Synopsis:

When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the younger girl it seizes should flip to the one man she shouldn’t belief…from bestselling writer Isabel Cañas.

In 1765, plague sweeps by Zacatecas. Alba flees together with her rich service provider dad and mom and fiancé, Carlos, to his household’s remoted mine for refuge. However security proves fleeting as different risks quickly naked their tooth: Alba begins affected by unusual hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses one thing chilly lurking beneath her pores and skin. One thing offended. One thing mistaken.

Elías, haunted by a troubled previous, got here to the New World to make his fortune and escape his household’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his enterprise. Which is after all why he can’t assist however discover the rising stress between them each time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood will get stronger.

Within the combat for her life, Alba and Elías change into entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets and techniques, and one another… not realizing that one in every of these items will spell their doom.

Evaluate:

Hey once more pricey reader or listener, halfway by summer time and my contrarian nature is looking for spookies and gloomies so what higher learn than a Gothic historic horror from an writer whose evocative work I’ve cherished up to now?

With due to the Berkley Publishing Group for providing this eARC to our group right here at BWG, let me inform you, pricey reader, why I pounced on Isabel Cañas’ upcoming ebook, The Possession of Alba Dìaz.

You see, regardless that I’m but to learn The Hacienda, which I’m pretty sure I’ll love because it’s bought a lot of my favourite parts, I’ve learn and completely adored Cañas’ earlier ebook, Vampires of El Norte. It was romantic, seeped in folklore and fable, Romantic, in addition to a nuanced and emotionally clever story that touched on many an essential matter from class disparity to feminism. If you wish to learn extra of my gushing on that individual ebook you could find it right here.

What about this new entry in what I hope would be the writer’s very lengthy bibliography? In very brief: Possession is an intriguing and atmospheric story that may hold you hooked until the very finish, even when the romance plot specifically didn’t really feel as transporting as in her earlier work. It does nevertheless match completely inside the demonic possession subgenre.

Let me elaborate, will you?

I don’t consider each ebook by an writer must be run by the achievements of their predecessor, for one. I do nevertheless really feel that after an writer units a bar for his or her writing, the reader will inevitably have set expectations to be met, and it’s completely alright if the writer doesn’t at all times meet that actual mark as a result of they’re making an attempt issues just a little in a different way. I welcome the change as a result of I really like seeing how an writer will flex their expertise in diversified methods, as long as they hold the core of what made me love their writing of their first place. Cañas actually does this together with her latest ebook even when it didn’t have all the parts that made me love the earlier one. Which is why I’ll nonetheless be studying each new factor she writes!

I’ve been obscure, so let’s get to the meat of it, with none precise plot spoilers!

With Possession, the reader is offered with a story and setting that really feel rather more intimate and contained than the sweeping story that was Vampires. In truth, the reader spends many of the story close to a Mexican silver mine that’s remoted within the mountains. Not far off from the writer’s debut, The Hacienda, specializing in a single location to help the claustrophobic and inescapable emotions that might give that rather more depth to the story. Apparently sufficient, I didn’t discover this to be totally the case on this ebook, as I felt the mine itself to be extra of an ominous presence to the sting of our proverbial periphery reasonably than the really claustrophobic, harmful, and extra related set piece that I initially anticipated. Given the course of the narrative focus although, it does really feel like this ebook leaned extra on internal character work reasonably than setting to render its story, and that’s completely wonderful as nicely. All of it performed nicely with the hidden risks of mercury, a extremely poisonous substance, key to the story each actually and metaphorically, and cleverly woven into one of many general themes on this ebook, i.e. dealing with up with the price of one’s actions and deciding their value.

The dynamic between the 2 protagonists could not have been as sturdy in its craving because the one we’d been handled with in Vampires however that doesn’t imply it didn’t work nicely or that they lacked chemistry. There was numerous softness within the methods the writer introduced these two folks collectively, and particularly within the methods through which Elìas exhibits himself to be the best match for Alba purely out of being the one one to deal with her in a polar reverse strategy to different folks in her life. That is one thing the writer has thematically touched on earlier than as nicely, showcasing the varied types of consent and company, by means of one character being the automobile for the opposite to actually emphasize their autonomy on the matter. That stated, whereas Elìas as a personality lacks no depth (simply as a lot as Alba), the writer breezed over a side of the story, specifically his affinity for the occult, that I really feel deserved some extra time and exploration, and would’ve made his connection to Alba ring that a lot more true.

