Reviews

Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color by Lorraine Monteagut

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ghq's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

faeriekit's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

This is one of those books that is ostensibly a metaphysical book but is instead mostly a memoir. I suppose that this is the nature of the tradition— to see, to listen, to learn, to do, but honestly, the book didn't click all that much with me. I don't know if that's because the stories were too similar to my own or too dissimilar, and I can't exactly parse why it was difficult to connect. As a person of color, I usually don't struggle to find communion with others who undergo similar hardships to my own family's. This book was... A lot of the information in it would have been very valuable to someone brand new to ancestor veneration and brujería, but instead, based on how little the author expected the reader to know, to understand already, everything felt a little...shallow. I suppose I was expecting more. I can't even quantify what, exactly, I was expecting. Depth. Answers. Someone I would recognize. In that way, I suppose that my journey as a reader matches the author's own, who struggles with the same as a white-passing Latina.

In addition to this book's newfound occupation as a kiddie pool, this book is also very modern. Not modern enough that the twitter handles are X handles, but there are references and recommendations to follow sources in all sorts of online places to enhance the diversity of your following tabs everywhere. I will say, I like the quality of the recommendations, even if it is sort of jarring to see @handles in the middle of a witch book, haha.

Author also uses Magick with a k. Weird choice. I suppose everyone stands where they stand on the Aliester Crowley debate, but it stood out to me as super weird.

In the end... I've read a few books from people who tack their degree titles to the end of their witch books. On a scale of "I think you faked your degree (this book is so bad)" to "wow, I can see that your passion on your spirituality informed your lifepath and career!", I think this book lands solidly in the middle. Still, nothing is going to give me such a strange shock to the system as the moment where I realized that, despite the cover art and the reclamation of one's skin that the cover art implies, the author is white-passing.

Strange. Anyway, this is fairly decent and likely engaging as a primer. If you're looking for more direct answers to your specific ancestral lineage of witchcraft, however, I would recommend reaching out to local family members.