Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weep, Woman, Weep: A Gothic Fairytale about Ancestral Hauntings by Maria DeBlassie – Review by YellowTulips11

I was very intrigued by the premise of the story of a woman fighting and resisting the constant haunting of La Llorna. As a child, I too, grew up hearing the tales of the woman in white weeping for her lost children by the river. I couldn’t wait to see where this story would lead.

The story takes place in the town of Sueño, New Mexico. I was immediately drawn to the friendship and solidarity between the two characters, Mercy and Sherry. It made me think of my own childhood best friend and I related to the characters’ growth together. I wish the story delved a little deeper into the personal journeys of the girls as they faced the many challenges in their lives. I clearly understood the many emotions Mercy had throughout her life during her times of strife and grief and found myself rooting for her success as the story progressed. Sherry’s story wasn’t as detailed and I found myself wanting to know much more about her life and everything going on inside of her.

Due to the short length of the book, parts of the story felt rushed. I had a hard time following the story at certain points, as the storyline digressed multiple times in the same paragraph. Mercy bounced around a lot as she described things and events. It was then I realized the story is written as if you are having a conversation with Mercy and she is telling you the tale herself. Just as the stories of La Llorna are passed down verbally, generation after generation, Mercy was passing her story down in the same verbal context. I felt the connection to “Weep, Woman, Weep” just as I felt to my own ancestral stories from generations before me. It definitely left me wishing the story was longer with more details of the characters’ lives and a glimpse into the future and how it turned out.

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