Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Synopsis:

 

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

If you loved Naomi Novik's Uprooted or Spinning Silver, you have to read this.

Objectively, this is an excellent novel. It's got mythology you likely haven't read about before, a quietly lovable heroine, and intense fairy tale vibes. In a sea of retellings, Gods of Jade and Shadow stands out as something fresh and unique. However, I just couldn't jive with the writing of this novel and so, while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was the history and mythology. I've never read a novel set in 1920's Mexico, and so a lot of the folklore surrounding the story was entirely new to me. Because of that, the story and setting felt very original to me personally. The 1920's setting added an interesting juxtaposition between the ancient and the modern, and I liked seeing how gods and demons adjusted - or didn't - to the presence of technology. Additionally, Silvia Moreno-Garcia set the scene at the beginning of most chapters by giving a brief history of the areas Casiopea travels to, which I really enjoyed. I'm not nearly as familiar with Mexican history and mythology as I'd like to be, so it gave me needed context that only enhanced my reading experience.

Where the book didn't work for me was in the writing and type of story. The writing is fairly blunt and doesn't rely much on sensory detail to tell the story. Instead, Moreno-Garcia is the type of writer that paints a picture for you, rather than has you experience it. I think this writing style enhanced by the folklore vibes, but as someone who prefers sensory writing to picturesque writing, it made me have a hard time losing myself in the story, and thus connecting with the characters.

I also found the story itself to be kind of boring. Gods of Jade and Shadow is a journey narrative, and I don't tend to enjoy journey narratives. The events usually feel too random and disjointed to engage me, and this novel was no different.

Ultimately, my 3 star rating of this book comes down to personal enjoyment more than anything else. If you don't have an issue with journey narratives or specific writing tastes, I reckon you'll thoroughly enjoy this. 

 ARC provided by Penguin Random House via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely (A Curse So Dark and Lonely, #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

Synopsis:

 

Fall in love, break the curse.

Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she's pulled into a magical world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

3.5 stars. I was really excited for this, but it ended up being a pretty standard YA fantasy. This probably would've been a ~2 star book for me if not for two things: the cerebral palsy rep and Grey.

I hate to say it, but this is the first book I've read that depicts cerebral palsy. I've never read a book with cerebral palsy rep in it until now. And that is a damn shame. Because while I don't have cerebral palsy, I do have two degenerative, herniated discs in my back that cause me chronic pain and weakness. Seeing Harper embrace her condition and realize that it doesn't define her, but is simply a part of her really spoke to the core of me and my experiences. This novel could have very easily taken the route of Harper "overcoming" her cerebral palsy - which would've been fine I guess while still having issues - but it wouldn't have rung as true, nor have had as powerful an impact on me. Harper becomes a badass in harmony with her cerebral palsy, not despite it, and having that narrative depicted in YA is so important.

The second thing that made me really enjoy this book was GREY!!! Heart eyes directly @ him, honestly. In a YA fantasy that features pretty stereotypical characters for the genre, Grey alone stood out as unique to me. I did like Harper as a character, but I feel like I enjoyed the depiction of her cerebral palsy and character arc as a result of it more than I actually liked her as a character. Rhen I didn't really care for, as a result of him being really cookie-cutter YA fantasy love interest. But Grey, with his to-death dedication and stony demeanor, felt really original to me. He was hard to pin down and I could never call how he was going to react to things, which naturally made me more interested and invested in him than the other characters. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of him in the next book.

But other than that, A Curse So Dark and Lonely doesn't really bring anything new to YA fantasy. You've got your badass girl, your arrogant yet tortured princely love interest, a kingdom in peril that needs to be reclaimed...sound familiar? The events of the book itself weren't anything especially stand-out and honestly edged on boring sometimes. The world-building doesn't really exist and is superficial at best. Even the plot twist was something that I called from a mile away.

Overall, I enjoyed A Curse So Dark and Lonely, but only because it brings in a new element or two to an otherwise really standard and kind of bland YA fantasy. However, I encourage you to read it if only for the cerebral palsy rep, because as someone who doesn't have cerebral palsy but similar experiences with chronic pain and weakness, its portrayal meant a lot to me.

