
Alex does not want her magic. As far as her family knows, she’s a late bloomer and yet to come into her power. They can’t wait to celebrate her Deathday.
Over the years, modern brujas like to have Deathdays line up with birthdays to have even bigger celebrations. Nothing says “happy birthday” like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.
The format did remind me a little of the film Labyrinth, and many other quest type stories. Alex accidentally wishes her family away in an act of selfishness and then has to go into another dimension to rescue them, before time runs out. Along the way she meets an assortment of magical creatures and dangerous geographical features.
Alex’s family is Puerto Rican by way of plenty of other countries, but the mythology is crafted from inspirations from many sources. Bruja is the Spanish word for witch and the idea of the Deathday was inspired by Día de Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead. It does have a little of the Greek about it too, there’s a labyrinth after all and there’s a scene that’s very similar to the crossing of the River Styx.
Alex is a bit of a special snowflake and I also think the world-building was lacking a baseline in what regular bruja power was like. It’s a pretty short book and she has several close encounters with different groups in Los Lagos, not giving much time for the book to feel fully fleshed out. Everything seems resolved just a little too easily, partly in thanks to those snowflake powers.
“Why’s it always the heart or the eye of something?” Rishi asks. “You notice that? There are so many body parts that don’t get enough love, like earlobes and belly buttons.”
When the best friend, Rishi, is introduced they didn’t come across as that close. When it starts talking about the strength of her love, it was a bit of a surprise. Generally the secondary characters needed a bit more work to really flesh them out.
It was a quick and entertaining read, so I wouldn’t dismiss reading the second book in the series when it’s out next year.
Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones | Hive | Wordery
Book Source: Purchased
Related posts
2 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Read Next
Subscribe via Email
Recent Posts
I don't think the budget needs so many posed photos. What's wrong with a stock photo of some money like they used to do?
FollowAs if the traffic wasn't bad enough, lets add lots of lorries! Glad to be out of BCP really... https://t.co/Y80UsKh9v2
FollowSomehow it's March already, here are 28 books hitting the shelves this month! https://t.co/xfhhuDSBIp
FollowCurrently Reading
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
Gora is a planet without resources, its only use is a stopover for interplanetary travel. The Five-Hop One-Stop is one such place for long distance travellers to rest and refuel. Run by a Laru and her child, it’s not the most glamourous of stops but…
Black Sun
Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so. The opening line may seem like something any mother would tell her son, but in the case of Serapio, his mother truly believes he will become the Crow God reborn. She blinds him,…
Legendborn
The day Bree gets accepted into an early college placement at UNC, is the day her mother dies. The last words they spoke were of anger. Unable to deal with her dad’s grief on top of her own, Bree goes ahead with the placement. Once…
Ninth House
Alex Stern does not belong at Yale. When she awakes as the sole survivor of a multiple homicide, presumed a drug deal gone wrong, she is given an unlikely offer. Come to Yale, join the House of Lethe and oversee the rituals of the other…
Surprisingly I have NEVER heard of or seen this title! The cover looks pretty intriguing, and I do think the general plot sounds like it could be fun to read. I'm interested to read how well the diversity aspects are handled. Seems like there were lots of things lacking in your opinion, I hope you do read on and enjoy the second book more! Thanks for your honest words.
Cass @ Words on Paper
It kept cropping up on BookRiot, who are really into diversity recommendations. I had another of her books on my wishlist for years but it never got released over here, so I tried this out instead.