I think that Noemi takes notes on everything that she sees in the manor because she can already tell that there is something off .Noemi had already had her suspicions on the Dowleys because of the letter that Catalina had written. In the book the first thing that she been told was that there was little to no lighting in the house. She found that weird, when getting ready for dinner noticed that there were no lights in her room. "“In her room, Noemi could not locate a single lamp with a light bulb, though there was a single outlet.”

Even though the book was written more recently and published in 2020, the book takes place in the 1950’s. At first while reading this book, I wasn’t sure what time period this was and almost thought it was more modern day. Then, further into the book I see how the author makes references about the current social norms etc. that seem a bit older than modern day. The author makes many of these references in order to better set the book in the 1950’s. For example when Noemi first mentions her cousin's issues he says “tonight I received a telegram”. Telegrams are sort of an old way to send messages to each other. This was probably one of the biggest hints at telling me that the book didn’t take place in modern times. If it were nowadays, he would’ve received an email or a text. In addition, the references made about a woman having to look for a husband suggest that the book is more dated. “And she was expected to devote her time to the twin pursuits of leisure and husband hunting”. In modern times, a woman's time often isn’t just devoted to finding a husband and having other things of interest. Overall, despite the author writing this book in modern times, they did a good job of making references to the time period in order to set the setting.

When Noemi visits her cousin, there are many comments about things being old fashioned. This creates a sort of eerie effect in the book. For example, Noemi gets picked up and she says “But the vehicle in front of her was dated, dirty and it needed a paint job”. Noemi clearly notices that the car from her cousin's family was old. It is not just the car but there are also many things about the family’s house. “It looked absolutely Victorian in construction, with it’s broken shingles, elaborate ornamentation, and dirty bay windows. She’d never seen anything like it in real life; it was terribly different from her family’s modern house, the apartments of her friends, or the colonial houses with facades of red tezontle.” In this quote it is made clear that the family’s house seems older just like their car.

In chapter one you can start to notice that Noemi's' cousin, Catalina, has been  behaving oddly. She had written this crazed letter in which she says  she sees ghosts and her husband is poisoning her, she begs Noemi for help. Noemi and her father were very confused about what was going on. Her father had stopped a previous relationship and then after Catalina and her current husband, Virgil, got married. He has always wondered if he can be trusted. He wanted to go and check on the situation and bring Noemi with him. Catalina seems to have some psychological breaks in which she seems  to not make sense. She also tends to see things that aren't there. Catalina doesn't really leave her house and I'm sure that is making her more impatient and it seems to capture that she is not okay. Mental health would probably be brought up a lot because I feel like these symptoms, in which she thinks people are trying to kill her, can be signs of schizophrenia. In her letter she wrote “I bar my door but still they come, they whisper at nights i am so afraid of these restless dead, these ghosts, fleshless things,” these words sound very weird, she seems to not make too much sense and say a whole bunch of random things. A lot of the things she wrote about in the letter reveal that she isn't stable. A lot of the time people with this mental illness can think that people are out for them and that they are trying to kill them/ hurt them and this reflects with Catalinas behavior.

As you read throughout the chapter you can see how her father can be very demanding and controlling in a way. In chapter one you can see how he is telling her that she cant go to the party and he gives her “solutions” for the excuses she is putting up so that she can go. You can connect the way he is with her to a typical Hispanic household because Hispanic parents tend to be more strict and more “conservative” in a way with their children. From my experience my parents always take a while thinking if i should go somewhere or do certain things. When I was younger they didn't let me do much either. I think that when it comes to this, if your parents say something then you  do it, I think Noemi probably feels that urge as well. As a Latina I can say that there are many things in my household which can feel very controlled. Sometimes it feels like i might not have much of a free will, and from reading the first few chapters it seemed as if Noemi also feels that way. 

Throughout the first chapter, we are introduced to Noemi and her father. Her father had called her home early from a party she was attending to inform her about her cousin, Catalina. Before her father told Noemi what had happened with her cousin, we can see that the author was forming the sentences casually with a bit of formality. Reading the dialogue between her and her father, we get the impression that they are comfortable with one another when they talk but they talk properly. It was the same when Noemi was talking to Huego. For example, on page 4 it says, “it’s so much more fun when a gentleman offers a lady a cigarette,” when Noemi is talking to Huego. A lot of people don’t talk like that in regular conversations. Therefore even though they were having a regular conversation, the author adds a touch of formality to make it seem like they are proper in a way. However, it changes completely when she is talking to her father about her cousin. When the father showed Noemi the note Catalina had written, the author changed the syntax to make it seem more deranged, like Catalina was indeed going crazy. One line says, “I am Catalina Catalina Taboada. CATALINA. Cata, Cata come out to play.” The author decides to format the wording like this to show how Catalina is going through what seems to be a psychological breakdown. If the author were to have written this line like how she did between Huego and Noemi, we would not be able to get the sense of how gone Catalina has become. We wouldn’t be able to see this character going through some type of mental break, but we would see her as just another character possibly going through a rough time. The author making the choice to format Catalina’s letter like this was a smart choice to show the emphasis of Catalina going crazy. 