Spin the Dawn (The Blood of Stars #1) by Elizabeth Lim

Synopsis:

 

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she'll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There's just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia's task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor's reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

3.5 stars. Spin the Dawn started off as a 5 star read for me. I'd been in a bit of a reading slump prior to starting this but right off the bat, this book had me hooked. I loved the writing, the world, the characters - everything! I read about half of the book in one sitting, because I just couldn't put it down.

Writing is always what makes or breaks a novel for me. Because YA tends more towards simplistic prose than its adult counterparts, I often end up dnfing YA books because I can't get into the writing. But as soon as I started reading, I knew Elizabeth Lim was a skilled writer. Her lush descriptions and interesting language is what pulled me into the story before anything else did. Only 3% of the way into the novel and I was already loving it, simply because the language on the page was so lovely.

Though the writing itself initially drew me in, one of my favorite tropes is competition stories, and so I expected the tailor competition to entice me right away. But, surprisingly, it was the characters. I was anticipating a reality TV-type competition, full of drama and beautiful clothes - and was totally wrong. The competition was pretty reserved, if I'm being honest. But seeing Maia's courage, skill, and determination as she tried to navigate the competition and become the emperor's tailor made me root for her. She wasn't just a vehicle for drama during the competition, like other characters have been in other competition-focused series. Lim takes the focus off the competition and puts the spotlight on Maia, which is something I haven't seen much before.

During the competition, several other characters orbit Maia, mainly the Lord Enchanter, Edan, and the emperor's betrothed, Lady Sarnai. Both remained very unpredictable characters for me in the first half of the novel, which was really refreshing to me, as a person who tends to call the twists before they happen. Lady Sarnai, especially, was a hard character to nail down. Whenever I thought I knew how she'd react to something, she'd do the exact opposite and always kept me on my toes.

As for Edan, it's established early on in the novel that he's much older than he looks. I have trouble with the believability of immortal/long-lived characters in YA sometimes, due to their young behavior or way of speaking. But the way Edan spoke and acted felt unnatural to a 20-year-old to me, and I loved it. I felt the weight of his years on him, despite his young looks. He was so enigmatic that it made him all the more alluring to me.

But while I was so completely engrossed by the first 60% of this novel, the second half is where things started to go downhill for me. The novel shifts in a very different direction than the first half, from court intrigue to a journey narrative. I don't tend to be a fan of "road trip" stories, but I think Spin the Dawn could've convinced me, seeing as how much I loved the first half. Unfortunately, it didn't.

In the first half of the novel, there's such a delicious build-up to the romance between Maia and Edan. Unlike a lot of other YA, which rushes into insta-love so quickly your neck still aches days later from the whiplash, the romance in the first half of Spin the Dawn builds so quietly and sweetly - to the point where I couldn't guess who the love interest was at first, which almost never happens to me. But as soon as Maia and Edan start getting their flirt on, they rush into romance so quickly that it becomes an avalanche and the plot in the second half simply can't recover from it.

My biggest problem with the second half of this book is that everything hinges on the romance. Unlike the first half, which focuses on Maia's personal goals and love for her family, her entire life becomes consumed by her overwhelming love for Edan. And because Spin the Dawn becomes another YA fantasy with a romance-centered plot, the stakes had no weight behind them because I knew that everything would mostly turn out all right until the climax. I've read this type of YA story many times before. In the second half of the novel, Spin the Dawn lost all of its unpredictability for me and became a much less engaging read.

However, I would like to acknowledge that though I personally wish the second half of the novel was more unique, I also realize the importance of telling stories written by and featuring characters of color with tropes already explored by white authors. Just because a trope has been written over and over by white writers doesn’t mean its “overdone” when written by marginalized authors.

Overall, I have really mixed feelings on this book. It’s a 5 star beginning coupled with a 2 star ending. Spin the Dawn starts off with gorgeous writing, unpredictable and engaging characters, and slow-building romance, but unfortunately loses sight of its plot and characters in favor of romance in the second half. Should you still read it? Yes, if only because the beginning is such a winner.

ARC provided by Random House Children's via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.