Book Description 

When Papi Ramon, the patriarch of the wealthy Abreu family dies, he gives the family one last message in the will: “One of you is el bacà, the demon that I made a deal with. Get rid of them or you will be damned.” Xiomara, the uncontested favorite of Papi Ramon (and therefore the least liked in the family), watches as everyone dismisses this as the joke of a senile old man and demands the lawyer obtain the previous will Papi wrote.

While the lawyer drives back to his office, a storm breaks out, forcing the entire family—Xiomara’s aunts and uncles and cousins—to remain in the house. And the words of Papi’s will hangs over their heads even heavier than the rain clouds. Over the course of the night, scandal after scandal is revealed to the public about the family. Suddenly a tense few hours of surviving her family turns into a vicious night of recrimination, violence, accusations…and murder.

Xiomara is faced with an impossible task: uproot a demon and somehow kill it or excise the ghosts that linger within her own family.

And the clock is ticking…

My Review 

I’ve been on a horror kick lately, and the thought of a secret demon intrigued me. 

Xiomara wants nothing to do with her mother’s family, but doesn’t want to miss a last chance for closure following the death of her beloved Papi Ramon. 

Needless to say, she doesn’t expect to be stuck in a gloomy house with her family after the massive revelation that one of them is a demon who Papi Ramon struck a Faustian bargain with. 

As the storm rages, accusations fly around and all the skeletons come out of the closet. Metaphorically, of course. This book is about demons, not skeletons. 

Overall, the book is interesting, but the pace is more than a bit slow. The pacing is helped by the punctuation of more secrets, which helps keep things interesting. 

I would recommend this book. I think it might work better as a limited series on a streaming network than a book because the drawn-out nature would be a strength in a long form content rather than the confines of a book. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from William Morrow/NetGalley.