz almost instantly. Beatriz’s fears are written off by everyone around her. There’s nothing wrong with the hacienda. The strange symbols on the doorways mean nothing. The servants burn copal incense for fun. And there’s really no reason why everyone leaves the house before the sun vanishes.

Yep, no real reason why any of this is happening. The place totally isn't haunted.

Beatriz desperately needs help. The hacienda needs an exorcism. Only one person can seemingly help: Padre Andrés. He is no ordinary priest. Not only does he have the power of god on his side, he is also a witch. Will he be able to remove the evil presence in Beatriz’s new home? Or will Beatriz fall victim to the hacienda? Find out in The Hacienda.

I am in love. I am obsessed. This is Gothic Literature! Everything I love about the genre is presented to me on a silver platter in The Hacienda.

Perhaps what I love most about Gothic lit is the main character questioning their sanity. In traditional haunted house Gothic lit, the biggest question is if the main character is experiencing a haunting or if they are actually losing their mind. To do this day, people are still debating this in regards to The Haunting of Hill House. In contemporary haunted house Gothic lit, that question is gone. Nowadays the main character loses their mind thanks to a supernatural haunting. I greatly appreciate that The Hacienda kinda brings the question back. Yes, the hacienda is indeed haunted. Beatriz is being haunted by the spirit of her husband’s first wife. But for a brief moment, I had the question of if the haunting was real or if the bitter voices in Beatriz’s life were getting to her. It was a brief and fleeting moment, but it was there. Also, I would like there to be more haunted house novels that go back to the traditional, questioning narrative. If you have any recommendations of contemporary haunted house books that are like that, please drop them in the comments, I’d love to read them.

TBH, drop any haunted house book in the comments.

The Hacienda is an all-around phenomenal read. Isabel Cañas paints such a vivid picture on each page that I could not put the book down. I have not ruined my sleep schedule for a book in quite some time, but this story was so engrossing that I stayed up far too late multiple nights in a row to read just one more chapter. The descriptions of the hacienda were all hauntingly beautiful, and the horrors Beatriz experienced left me with chills.

Speaking of Beatriz, she is definitely the strongest heroine I’ve read about this year. She is hell-bent on survival. That is the driving force behind all her actions. Everything the hacienda throws at her tests her resilience and will power. She proves herself to be a strong character with her drive, and her not being scared to ask for help fairly early on really proves that to me. She knows she is out of her league when it comes to her new haunted house. She knows she cannot face these horrors alone. Which is where Padre Andrés comes in.

Padre Andrés is another fantastic character. He is both a witch and a Catholic priest. These two major parts of his identity cause quite the identity crisis and internal conflict. Isabel Cañas does a fantastic job exploring the effects the struggle between what family and society expect of you and doing what you want out of life has on people with Padre Andrés’s story.

I am floored by this novel. The Hacienda is one of the best books I’ve read this year and Isabela Cañas’s next two novels are sitting in my shopping cart as we speak. I cannot recommend The Hacienda enough to fans of Gothic literature.

Please give The Hacienda a standing ovation now and forever.

And with that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you for joining me today, Book Nerds, I will see you all again next week with another new review. If you can’t wait that long then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you would like something not related to books then you should check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk anything and everything. I think it’s fitting that I recommend you all listen to my series called Haunt or Hoax. I tell my friends the story of a haunted house and they have to decide if everything I tell them is true or not. You can listen to the show on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!