In truth, Cañas returns to themes of feminine autonomy and the combat that it was (and embarrassingly nonetheless is in some locations, let’s be actual). She doesn’t shy from the maneuvering, posturing, and manipulation that was society within the Eighteenth century, the world over. And, much more successfully, she performs rather well with reader expectations in relation to the subject of faith, by a priest character. I’d really argue, that this was my favourite a part of the entire novel in methods I wasn’t even anticipating. Really, regardless that I believed I knew how it could go and the way that character would develop, Cañas really managed to seed true doubt in me until the ultimate act, in a show of masterful and intelligent writing craft. A lot in order that I wasn’t even mad when the ultimate plot twist that I had semi known as on the very starting turned out appropriate! As a result of that’s precisely the identical form of manipulation that her characters fall for and the reader is totally immersed in it! Who’s the true villain of this story? Is what you retain asking your self until the ultimate act and the reply shouldn’t be solely satisfying, but in addition not singular in nature!
I’ve little question that there might be plenty of commentary on this side of the ebook, be it for the metaphors, the tropes, and even the evaluation of what organized faith – on this specific context Catholicism – was on the time the story is ready in (once more, nonetheless is in some locations, however that may be a very huge and nigh limitless can of social commentary worms I received’t unleash right here).

I do nevertheless need to point out one factor and that’s the manner the writer offered a typical undertone in nearly each possession story that has an exorcism of the Catholic selection inside the story. Extra studied and well-read folks than me will inform you concerning the inherent violence in opposition to the harmless that’s the core of a majority of these narratives. They may higher clarify the nuance discovered inside the photos of the righteous priest who harms the possessed within the identify of ridding them of the demon, as a result of even when they undergo and die, not less than their immortal soul will go to Heaven. However what actually caught with me was that Cañas not solely shows the horror of dropping one’s bodily autonomy within the type of protagonist Alba being possessed and all that it entails, however within the invalidation and damage that comes from those that are presupposed to be your allies, hurting you within the identify of their beliefs. Or the even worse betrayal of those that are supposed to like you, letting you be damage and doing nothing to truly be sure to should not merely being tortured, as a result of they’re deferring to a perceived greater authority. Tacit assist/endorsement by inaction is a robust and painful message, and one that ought to by no means be missed.

Whereas pairing themes of feminine autonomy, battle, and company, with plots of possession and ensuing exorcisms shouldn’t be in any manner novel, Isabel Cañas provides a very highly effective entry in that literary area of interest that hits proper to the core, with strains which can be deceptively easy. The distinction between what’s imposed onto an individual and what’s wished is stark, and the best way that the writer exhibits this by giving the reader two opposites who appear to work towards the identical objective however solely the one that’s rooted in consent is the one that may work to unravel the problem, is downright poetic if not sensible.

That sentence could have gotten just a little away from me, I’ll admit. Frankly there’s a lot but to say about this ebook and the way the writer introduced forth plots of rotten household legacy, redemption, the fraught path towards forgiveness or understanding, and even private sacrifice, however this overview has already run manner too lengthy and I don’t need to spoil something!

The Possession of Alba Dìaz comes out August 19th and in the event you’ve loved this writer’s work earlier than you’ll actually like this. As long as you go into it with contemporary eyes and expectations for the romance side, because it is good however very a lot secondary to the opposite (crucial) themes current on this story. And in the event you haven’t but learn Isabel Cañas, what treats you’ve gotten forward! In the event you love atmospheric language and engrossing narratives, steeped in tradition but in addition pervaded by a way of the uncanny and eerie, to not point out her nuanced dealing with of crucial themes, then this writer is for you!

Till subsequent time,
Eleni A.E.