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Haunted America
374 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 25, 2026
I won this in a goodreads giveaway.
1.5 stars
The first two chapters were very difficult to read through. It wasn't the content but the presentation. The writing is juvenile, with clipped sentences, repeated phrases (like "front-seat row"), and a lack of flow. The language shows that this is meant for adults, but the overall style feels more appropriate for middle-grade.
10-year old Leslie Berrios lives in a Texas Latino ghetto (something the reader apparently had to be told multiple times) with an other brother (who is repeatedly told to not join a gang), a 3-year-old brother, and two loving parents who work hard to get them to a nicer area. Her dad drives fear in gang members who try to recruit his eldest son, but the next day he and Michael are gunned down.
And the life insurance money is nowhere near enough to get them someplace nicer, particularly since mom can't keep up with a mortgage, so they're stuck.
Suddenly, three times in one night, their corpses come back to life and only when Leslie bangs her fist on something and tells them to leave do they leave. Except they explode and leave body fluids everywhere. Her mom feels Leslie is performing necromancy on purpose, but Leslie realizes the catalyst and somehow prevents it from happening again.
A lot of this (and the rest of the story) takes place as internal thoughts, with little action/interaction. I felt very disconnected from the first two chapters.
But I won this, so I continued.
Twenty years later, she's working for the D.A. The 45-year-old D.A. is handsome, and she, as his First Assistant, is beautiful with a commanding presence. I feel like I'm reading a novel from the '90s. Still, I thought the writing was better--I don't think Cortinas' strength is writing from a child's perspective--until the middle of chapter 3 when one paragraph goes "We'll begin with Nelson...". This is not how we introduce people in a novel.
I am going to try to stop discussing the writing style and focus on the story. If I didn't win this, I'd have marked as DNF by the end of chapter 3.
(okay one more: in chapter 13, one chapter begins with "As you can probably guess, this wasn't a police-sanctioned move." What? Is this being told to us by someone, like as a tale by a firepit or something? How did this get so many 5-star ratings?!)
I liked the D.A., Samuel Valdez, from the start. He seems to understand Leslie and her death-related issues.
I also like how, despite this being Texas, quite a few characters only care if Leslie does her job well. I'm so tired of books painting every Republican in a negative light.
Ricky becomming a cop is cool, though he is cocky (which is fine, that happens).
So much happens in some of the chapters that don't feel like they fit with the story. It's backstory on characters, but done so in a way that the information makes the novel drag.
Chapter 11 brings it all back around to the haunted-ness (namely that almost every building in the U.S. is haunted). It ties into the police work against the gangs and cartels but there is no nice segue, instead making me feel like I'm experiencing literary whiplash. Also, something stupid happens that frustrates me. On the other hand, the story itself finally gets better...though at 50% through, was it worth the issues I had in the first half of the book, which continue in the second half?
Between some misspellings, grammar errors, choppy writing, insane repetition, and disjointed storytelling, this could have used another round (or two or three) of editing. I was surprised to see that there WAS a copyeditor involved.
1.5 stars
The first two chapters were very difficult to read through. It wasn't the content but the presentation. The writing is juvenile, with clipped sentences, repeated phrases (like "front-seat row"), and a lack of flow. The language shows that this is meant for adults, but the overall style feels more appropriate for middle-grade.
10-year old Leslie Berrios lives in a Texas Latino ghetto (something the reader apparently had to be told multiple times) with an other brother (who is repeatedly told to not join a gang), a 3-year-old brother, and two loving parents who work hard to get them to a nicer area. Her dad drives fear in gang members who try to recruit his eldest son, but the next day he and Michael are gunned down.
And the life insurance money is nowhere near enough to get them someplace nicer, particularly since mom can't keep up with a mortgage, so they're stuck.
Suddenly, three times in one night, their corpses come back to life and only when Leslie bangs her fist on something and tells them to leave do they leave. Except they explode and leave body fluids everywhere. Her mom feels Leslie is performing necromancy on purpose, but Leslie realizes the catalyst and somehow prevents it from happening again.
A lot of this (and the rest of the story) takes place as internal thoughts, with little action/interaction. I felt very disconnected from the first two chapters.
But I won this, so I continued.
Twenty years later, she's working for the D.A. The 45-year-old D.A. is handsome, and she, as his First Assistant, is beautiful with a commanding presence. I feel like I'm reading a novel from the '90s. Still, I thought the writing was better--I don't think Cortinas' strength is writing from a child's perspective--until the middle of chapter 3 when one paragraph goes "We'll begin with Nelson...". This is not how we introduce people in a novel.
I am going to try to stop discussing the writing style and focus on the story. If I didn't win this, I'd have marked as DNF by the end of chapter 3.
(okay one more: in chapter 13, one chapter begins with "As you can probably guess, this wasn't a police-sanctioned move." What? Is this being told to us by someone, like as a tale by a firepit or something? How did this get so many 5-star ratings?!)
I liked the D.A., Samuel Valdez, from the start. He seems to understand Leslie and her death-related issues.
I also like how, despite this being Texas, quite a few characters only care if Leslie does her job well. I'm so tired of books painting every Republican in a negative light.
Ricky becomming a cop is cool, though he is cocky (which is fine, that happens).
So much happens in some of the chapters that don't feel like they fit with the story. It's backstory on characters, but done so in a way that the information makes the novel drag.
Chapter 11 brings it all back around to the haunted-ness (namely that almost every building in the U.S. is haunted). It ties into the police work against the gangs and cartels but there is no nice segue, instead making me feel like I'm experiencing literary whiplash. Also, something stupid happens that frustrates me. On the other hand, the story itself finally gets better...though at 50% through, was it worth the issues I had in the first half of the book, which continue in the second half?
Between some misspellings, grammar errors, choppy writing, insane repetition, and disjointed storytelling, this could have used another round (or two or three) of editing. I was surprised to see that there WAS a copyeditor involved.
Displaying 1 of 1 review