Title: These Vengeful Wishes
Author: Vanessa Montalban
Genres: Contemporary, Horror
Pages: 320
Publisher: Zando Young Readers
Review Copy: Received physical ARC from publisher
Availability: Available now
Summary: When her stepfather is arrested, aspiring artist Ceci moves back to her mother’s hometown of Santa Aguas, an eccentric small town steeped in the legend of La Cegua, the specter of a wronged witch who appears on lonely roads at night, luring untrustworthy men to their deaths.
Ceci and her mother take up residence in the abandoned manor of the Sevilla family, rumored to have been cursed by La Cegua, where she begins to uncover a past that seems to be connected to her mother. The more she learns of the Sevillas, the more Ceci finds herself forming a strange affinity with the feared Cegua, who she suspects is the one inspiring her paintings of a mysterious door in the forest.
When the very door Ceci has been painting appears in the woods, she decides to venture through it with her new friend, Jamie. Together, they discover a well, guarded by the statue of a veiled woman. A well for granting wishes. The well of La Cegua.
What starts off as harmless fun quickly escalates into something sinister when Ceci realizes that the wishes are putting the people she loves in danger and testing her own penchant for vengeance. After learning others are also searching for the well, Ceci must confront the truth of her mother’s past and prevent La Cegua’s wishes from being used for the wrong reasons. Ceci knows too well how much people will sacrifice for power. Every wish has its price, and La Cegua never forgets the ones who have wronged her.
Review: [Note: These Vengeful Wishes includes brief depictions of domestic/intimate partner violence and some minor body horror.]
Vanessa Montalban’s These Vengeful Wishes is a fun small-town horror of “The Monkey’s Paw” variety. Montalban does a great job of easing us into the eerie atmosphere of Santa Aguas with the beckoning of the woods, the unsettling portraits in the Sevilla manor, the interactions with psychics, and Ceci’s many visions/flashbacks of La Cegua. Even when the book was focused on a non-horror plot line, like Ceci and her mother’s relationship, making friends in a new school, or the developing romance with Jaime, these kinds of details were always a good reminder to calibrate the reader’s expectations toward the horror side of the spectrum.
One thing I really appreciated about These Vengeful Wishes were Ceci’s relationships with her mom and with Jamie. Her relationship with her mother is uncomfortable and distant, and Ceci’s mother is so obviously keeping secrets that Ceci, understandably, is often irritated by her. Ceci’s resignation regarding her mother’s pattern of behavior implies a long history without having to dive very deeply into anything beyond the most recent marriage and sets the stage for later reveals regarding Ceci’s mother’s last relationships in Santa Aguas. Jamie, in contrast, is a warm and frequent presence as he and Ceci work together to unravel the mysteries of the Sevillas’ curse. Though it was clear to me what the arc of their relationship would be like, I still enjoyed following along and felt that Montalban did a great job of integrating many of the romantic beats into the horror plot so that the romance didn’t feel like it was detracting from the larger picture. I also appreciated most of the background relationships, though part of me wishes we had gotten just a little more of Jamie and his father.
Ceci was an interesting protagonist: fiercely independent, frequently lonely, uncertain and a little scared of her own future. Even when I was frustrated with some of her decisions, I always understood why she was making them, and that kept me interested, hoping that things could change for the better for her. Her wishes and the consequences she felt for them were a great way to develop her character and highlight the differences between her and the previous wishers, and that kept me solidly rooting for her even when she fumbled.
Recommendation: Get it soon if you’re a horror fan who enjoys the uncovering of family secrets. These Vengeful Wishes allocated its time well among the overarching family curse, the mother-daughter relationship, and the main romantic relationship. While some of the plot and character beats were predictable, they were also done well, and I enjoyed the unraveling of the mystery of La Cegua and her curse on the Sevillas in particular and Santa Aguas in general.
Extras: Q&A: Vanessa Montalban, Author of ‘These Vengeful Wishes’