Bochica

Last May, Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro released her debut novel, Bochica. Today, the Spanish version is out, and though I’m not yet fluent in the language, I celebrated by reading the ebook in English and listening to the audiobook in Spanish. Set in Colombia in 1936, it follows Antonia in the aftermath of her mother’s death. She and her family had moved to an opulent mansion in 1921, but it all went downhill in the years that followed. Now Antonia’s dad has been accused of murder, and she’s determined to find the truth—both about this new death and about what really happened to her mom four years ago.

What I Liked:

• Colombian culture. I’m living in Peru now, and I’m excited to learn more about South American cultures and history. Bochica leans into the Muisca culture and their language, Chibcha. As we learn more about dark rituals and a local cult, we also get a lot about the svetyba, a demon. Are the people here really trying to preserve history… or something more sinister?
• Chilly atmosphere. Bochica excels in its sense of setting. The mansion-turned-hotel in the novel is actually based on a real place, the Hotel Del Salto in Cundinamarca, Colombia. That hotel has a dark history of its own, and I enjoyed how that was built into the horror novel here. The ghostly vibes, issues with memory, nightmarish flashes, and piecemeal diary entries all add up to a perfectly spooky atmosphere.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Really slow beginning. It was hard for me to get engaged with the story at first; not much seemed to be happening for a while. It took until about halfway through for the story to take off, and in such a short book, it ended up feeling rushed. This is standard for Gothic horror, which I normally love, but here it felt like it needed a bit more energy early on.
• Confusing way to unfold the story. Related to the above, it felt like so much of the story actually took place before the main setting of 1936. This may have worked better as a fully dual timeline narrative. Alternately, the past sections would have needed to weave into the present more seamlessly, and perhaps had a bigger presence.

Audiobook:

Despite reading the ebook in English, I listened to the audiobook en Español, narrated by Dominique Franceschi and Irene García. I enjoyed their voice acting of the characters and appreciated that the enunciation was clear. Since Spanish isn’t my first language, that was important for me. In some ways I think this novel felt better in Spanish than in English, so I’m happy to have heard it in the format.

Final Thoughts

Bochica had so much potential, and nailed the general vibes and infusion of Colombian culture. However, it was quite slow and took a long time to catch my full attention. With some reworking, this could have been a more engrossing read. While this was a bit of a letdown, I’d be curious to read more from Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro in the future.

Special thanks to Atria Books, HarperAudio Adult, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Bochica here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Bochica by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro
Audiobook Narrator	Dominique Franceschi and Irene García
Audience	Adult
Genre	Horror; Gothic
Setting	Colombia
Number of Pages	256
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	May 13, 2025 (English); February 10, 2026 (Spanish)
Publisher	Atria/Primero Sueno Press

Official Summary

“An absolutely stunning debut!” —Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Vanishing Daughters

A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut “introduces a powerful new voice in gothic horror” (Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author) and is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.

In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside.

Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer ignore: Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s?

In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona as she unearths its darkest secrets in this “delicately told story of how the past always finds us—and how people can be haunted just as surely as places can” (Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author).