A demonic presence. A forbidden love story. A haunted silver mine. An exorcism (or three). A conniving priest. And a mercury poisoning subplot inspired by an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Isabel Cañas’ latest book, “The Possession of Alba Díaz” (out now, pp. 384, Berkely), is the amalgamation of all the parts of her as a reader and writer. She says it’s “part ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ part inspired by an intense Catholic upbringing, part all the gothics I read as a kid, especially ‘Wuthering Heights,’ and part what I really wished I could find on shelves.
“Because how incredible would it have been if ‘Wuthering Heights,’ instead of taking place in the Yorkshire moors, took place somewhere in Mexico?
Cañas − who has cemented her place in the speculative fiction genre with her debut novel, “The Hacienda” (2022) and follow-up “Vampires of El Norte” (2023) – transports us to the north-central state of Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1765 when a plague sweeps through the city as our protagonist, Alba, flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s mine for refuge. But Alba, who until now has played it safe in life and love, meets Elías, a haunted Heathcliff-esque outcast in his family, and the two slowly realize they’re the only ones they can trust.
As Alba makes herself comfortable at Casa Calaveras, a mansion nestled in the remote mines, she’s quickly met with dark, cold forces lurking beneath her skin. She begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking and violent convulsions.
Through the novel’s shifting perspectives between Elías (who suffers from quicksilver and mercury poisoning, inspired by a “Grey’s Anatomy” episode: “I just thought that specter of death hovering over him was dreadfully romantic,” Cañas says) and Alba, Cañas draws historical inspiration from the Spanish colonial era when Zacatecas led the silver mining boom in Mexico.
Beyond exploring Mexico’s oftentimes painful history in her three books, Cañas strikes the perfect balance between historical fiction, gothic horror, including themes of the supernatural, and, of course, a slow-burn romance.
Or as Cañas and her legion of readers call it: horromance. “The Possession of Alba Díaz” also embraces “speculative and spooky elements with a large dollop of yearning and pining – which is my bread and butter as an artist and as a reader, frankly,” Cañas says.
How gothic lit classics like ‘Wuthering Heights’ inspire Isabel Cañas’ work
It’s not just because she’s a Scorpio. Cañas has been a fan of Gothic literature classics – including Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” – since she was a teen.
Brontë’s controversial, but bewitching, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw were keeping her up at night as, page after page, she devoured the toxic love story for the ages (“I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!” Cañas interjects as she recites Brontë’s famous lines from the 1847 book).
“It rewired my 14-year-old brain reading that book,” she says.
Also on her teen TBR was “Twilight,” because the books (at least the first one, she clarifies) had that “same marriage of supernatural elements and yearning.” But naturally, as she grew older, her reading tastes evolved.
“The gothic novels I was picking up got more and more serious and less romantic,” the Seattle-based author says. “For example, ‘Dracula,’ which is romantic in its own way, but it’s not a gothic romance in that classical definition. I also really adored ‘Beloved’ and it absolutely shapes me as an author today.”
‘There’s money that will be put on the table for books like this’
Yes, we have the King of Horror, Stephen King. But horror’s reign dates back to literary queens Mary Shelley and her “Frankenstein” (1818), Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” (1959), and later, Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” (1976).
Now, female authors in the horror space, including Silvia Moreno-Garcia (“The Bewitching,” “Mexican Gothic”), Agustina Bazterrica (“Tender Is the Flesh,” “The Unworthy”), Mariana Enriquez (“Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave,” “Our Share of Night”), and many others, are opening the doors for a more diverse group of voices in the genre.
“I started writing ‘The Hacienda’ when ‘Mexican Gothic’ came out, and I thought, ‘I hope this does well because it might help my little book.’ I think that’s what happened because ‘Mexican Gothic’ kicked down the door and showed publishers that there’s a hunger and there’s a readership and there’s money that will be put on the table for books like this,” Caña says.
She recalls growing up and craving connection through literature, but “there wasn’t a lot” to pick from shelves, especially not in the classics written by predominantly white authors featuring predominantly white characters.
“There’s an energy that connects you to certain books that are also written by Latinas, where you’re like, it just makes sense,” Cañas adds.
To be at a point in her writing career where her three books are being named alongside other bestselling authors is not only a point of pride but also jealousy for readers in this day and age. “I’m so jealous of readers these days because there’s such a wealth of books written by us,” she says.
“I want to hold the door open as much as I can to bring in writers behind me because I’m so proud of the moment we’re in,” Cañas adds. “I just want us to take up so much more space. We’re such a huge part of this country – not just in terms of population but in terms of language and history, and more than ever, it is essential to take up space. That’s a radical act and I’m going to continue doing it.”