This book by Isabel Cañas was recommended on a bookish episode of the NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast early in the summer. I’m always a sucker for a good ghost story, so I checked to see if my library has the audiobook and it does!
This book is so good! And the narrator does a phenomenal job, so I highly recommend listening to this one on audio if that’s your thing.
The story is mostly told from Beatriz’s perspective, although several chapters are also told from the perspective of Father Andrés, a local priest who also happens to be a witch, but we’ll get into that later.
The years in which the book takes place were said in Spanish so I can only guess that it takes place in the late 1820s based on my very limited knowledge of how numbers work in European languages (I know enough French and Italian that I can usually get the gist when it comes to Spanish.) There are mentions of the recent war of independence against Spain, which was my biggest clue as to the timing of the book.
Beatriz’s father made the mistake of backing the wrong side during the war. According to Beatriz, he was for Mexican independence, but was in favor of Mexico starting their own monarchy rather than a republic. He was arrested and executed as a traitor and their home was burned in the middle of the night.
Beatriz and her mother had to rely on the reluctant charity of her family, who never approved of her marriage to Beatriz’s father because he was of an inferior social class. Beatriz’s aunt treats Beatriz and her mother like servants and Beatriz can’t wait to get out of there.
When the handsome, charming, rich Don Rodolfo Solorzano proposes to Beatriz he seems like nothing short of her knight in shining armor galloping in on a white steed to rescue her.
Beatriz’s mother doesn’t approve of the match because she’s not sure about Rodolfo’s character and she points out that Beatriz doesn’t know him well enough to tie herself to him for life.
Almost as soon as Beatriz steps over the threshold of her new home, Hacienda San Isidro, things start to get weird.
When she’s exploring the house on her own, she discovers what appears to be a naturally cold storage room, which she takes note of as something super useful.
But it’s not just the storage room that’s cold. Juana, Beatriz’s new sister-in-law, tells Beatriz the house tends to be drafty, but it quickly becomes apparent that it’s more than that. The cold tends to come and go without rhyme or reason, and when it’s accompanied by blood-soaked sheets that are suddenly clean the next time the trunk is opened, Beatriz knows something is up.
Juana denies there’s anything weird about the house and even tries to convince Beatriz she’s imagining things.
But Beatriz saw Juana’s panic at the sight of the bloody sheets, so she knows Juana saw it, too. The question is why is Juana trying to gaslight her?
Juana almost has Beatriz convinced she’s going crazy when Padre Andrés shows up. Andrés inherited some gifts from his grandmother. He can hear spirits and sometimes cure illnesses. He started hanging out in churches as a boy because it was the only place that was quiet because the demons couldn’t get in.
Andrés’s grandmother convinced him to join the church because she figured he can do more good there, but it’s a bit like a sheep hiding among wolves. The Inquisition is still alive and well in Mexico and if the other priests find out about Andrés’s special gifts, they’ll probably burn him.
So he’s surprised when Beatriz realizes what he can do and isn’t afraid. On the contrary, she quickly realizes that he’s the only one who can help her with this haunted house she’s living in.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Here be spoilers, so consider yourself warned.
Beatriz is not Rodolfo’s first wife. He had another named Maria Catalina who was supposedly very beautiful and very cruel. She died a couple years ago, allegedly of typhus, but Beatriz eventually realizes that story doesn’t add up. Why would someone who died of typhus be so angry?
And it’s not the impotent rage of moaning and the occasional cold spell. Beatriz feels cold hands on her back trying to push her down the stairs.
So, yeah, Maria Catalina was murdered, but I won’t tell you who killed her or why. I’ll just say she’s not happy about being usurped.
It makes it kind of an interesting story about colonialism. Beatriz enters this house she has never seen before and has no connection to and starts calling it hers. The ghost of Maria Catalina doesn’t take kindly to that. By the time they get rid of the ghost, Beatriz realizes the house really belongs to the people who live there and work the land.
It helps that she doesn’t really need the money because by that point one of her dad’s relatives has died and left their house to Beatriz’s mom, so Beatriz can just go live with her.
Andrés is also a member of the indigenous community, which adds a whole other layer to the fact that Maria Catalina banished him from the hacienda, even though his aunt and cousin worked there.
At the same time, the fact that he has this connection to the spirit world that no one else in this book seems to have makes it a bit of a “Magical Indian” stereotype, which is not a great look.
I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, though, and would absolutely be willing to read more by Cañas.