Muñeca
by Cynthia Gómez

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted August 23, 2026

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Natalia Fuentes is one of those unreliable narrators you've heard about. The main events in this book take place in 1968, in Oakland and nearby Orinda, but she first tells us of her penchant for stealing things at an early age. It is not until later she reveals the reasons for that. One place we know she stole from was the home of the Miramontes family in the Orinda hills, where her mother worked as a maid. Later, Nati proved to be adept at mathematics, earning a college degree, then working at a bank. She chooses to leave that job when the opportunity arises to work for the Miramontes as a caretaker for their daughter Violeta, who is a few years older. The previous time Nati had seen Violeta was at the party celebrating her engagement to Andrés Guzman de Torrijos. That was six years previous, and for the majority of those six years Violeta was an invalid, not quite in a coma, but she was completely paralyzed and could not speak. Nati is sure her condition is due to a magical curse.

It had also been about six years since Nati's mother died of cancer. The reason she decided to work for the Miramontes was to exact a bit of revenge. They had fired her mother for missing too many days work due to her illness, only giving her two weeks salary as severance. Nati believes she can figure out the curse on Violeta, reverse it, then demand a reward. When I searched for the translation of muñeca from Spanish there were two results; doll, as well as wrist. Both are appropriate to the story. Nati was a good enough witch to determine that whoever placed the curse did so using a charmed object, and her guess is the silver bracelet on Violeta's left wrist. She is able to communicate with Violeta blinking in reply to questions; one blink for yes, two for no. She is also able to move Violeta's spirit out of her body and into a doll, and to animate the doll to manipulate the planchette of a Ouija board, and later Scrabble tiles. She has to be sure the cursed object is Violeta's bracelet, then find its match, plus the exact curse that caused the paralysis. There is one thing that she didn't count on, something that might completely derail her plans. She has fallen in love with Violeta.

That is as much of the plot as I care to reveal. The prose is fluid and compelling, even while there were times I wasn't sure I liked Natalia. She was on the verge of losing control of her magic, and I started to think she was doing it mainly to prove her abilities to the one she learned from, over and above her desire to help Violeta. Things are resolved in the end, but not without violence, and a somewhat anti-climactic decision by someone else. Do Nati and Violeta end up together? You'll have to read it yourself to find out. Highly recommended.

 

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