Published by Solaris, 2023, 345 pages.

Beatriz marries Rodolfo Solórzano, a wealthy landowner, to escape her circumstances as a poor relative who is treated by her aunt as a servant. But when she arrives at the Hacienda San Isidro, the home that is to be her domain, it is not at all as she had imagined. Her instinct, when she first walks into the house, is to run as far away from it as possible. The house clearly does not want her there.

The story is set in Mexico in the early 1800s. The Mexican War of Independence is over, and the political landscape is shifting. Beatriz’s father, whom she loved dearly, is taken away by some men one night and shot as a traitor, although he had fought for the country’s independence. Their home is torched. They have nowhere to turn: Beatriz’s mother’s family had not approved of her marriage and had ended all contact. The only person who would still speak to her was her father’s cousin, Sebastián.

And so mother and daughter move in with Sebastián and his wife Fernanda, who clearly does not want them there. They share a tiny room with a single bed and are made to work as domestic staff. When Beatriz meets Rodolfo, and he proposes—much to everyone’s surprise—she accepts. Her mother is furious—Rodolfo is part of the faction responsible for her husband’s murder. But if marrying him will help Beatriz get herself and her mother out of that household, then that is what she will do.

But the hacienda, which she thought would be a home for them, has other plans. The hostility she feels is palpable—it is as if the house is a living creature. And Rodolfo has clearly not been open with her. How exactly did his first wife die? And why has he not said anything about his sister Juana, who lives on the property?

Rodolfo’s work means that he has to be in the capital, leaving Beatriz alone in the house, the house that Juana and the cook Ana Luisa will not enter: they refuse to go beyond the kitchen.

This is what the house has been waiting for. Beatriz hears voices calling, there are chill winds where there shouldn’t be any, doors slam shut on their own, and her silks in the trunk are covered in blood, which disappears when she comes back to the room. And one day, when she opens up a part of the house that had been boarded up, she sees the walls peel away, revealing a skeleton. But when she looks again, the walls are untouched.

Isabel Cañas writes vividly and makes you sense the menace in the house and feel Beatriz’s terror. The first night on her own, she has dinner with Juana and Ana Luis and then goes into the house with a candle. She knows that she is completely alone when she hears a lilting voice behind her.

“I focused on climbing the stairs as quickly as I could. Cool fingers brushed over my neck—no, I was imagining it, I had to be imagining the sensation of death-cold fingertips brushing over my earlobes, tugging at my hair.

“Then two hands placed themselves on my shoulders and shoved me forward.”

People start to die. Are the deaths the work of a vengeful spirit or is there a human behind them?

Her only ally is Andrés, a mestizo priest from the village of San Isidro, with whom Beatriz forms a bond. Andrés is also a witch, something he keeps well hidden from his colleagues in the church. But when Beatriz’s life is threatened, he needs to use whatever tools he can to save her.

This is a gothic novel with a lot more woven into it. It is a portrait of a certain period of Mexican history, with its inequalities and strict social hierarchies: a feudal system, with a clear divide between the landowners and peasants. The Catholic Church dominates, although the old beliefs are still very much alive, in spite of the fact that the Inquisition had happened fairly recently.

There is also the question of race—Beatriz, like Andrés, is mestiza, but downplays it by staying out of the sun. When Rodolfo comes home on a visit, after Beatriz has been out gardening for a few days, he is shocked by how dark she has become. As Rodolfo’s second wife, clearly much darker than his first, she is an object of curiosity among the landowners.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this book—it is chilling, and the house, quite literally, comes alive.

It is also a tender love story between Beatriz and Andrés, a love that has no future and cannot be spoken of. If you read this blog regularly, you would know that I do not usually have a lot of patience for romance, but in this context, it does work.

This is a book that will chill you to the bone. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!