Weep, Woman, Weep: A Gothic Fairytale about Ancestral Hauntings by Maria DeBlassie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an intriguing and engaging read, with a gothic fairytale feeling to the writing, which had me hooked from start to finish. Based on the story of La Llorona, and set in Sueño, New Mexico the storyline flows well and kept me gripped. The women of Sueño, don’t know how to live a life without sorrows, and that’s because La Llorona roams the waterways. She’s looking for the next generation of girls to baptise, by filling them with more tears than any woman should have to hold. The only way to avoid the Weeping Woman is to not walk along the riverbank at night and try to keep their sadness in check, as it’s the the pain and heartache passed down through the generations that attracts her.

Mercy lost her best friend to La Llorona, but she survived, however, she didn’t come back quite right and knows that La Llorona won’t be satisfied until she gets the one soul that got away to the bottom of the river. As Mercy enters into a battle for her life, she goes on a journey into magic, healing and rebirth, as she fights to break the chains of generational trauma. Mercy needs to reclaim her soul from ancestral hauntings and so turns to things that she knows can save her, plant medicine, pulp books, and the promise of a strong love, that not even La Llorona can stop from happening. Although a fairly short read it’s an emotional story, and I really felt for Mercy. Both her character and the New Mexico setting came to life through the descriptive narrative, making me feel immersed in the story.

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