Adeline
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, pro choice, body autonomy, patriarchy, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, pro choice, body autonomy, patriarchy, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.