TL;DR: The perfect atmospheric read.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!
Plot: A young girl gets caught up after a revolution and trapped in a truly haunted house.
Characters: This one had a great cast, with two PoV characters I loved.
Setting: This author can write the most beautiful of settings.
Horror: While this one wasn’t much for the shocking horror, the slow build was the best part.
Summary:
Sixteen-year-old Minerva has spent her whole life in the slums of the capital city of an unnamed country that resembles colonial Mexico. Though she lives in the shadow of constant government turmoil, her empty belly and her father’s brutality don’t leave time for politics—especially since her older brothers ran away. Minerva can’t take another beating or miss another meal, so she steals flees to a wealthy loyalist neighborhood to win a job as a lady’s maid to an elderly widow.
Minerva and Encarnación del Valle—the proud and acerbic widow—form an unlikely duo. They are both survivors in their own ways, stubborn and used to being underestimated. For a time, Minerva is happy. She has food and safety in a house lit and warmed by magical chispa. Why should she care who runs the country or how her employer afford the magic?
But when the viceroy sweeps back into power on a wave of horrific bloodshed that sweeps away any hope Minerva had of seeing her brothers again, Encarnación retreats to the del Valle’s mountainside estate, the Casa de la Gardenias. Minerva finds herself surrounded by dozens of more experienced servants and the cruel, scheming younger del Valles, but the living are the least of anyone’s worries at the Casa de las Gardenias, and soon Minerva discovers that this ancient estate is home to forces far older and more bloodthirsty than the fascist del Valles or the liberal guerrillas amassing in the surrounding wilderness.
Thoughts:
I love Isabel Cañas. Almost everything she has written has been a hit and has truly stuck with me. I can remember each work, and the place and how it sits in both history and fiction/horror. This is not exception even with it being considered YA. In fact this might be a close tie for my favorite of her works.
This one follows Minerva, a desperately poor girl who flees her family situation to work for old woman. The two work well together and after a coup, move to a house outside the city. There Minerva finds the house has more than living occupants.
This one has some notes of found family, protecting what family you have, and how hate and grief can carry you through even dark times. Minerva deals with so much loss here, and instead of taking it laying down she fights back. Even our surprise second PoV is filled with rage for those lost, and he’s determined to have his revenge.
This is fantastic. Ignore the young adult label on this because this can be enjoyed by everyone. There is no romance here, just a great story of fighting back, revenge, and haunting. All the stars, a big win for me.
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