The Hacienda

The Haunting of Hill House meets Rebecca in the debut novel from Isabel Cañas – The Hacienda was a wonderfully gothic horror, and genuinely historically interesting as well. It’s an incredibly impressive debut – taut and suspenseful, but with a real meatiness to the story that gives it depth.

Set in a Mexico still firmly overshadowed by the War for Independence, The Hacienda introduces us to Beatriz, who lost her father in the aftermath and sets out to find a husband able to save herself and her mother from an existence dependent on the meagre kindness of what family she has left. She meets Don Rodolfo Eligio Solórzano Ibarra at a ball, falls in love with the stories of his family’s hacienda and the freedom his status offers her, marries – and begins her own version of a classic Gothic Horror.

Fans of the genre will be used to certain tropes, and Isabel Cañas does an excellent job of writing within it, but allowing herself the freedom to make it her own. There’s no swooning heroines to be found here – Beatriz is willing to meet society’s expectations up to a point, and this woman is a survivor to the core. Rather than submitting to a slow descent into madness, or peril, she acknowledges and refuses to accept the first stages of a home that seems determinedly out to get her. Laughter and whispers in the night? Cold patches of the home and visions of nightmare apparitions? Unacceptable! Beatriz takes action – and it’s so engaging to see a heroine with that kind of backbone.

That doesn’t lessen the scares, you’ll be pleased to hear. Beatriz may be willing to face down the supernatural head on, but this is a hacienda with an axe to grind, and it’s just as ready for a fight as she is. Matters escalate, and quickly – and it’s not just the supernatural entities you have to watch out for, because more than one of the perfectly mundane humans have dark agendas of their own.

If you love the Gothic Horror genre but are keen to see a heroine with more agency and a story with plenty of bite, The Hacienda just might be what you’ve been looking for.