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hauntedtesty's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
n0rmann's review against another edition
4.0
Great characters and great story. If I had one complaint is the ending seemed to be too quick, but still a really good book.
ericarobyn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Santa Muerte by Cynthia Pelayo is a gritty young adult mystery about how far people will go for what they believe in, even when death and violence is all around them, and both their nightmares and waking hours are haunted by spirits.
When Ariana Molina, referred to as Ari, finds out that her father is being held at a hospital after a car crash that left one person dead, she is immediately curious as to why he was in Chicago in the first place. She knows his job is very dangerous as he has been investigating the Mexican drug cartel for years, resulting in a broken marriage and having Ari sent off to the US to live under a fake name in order to protect her.
After following the latest news, both the stories reported by the media and the incidents that were swept under the rug, Ari has a bad gut feeling that she knows exactly why her father is here. Over time, as Ari presses her father for answers and does research on her own, she learns more the cartels and what has been going on behind the scenes. What she hypothesizes is terrifying. But is she on the right track?
I loved that we stayed with Ari and got to see her perspective throughout this story. Her frustration in not getting answers kept me totally hooked as I, too, wanted some more information. That is, I wanted more info until we actually started to learn more… Then I wanted things to slow down and work out without any additional harm.
Boy, was I way off in wishing for that!
I had to triple check the category of YA here to make sure I didn’t mis-read that. We all know how dark some YA can get, and this book certainly serves up a lot of darkness! As Ari is a young adult, don’t let that make you think she’s a silly teenager. This girl is so brave and strong. She isn’t afraid to push aside relationships in order to keep herself safe. She isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful people. And she is determined to make the bad guys pay, no matter what.
My Favorite Passages from Santa Muerte
Her father had always has fine lines around his eyes. It was as if he was born with worry. The deep wrinkles stretched across his forehead. The prominent laugh lines from his nostrils to the edges of his mouth were themselves ironic as this is a man who had forgotten to laugh a long time ago.
Time lingered in hospitals, floating up and swirling around and every now and again reappearing when some small action would activate the knowledge that time had indeed passed.
Living live with caution was exhausting. Her father had chosen this life. She was never given a choice.
My Final Thoughts on Santa Muerte
I had a blast reading this one! We already saw how powerful Ari can be so I cannot wait to see where the story goes in book two.
This is a must read for fans of gritty and gut-punching mysteries packed with horror and sprinkled with uplifting moments of compassion.
motherhorror's review against another edition
4.0
Ariana (Ari) Molina has a complicated lifestyle unique to her situation. Her father is an agent investigating the Mexican drug cartel so Ari lives under an assumed name outside of Mexico for protection. She is discovering that taking down the criminals runs in her blood; she desires to be a journalist with an emphasis on how women are impacted by the cartel.
Pelayo weaves into this cultural family drama, a dark, folklore element by way of Santa Muerte-the patron Saint of Death- a female deity that personifies death itself and haunts Ari via visions of her recently deceased mother.
Someone told me this book was “YA” right after I posted that I was reading it. I felt like it was cautionary, “Heads up, this book is YA!” Three years ago, I might have avoided YA Horror out of total ignorance and an assumption that YA Horror is probably too “Horror-Lite”.
After reading several YA Horror books, that stereotype is totally unfounded and SANTA MUERTE is proof. This book did not read “too young” or fail on any “grown-up” expectations. A story is a story, no matter who the intended audience may be.
That being said, I cannot stress enough how important #OwnVoices told stories like SANTA MUERTE are to any genre and especially Horror. Cynthia Pelayo’s storytelling here is invaluable to all readers as she infuses this tale with Latinx culture and mythology in a supernatural/spiritual component to this family drama. Ari is a strong, yet flawed young, female protagonist that readers will be able to easily invest in and identify with.
This story starts off strong with lots of tension, suspense, and dark imagery. Later, the pace slows down to allow for character development but I do feel that the lull lingers a little too long. I was eager to find my way back to that original flavor of dread. Toward the end, the pace quickens again and leaves the door wide open for more tales in this universe. As a first book in the SANTA MUERTE series, I feel it sets expectations and lays a foundation to be built upon. Pelayo’s lyrical prose is an asset to her storytelling voice proving she can draw from a mixed bag of skill sets in order to make this folklore come to life for the duration of a series. I’m eager for it!
Pelayo weaves into this cultural family drama, a dark, folklore element by way of Santa Muerte-the patron Saint of Death- a female deity that personifies death itself and haunts Ari via visions of her recently deceased mother.
Someone told me this book was “YA” right after I posted that I was reading it. I felt like it was cautionary, “Heads up, this book is YA!” Three years ago, I might have avoided YA Horror out of total ignorance and an assumption that YA Horror is probably too “Horror-Lite”.
After reading several YA Horror books, that stereotype is totally unfounded and SANTA MUERTE is proof. This book did not read “too young” or fail on any “grown-up” expectations. A story is a story, no matter who the intended audience may be.
That being said, I cannot stress enough how important #OwnVoices told stories like SANTA MUERTE are to any genre and especially Horror. Cynthia Pelayo’s storytelling here is invaluable to all readers as she infuses this tale with Latinx culture and mythology in a supernatural/spiritual component to this family drama. Ari is a strong, yet flawed young, female protagonist that readers will be able to easily invest in and identify with.
