Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Gods of Jade and Shadow

This was a great read, inspired by Mayan mythology which I got to learn more about as I parsed my way through this. I love the themes of narrative and myths and accepting and/or changing destiny. I love the slow burn. I love the bittersweet ending. I love the descriptions of everywhere in 1920s Mexico contrasted with Xibalba. I love the healing journey the characters go through to end the cycle of trauma. There’s just so much here to love. It took me a while to get into it but that was just a me thing because I was so busy. Once I forced myself to be still, I really loved this book.

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town_scar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a beautifully written myth and tale. It's use of prose was outstanding and it painted beautiful (and delightfully horrifying) images in my mind.

My main struggle was that some of the time transitions were jarring enough that I fell out of the story and got confused as to what was going on. This was largely in the first third of the book.

Nonetheless, it was a riveting story and a fantastic tale. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it has given me a far deeper appreciation of Mexico and it's many indigenous cultures.

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fruitbatflora's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bessadams's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nightmarebees's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

HOLY CRAP. i was not expecting this book to hit me in the heart the way it did. it sucked me in so quickly and i only slowed down in the last 100 pages because i knew it was going to break my heart. and i was right; i can’t remember the last time i cried over a book, but there were tissues and actual snot involved here.

the setting of post-revolutionary mexico was perfect for this story. casiopea’s circumstances as the half-Indigenous “poor relation” of the family serve to examine post-Porfiriato social hierarchy that exists in the background of what is otherwise basically a Mayan fairytale.

don’t get me started on the relationship between casiopea and hun-kamé. i’ll be recovering from this one for weeks. “he’d fallen in love slowly and quietly, and it was a quiet sort of love, full of phrases left unsaid, laced with dreams.” the dynamic reminds me of the last unicorn, of an inextricable connection of love to mortality, how it is the fact that something has an ending that makes it all the more precious.

when i say i cried, it's not an abrupt tragic ripped-your-heart out kind of ending. it’s a quiet and inevitable sadness, a deep ache. it’s holding onto something beautiful that did happen, but it's just over now, and is all the more beautiful for the fact that it could only happen once.

tl;dr this book fucked me up.

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leahfoko's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked this book. I haven’t read a book with Mayan mythology used like this before and I thought it was really unique and fun. I loved the setting of Mexico in the 20s. I thought the parallels with Hun Kame and Vucub Kame and Martín and Cassiopea were really interesting, and the portrayal of jealousy and spite being able to unnecessarily develop into hate to be really interesting. That we often hate others for what they show us about ourselves that we don’t like. I thought the discussions about class differences and public opinion towards independent women was interesting. I liked that the romance was not an essential part of the story and mostly contributed to helping develop the characters’ growth as individuals rather than being about the relationship really. That Cassiopea humanized Hun Kame and he helped her to gain confidence and self autonomy, and they both learned something about themselves but Cassiopea still got to go off on her own and live out her independent dreams in the end. I thought that was beautifully done, and I am living for the idea of Loray and Cassiopea just going off on adventures together. I want a spin off book about that LOL. I felt that the pacing was a little slow at times with them just going to a new city and getting a new piece of Hun Kame and then immediately leaving to the next, it kind of bled together as a bit of the same concept over and over, which is my only complaint about the book. Overall, really interesting concept and characters done in a really unique way.

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seadeepy's review

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adventurous dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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