Isabel Cañas

Historical fiction, romance, vampires! Vampires of El Norte is a captivating blend of genres, two of which I don't regularly read. This novel was fantastic! Beautifully written, with evocative imagery, gorgeous descriptions of twilight and skies, food and plant life. Peppered with Mexican words and phrases that sent me to my dictionary, Vampires of El Norte enhanced my vocabulary as well.

I enjoyed the alternating third-person viewpoints of protagonists Nena and Néstor. Their history, their show more relationships, their inner states were enthrallingly rendered. The scenes of closeness and intimacy between them were filled with longing and desire and were sweaty, steamy, delicious.

In her author's note, Isabel Cañas talks about all of the challenges and hard work that went into the writing of Vampires of El Norte. Kind of makes me feel bad that I devoured the novel in only six days. But I couldn't help myself: it's just that good. show less

I was looking forward to this book quite a bit, based on the setting (1823 Mexico) and the description of Rebecca + spooky horror. Thus my disappointment that it just doesn't work for me is huge.

To start, the additional marketing line that The Hacienda is at all similar to Mexican Gothic is just that - and laughable, too. They're both haunted house stories set in Mexico, but that's about it. I found Mexican Gothic much more sinister, and thrilling, and more pointed in its treatment of show more colonialism, religion, and the other usual Gothic themes.


The Hacienda has some very good, evocative sections but mostly falls flat for me. I quit when on page 110, we get this paragraph:

“I will be safe, Doña Beatriz.”

But I wouldn’t be. If I knew anything about how the house felt—and lately I was beginning to worry I knew altogether too much—I knew that it resented people like him and me. People with plans and ideas. Dread drummed a militant beat in my chest at the thought of going back to my room and sitting in the dark, all the while aware he was poking and prodding around the house’s entrails. He didn’t understand what this house was. He couldn’t.

Up to this point, there has been no indication that the house resents Beatriz because of her plans for it. In fact, we know that the housekeeper and Beatriz's husband's sister do as much as they can to avoid being in the house, but not that they have any plans for it. Though it's not stated outright, it's suggested that they are also harmed by the house - in fact, the housekeeper doesn't spend time in the kitchen without spells of protection.

So where is this coming from, that the house resents people with plans for it? Does Beatriz completely ignore everyone else in San Isidro who says the house is bad news? She certainly seems to have a lot of disdain for absolutely everyone she meets, without much textual reason why. The paragraph above isn't much different from chapter 2, which I had to read three times before I could spot in the text indications that Beatriz was hungry to be in charge, and assumed she was hated by the residents of San Isidro for being the new patróness. (It was just so... mild, I didn't pick up on the grasping greed at all!)

Most of the writing style is the same breathless short sentences for emotional emphasis, but it generally feels flat for me, without any real stakes behind them, thus far. Beatriz doesn't need to be a likable character, but I do want to care about what happens to her. Unfortunately, I don't. Juana, the patrón's older sister now displaced from her position in charge, is far more interesting to me than the bland new wife who doesn't seem to care about anything but shoving her new position into her aunt's face.

This book could have been so interesting and compelling, but it has no real stakes and treats the more interesting secondary characters as not interesting, actually. (At least, as of page 110.)

Such a pity. show less

Perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic. Chilly, atmospheric and spooky, this book will send shivers down your spine.

Beatriz's father was executed for his part in the Mexican War of Independence, so Beatriz and her mother are forced to live with relatives who don't really want them. When handsome, wealthy widower Rodrigo proposes to her after meeting her at a ball, Beatriz sees her chance to finally have a home of her own again. Hacienda San Islo, Rodrigo's country retreat, is supposed to be her show more salvation, but it quickly turns into her nightmare.

Spooky things start happening as soon as Beatriz crosses the threshhold, and the intensity only increases after Rodrigo returns to the capital. After Rodrigo's sister and some of the staff confess to being spooked by the house, Beatriz reaches out to the local priests to bless it. Only Padre Andres seems willing to listen to her. The same secrets that might get Padre Andres executed by the Inquisition mean that he's the only person who may be able help Beatriz: native magic runs in his veins. Beatriz is a fighter, and she's not about to let her dreams be taken from her without a fight. As she and Andres grow closer, boundaries get crossed and emotions run high. Beatriz also finds evidence that Rodrigo may not be the man she thinks he is, and that the story of his first wife's death might be more complicated than she'd like to believe.

Then Rodrigo returns, bringing everything to its tipping point.

Beatriz's fighting spirit gives you a heroine to root for. Andres' kindness and care for the villagers makes him the perfect foil to the careless, cruel Rodrigo. This was a book that kept me tearing through its pages, wanting to see if Beatriz would prevail in the end and carve out a place to call home. show less

To have a book so well written and thought out that it deserves a second after reading to come to terms with the ending is truly something wonderful. Rarely have I had to sit quietly to myself and reflect on a book, but this book deserves a reflection. This book infatuated me; it burrowed beneath my bones and settled within whispering “more, more, more”. Every day I had to pick up and read to placate this possession it was having over my own self.
The book is told by the two main show more characters, Alba and Elias. We follow the star-crossed lovers as they traverse towards Mina San Gabriel and its doom. Cañas does a fantastic job of intersecting the line of control, who’s control? The control of a woman’s body, the control of the Inquisitors and the church, or the control of the mercury and money flowing through the veins deep within the mine. show less