This story starts off strong with lots of tension, suspense, and dark imagery. Later, the pace slows down to allow for character development but I do feel that the lull lingers a little too long. I was eager to find my way back to that original flavor of dread. Toward the end, the pace quickens again and leaves the door wide open for more tales in this universe. As a first book in the SANTA MUERTE series, I feel it sets expectations and lays a foundation to be built upon. Pelayo’s lyrical prose is an asset to her storytelling voice proving she can draw from a mixed bag of skill sets in order to make this folklore come to life for the duration of a series. I’m eager for it!
errantdreams's review against another edition
4.0
In Cynthia Pelayo’s Santa Muerte, 17-year-old Ariana Garcia is having visions, or maybe hallucinations. She starts losing portions of her days to them. Then she finds herself in her father’s hospital room. Reynaldo Molina is a Mexican agent–he fights the drug cartels, and he’s very highly placed. That’s why Ariana changed her last name and moved to Chicago; it’s possible Reynaldo’s enemies might come for her. Perhaps Ariana should be trying to stay away from anything involving her father, but she wants to be a journalist, and in particular wants to cover stories involving the cartels, the drugs, the gangs, the missing women.
Ariana really doesn’t seem sufficiently shocked or concerned by the fact that she’s losing chunks of time and having hallucinations/visions. I’d be seriously freaking out if I were her. Especially since the visions are very odd and mysterious. They seem to be tied to a prayer card she finds in her father’s wallet, dedicated to Santa Muerte, a “saint” who can be appealed to for various favors. We never do find out why her father had that, although Santa Muerte keeps showing up in Ariana’s life. Ariana’s cousin Lynn, with whom she lives, just tattooed Santa Muerte on a man’s skin.
Ari’s mother was killed 10 months earlier when she went back to Mexico to give a lecture. Another odd thread that never gets tied off is that her father says the person who killed her mother is dead, while a young man who works for her father says they just captured the man who killed her mother. (Or at least, if it did get tied off I must have missed it.)
At one point we learn that someone called her school under false pretenses to get phone numbers and addresses of a handful of people. Despite the fact that they referred to Ari by her real name (Ariana Molina)–which is obviously something that should worry her–her school somehow knew to give out Ari’s phone number and address, even though they shouldn’t have known that “Ariana Molina” was her. There are just some rough spots and unanswered questions like this. They’re small things, though.
We learn a great deal about the cartels in Mexico and how they’re tied to gangs in the states. Most of this comes in either during the initial parts of the story, or through a presentation that Ari gives to her journalism class. On the one hand this makes things very slow in those parts of the story, but on the other hand it’s interesting information. Whether you’ll want to read it depends on your preferences as a reader.
The slow, minimalist buildup of “magical” elements is intriguing. I really like Ari as a character, and although I’d want to know more about him, I’m also intrigued by Marco, someone who wants to be her friend (or more).
This is a good book, particularly if you want to learn a few things about drug-related crime in both Mexico and the US.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/06/review-santa-muerte-cynthia-pelayo/
Ariana really doesn’t seem sufficiently shocked or concerned by the fact that she’s losing chunks of time and having hallucinations/visions. I’d be seriously freaking out if I were her. Especially since the visions are very odd and mysterious. They seem to be tied to a prayer card she finds in her father’s wallet, dedicated to Santa Muerte, a “saint” who can be appealed to for various favors. We never do find out why her father had that, although Santa Muerte keeps showing up in Ariana’s life. Ariana’s cousin Lynn, with whom she lives, just tattooed Santa Muerte on a man’s skin.
Ari’s mother was killed 10 months earlier when she went back to Mexico to give a lecture. Another odd thread that never gets tied off is that her father says the person who killed her mother is dead, while a young man who works for her father says they just captured the man who killed her mother. (Or at least, if it did get tied off I must have missed it.)
At one point we learn that someone called her school under false pretenses to get phone numbers and addresses of a handful of people. Despite the fact that they referred to Ari by her real name (Ariana Molina)–which is obviously something that should worry her–her school somehow knew to give out Ari’s phone number and address, even though they shouldn’t have known that “Ariana Molina” was her. There are just some rough spots and unanswered questions like this. They’re small things, though.
We learn a great deal about the cartels in Mexico and how they’re tied to gangs in the states. Most of this comes in either during the initial parts of the story, or through a presentation that Ari gives to her journalism class. On the one hand this makes things very slow in those parts of the story, but on the other hand it’s interesting information. Whether you’ll want to read it depends on your preferences as a reader.
The slow, minimalist buildup of “magical” elements is intriguing. I really like Ari as a character, and although I’d want to know more about him, I’m also intrigued by Marco, someone who wants to be her friend (or more).
This is a good book, particularly if you want to learn a few things about drug-related crime in both Mexico and the US.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/06/review-santa-muerte-cynthia-pelayo/
brennanlafaro's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
The cover of Santa Muerte pulled me in, because let’s face it, we judge books by their covers. The story kept me. This is one of those stories that emphasizes the importance of reading diverse voices. It takes place in Chicago, but tells an unfamiliar story.
Santa Muerte focuses in on Ariana Molina, affectionately known as Ari. Her relatively comfortable life in Chicago is thrown into turmoil when she becomes targeted by some of the gangs her father, a detective, is working to take down in Mexico.
Falling under the umbrella of a young adult novel, Santa Muerte has, in Ari, a compelling, strong female protagonist. Not the kind we so often see in YA that discover a previously unknown set of fighting skills and single handedly take down the cartel. Instead one that uses her wits and manages to maneuver through a variety of situations with guile and brains.
The cartel addition was an interesting element, one that doesn’t always make its way into horror - YA or otherwise. Hence the reading diverse voices comment above. It makes for an interesting, and truly terrifying faceless threat. The lore surrounding Santa Muerte threaded throughout the book made for another unique element. A dash of supernatural dread sprinkled over an already suspenseful story.
Cina Pelayo injects a lot of heart into her writing, making the reader feel it as they get to know her characters. Whether her prose or her poetry, this is an author well worth checking out.
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