Bochica: A Novel
Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro
A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut gothic horror novel is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside. Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s? In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona, unearthing its darkest secrets and confronting a legacy that threatens to swallow her whole.
Publication Year: 2025
“The only ghost that had ever truly haunted her was regret. She could’ve escaped, but now it was too late. And she had to live with the consequences of her own choices. Those were often the heaviest burdens to carry around.” (3) For fans of Mexican Gothic… sign me up! I feel like I’ve been needing a thriller lately to get me compulsively reading and this book just might be the one! “These days I’ve come realize that when a house lacks the warmth of a home, one becomes overly attached to materials things. We give meaning to them, craving the feeling of comfort and safety, but they’re all as empty as we are.” (30) I like that it’s set in Colombia, with the time period flipping from 1936 to 1923 as journal entries are in between chapters. It sure has a promising start thus far! ✨
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Oh, this one was just unbelievably disappointing. I loved the idea of it (and the cover!), and was so excited to receive an ARC and dive right in. But the intriguing premise and setting that had drawn me in were, ultimately, all Bochica had going for it. The writing is choppy and weak, and feels frankly like an early draft - it desperately needs several more rounds of editing and revision, from the individual word choice/sentence structure level, all the way to more overarching plotting and character development issues. I *was* inspired by this book to go elsewhere and find out more about the waterfall and the building (now a museum) at the heart of the story, as well as the Muisca culture & deities, so I'm grateful for that inspiration to learn about something I was previously ignorant of. I hope this author's next book gets the editorial support it needs to take it to another level, because I really did like the bones of Bochica - I just wish the final product had been stronger. Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
0I could see this having more success as a tv adaptation but the plot didn’t quite hit as I had hoped. I still took a good bunch of quotes/lines from the book so there is that…
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