Motherhood makes for potent storytelling material. Horror fiction about motherhood highlights the vulnerability and physicality of childbearing and childrearing and all its companion terrors. In The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro, motherhood’s many complexities are brought to bear in a story inspired by La Llorona, the haunt of Mexican folklore. After learning the barebones story of La Llorona as a young adult, it inspired both revulsion and a profound curiosity to know more about the mournful murderer of her own offspring. There’s a reason you can find versions of these undone women in white across cultures, from Ireland’s banshee to the hantus of my own background, Malaysia’s langsuir and pontianak. As in The Haunting of Alejandra, they awaken a universal primeval terror, and if you dive deeper you’ll find so much more than what chokes the surface.
Note: This book comes with a lot of content warnings, including maternal mortality, attempted suicide, child endangerment, and rape.
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English (US)