From when Catalina was first introduced in the book, we got our first impression of her from the letter sent to Noemi’s father. Like I said above, the author wrote Catalina’s letter to portray to the audience that she had truly gone mad. She wanted us to feel how she felt in that moment when Catalina was writing that letter, so we can see how crazy she must have felt in her own home. However, when Noemi finally got to Catalina’s and her husband's house, her demeanor had completely changed. She seemed as if she was normal and that she had never written that letter in the first place. The author wrote her character in person completely different from how she portrayed her in the letter. The author wrote how Catalina had said that she was sick from tuberculosis and had a high fever, along with little to no recollection of what the letter she wrote. The author portrayed Catalina as fragile and very properly spoken, which is the exact opposite of what we saw in the letter. I believe that the author decided to make this choice with her writing on this character to confuse the reader on what is actually happening to her. Since all of this is happening within the first four chapters of the book, the author isn’t going to reveal the whole secret to why Catalina is acting that way just in the beginning. I believe she is doing this to create suspense and some sort of confusion for the reader to keep them on their toes and to guess why Catalina wrote the letter and why she is acting completely different in person. It can also make the readers second-guess if Catalina actually wrote the letter, with the possibility of it being written from someone else trying to impersonate Catalina. Overall, I think the author made a good choice writing Catalina completely different in person than from the letter so it can keep the audience guessing and create more questions than answers so they can continue reading.

“I’m so stupid,” Francis said, removing his sweater. “ Here, have this”

“It’s fine. Really, I couldn’t let you freeze for my sake. Maybe if we start walking back I’ll be better.”  "

I thought this was weird. I found it weird that the author wanted to create a romantic connection between Noemi and Francis. I feel like it almost derives from a more important story. I think this is the author also trying to show that Noemi is distracted from her “mission” which is trying to find out if her cousin is okay.  

Some questions I have are : 

What are Francis’ intentions with Noemi ?

Why exactly did he take her to the grave yard. 

I think that from the start, although not obvious, Francis may have had a thing for Noemi. But I feel like that this may be forced somehow by the other Doyles. It can also be so that Noemi has an attachment to the house and decide to not leave either. 

Thoughts:
I am starting to recognize how Noemi feels about Francis. It seems that she has never had a genuine love connection with anyone all her life and that she is a flirt who has been in many relationships for social status. With this passage she mentions that how she felt about him was different than “the bold boys she knew”. I am very drawn to the last line where she says “This was a warmer feeling, more genuine.” This line makes it seem as if she likes Francis for his personality and has a genuine connection with him.

Questions:
Why does Noemi like Francis? Is it because he is different from everyone she’s been with or does she actually like him? Why does the author bring up Hugo here? Is Noemi aware that she has romantic feelings for Francis? Or does she just like him as a friend?  If Francis is a love interest what does that mean for Catalina?
 
Epiphanies:
This made me realize that Noemi has never had genuine feelings for someone before. It seems back at home she had many relationships that were never serious but more flirtatious and for social reasons. A reason for this may be because of her fathers pressure for her to marry. She may be just picking up guys and dating them, even without a connection, because she wants her father to think there is a chance of her getting married. And so, when she meets Francis and experiences this “warmer feeling” she is surprised and doesn’t know how to act.

Thoughts: 

As I reread chapter 11 I can come to an understanding that the heart beats she heard could have been Ruths, from her killing everyone. It could have been that she was scared of what she was doing. I was confused at the beginning of the chapter since it says “it woke her up” but at the end it said that she was sleep walking and that Virgil woke her up. Noemni sees the golden women again in the chapter, and it makes her know “terror” that could be another reason as if the heart beats were in the backgroud, she could have been hearing her own as she slept. 

Questions:

How was she seeing Ruth? 

Was she actually sleep walking?

What does the heartbeat actually mean? 

Does the author have a particular reason on what the heart beat is supposed to create? 

Epiphany:

When I finished reading I thought that it was supposed to create suspense, the heart beat in the background was supposed to create some type of suspense to what she was seeing and what could have been happening after she woke up. 

As I was reading chapter 8 at first I was kinda confused with this quote of the novel. Fairytales are mentioned in some passages for different reasons either to give an insight into Nomei’s childhood or to compare them to a situation she was in at the time. Another thing I noticed was that Catalina loved fairytales growing up with Noemi, maybe this is a way Noemi can connect to Catalina to make up for those times they haven’t seen each other? Or maybe this is a way of showing how Noemi compares this tragically. 

Was she comparing this to tragic?

Was bad luck following the family?

Epiphanies

the facts? That her cousin spoke about a

presence in this house, including voices. 

Ruth also described voices. Noemí had heard no  voices,  but  she’d had  bad  dreams and

sleepwalked, which she hadn’t done in years".(176)

Thoughts:
Here Noemi is assessing everything going on in the house. She is now considering the fact that there might be a supernatural presence in the house. Noemi is beating herself up about not figuring out what is going on and you can tell it's really bothering her.

Questions:
Will Noemi ever hear voices like the ones her cousin hears?
did her cousin sleepwalk and have dreams also?

Epiphanies: 
Soon Noemi will figure out what is going on in the house because she has started asking questions. Noemi realizes something is going on and it seems she will do anything to figure it out.