An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
An Immaculate Deception is a debut Historical Horror novel from Isabela Livino. This book is set in 1870s-Brazil, where we meet and follow a woman named Madalena.
Madalena has fallen in love with a dashing young man, and as sometimes happens, finds herself pregnant, out of wedlock. Having been raised in a strict and religious household, Madalena fears her mother’s head could actually explode when she learns Madalena’s secret.
After Madalena confesses, her Mom’s head doesn’t explode, but she does put up a forceful ultimatum: marry, or surrender the baby.
Madalena feels confident that the baby’s daddy, Leandro, will do the right thing when he hears the news. He’s bound to propose. He loves her. Yeah, yeah, he loves her.
She picks a night to tell him, and just as she’s about to share the news, a terrible storm sweeps in and causes the carriage they’re traveling in to careen off the road.
Awakening after the accident, Madalena finds herself in a bed at Leandro’s secluded estate. She’s being looked over by a Doctor Lobo, and she let’s him know she’s pregnant, to which he’s surprised.
Leandro is also there, but he doesn’t seem the same since the accident. His personality has completely changed. No longer the charming and affectionate lover she once knew, he’s now glowering and always watching.
It’s not just Leandro though, the house itself sets Madalena on edge. She fears it’s haunted. There’s phantom smells, things disappearing, a startling lack of mirrors. She begins to fear Leandro and Doctor Lobo as well. She doesn’t trust them at all. She feels trapped.
She’s got to figure out what’s happening here and get away before it’s too late. It’s not just herself she needs to think about, but also her unborn child. It’s a race against the clock for Madalena; one girl against the world.
This was good. I enjoyed my time with it, and while it didn’t necessarily blow me away, I feel like it’s a strong debut novel. I was particularly intrigued in the 1st-half. It was mysterious and I enjoyed the descriptions of Leandro’s house and the things going on there.
Additionally, there was shift at one point that really surprised me, and I loved that the author chose to set the narrative up the way that she did. It made the reveals more impactful, IMO.
There were some aspects that I found odd and slightly-confusing, but for the most part it had a solid premise, good characters and lightly-creepy vibes.
I would recommend this to fans of The Hacienda, or Mexican Gothic. I think if you like those sort of Gothic Historical Horror stories, this could work for you as well.
I will say, I do feel a little weird about the cover. Speaking of The Hacienda. I feel like perhaps they hit a little to close to Isabel Cañas’s cover style. As soon as I saw this, I thought, does Isabel Cañas have a book coming out that I don’t know about?
I feel like it’s sort of her thing now to have this beautiful, artistic covers with a lone woman in a red dress, especially outside, with some sort of weather brewing, and that’s exactly what this is. I just wish they would have gone in a different direction, as it feels a little copy-catty.
With this being said, this isn’t a review of the Publisher’s choice of cover, it’s a review of the story itself, and that’s what I’ve based my rating on.
Thank you to the publisher, Dutton, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would definitely pick up more from Isabela Livino in the future.