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

Unfortunately I didn't super enjoy my time with this one. This is a quest narrative but it didn't do the job as one for me. I think the beauty of a quest narrative is that you don't really know where it's going - as a reader you have knowledge of an end point and an initial plan, but something will throw the hero off course to keep you on your toes. However, the narrative followed the initial plan in a really linear and repetitive way, with only minor obstacles for Casiopea and Hun-Kamé (until the end).

I did like the narrative voice as I found it unique and it had a fairytale-like quality to it. However, it came at the cost of feeling distanced from Casiopea and her inner-world. A final thing I didn't like about the book was how quickly Casiopea and Hun-Kamé fell in love. Even though we are told this happened slowly, they had only known each other for a few weeks so I just didn't find this believable.

So I was especially frustrated that they were both so close to throwing in the towel because of this love.

Also, I really don't like the immortal/mortal trope especially as Casiopea is only 18.

Despite these negatives, there were a lot of positives too! I really enjoyed the opposing development of Casiopea and Hun Kamé, how they were switching from mortal to immortal or vice versa, and how they learned more about their initial state through the other's journey. I really liked where Casiopea ended up overall, too. Speaking of the ending, the last 50 pages were really fantastic - gripping and satisfying. And I really loved reading and learning about Mayan mythology too, like the duality of Xibalba that was cleverly reflected in so many other parts of the narrative.

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cemeterygay's review

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

It took me a bit to get my thoughts together about this book. Overall, I really enjoyed but the ending was significantly better than the rest of the book.

I'm just going to start with the few things I didn't care too much for in the book. I think the pacing at times was questionable and I really didn't care for Martin's chapters even though I understood why they were necessary. While Casiopea was a sympathetic main protagonist, I really wasn't that invested in her as a character. Hun-Kame and was really well-developed as a god with the correct amount of weight and drama given to him but I also just wasn't that invested in him. I am also just not a big fan of god/mortal relationships especially when the human is a teenager, it feels weird. While I do think this book handled that trope incredibly well, I'm still just not a big fan of it.

I just in general have very mixed feelings about the relationship. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's beautiful writing style lends itself so some very emotionally intense at times painful but other times very sweet moments in the relationship. The relationship plays out how it should and how honestly a relationship like that would turn out. As much as I don't like this trope, I think it does ultimately really help the themes of this book.

I think the way a lot of societal issues were talked about like religious guilt instilled by the Catholic church, anti-indigenous sentiment, colorism, etc. was incredibly well-done. I really enjoyed the Mexican Jazz Age aspect of this book and that setting helped not only with plot development but with bolstering the mood and themes of the story. The handling of Mayan storytelling and beliefs was also just incredibly well done and I really enjoyed how much of it was incorporated into the storytelling.

One of the highlights of this book id Moreno-Garcia's writing style. I love the lyrical storytelling that is very reminiscent of not just fairy tales and folklore but many oral traditions of storytelling. This style blended so beautifully with both the core plot as well as the themes of the book. I also loved the themes of compassion, humanity, forgiveness, and autonomy so deeply as well as the coming of age aspects of this story.

The best part of the story is honestly the final trial to the end. Not only does the ending deliver so wonderfully on the core themes of the story, there some beautiful writing moments that not only made me care about the main relationship but legitimately left me in tears. The ending alone means I cannot recommend this book enough to others.

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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4.0

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theirgracegrace's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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erica_palmisano's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Fun, fast-paced, full of interesting twists and incredible, imaginative visuals. I dropped into this book and never surfaced. Couldn't put it down and really enjoyed the exploration of mythology, magical realism, 1920s Mexico, and the lovely character of Casiopea.

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paolina's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

That was a lot of fun to read. While it did follow a lot of myth tropes, the characters' individual actions and dialogue were unexpected enough to make it refreshing.

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vittorioseg's review against another edition

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I didn't get into the world. The way Sivia describe the setting and the characters, for all its fairy tale conception, its incredibly dry. I didn't feel excitement or enjoyment, just this travelologue who was droning about for they paycheck. it was never a story for me, just a bunch of descriptions tied together through bland dialogue.

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crystalisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia is a beautiful story, full of duality. Both bitter and sweet, fully fantastical, and yet firmly grounded in reality, full of Mayan deities and Jazz age Mexican humans, demons and magical creatures and tedious chores and impossible dreams. Moreno-Garcia allows us to hope impossible dreams along with the gods and humans who dream them, even though we know we cannot have them, and to break our hearts a little with theirs when we cannot have them. I’ve struggled to read consistently in this year of our pandemic 2020, but read this pretty consistently once I started, and found myself fully engrossed every time I picked it back up.

The world building is rich yet not tedious. The author manages to introduce readers to Mayan mythology and Jazz Age Mexico in vivid, rich detail that never bogs down or bores, never dumps lengthy passages of information on the reader. Instead, we learn as we are are compelled to follow, much like the practical dreamer Casiopea is, one of the twin Mayan gods of Death, Hun-Kame, as he seeks to reclaim his stolen throne in the Underworld. Along the way we experience both rural and urban Jazz Age Mexican culture, and see the effects of American culture on it, with flappers and music and technology. We meet demons and undead and monsters and flawed humans. Everyone is flawed and complex in this story, from Casiopea’s cruel and selfish family, to undead seductresses, to corrupt wizards, to friendly demons, to traitorous deities, to Casiopea herself. No one is perfectly good or perfectly evil, and the story is richer for it.

The relationship that builds between Casiopea and Hun-kame is electrifying and beautiful and sweet and sad. No human can truly love the god of death, can they? Nor can a god of death return that love. And yet we hope, because their relationship is so beautiful and so real. I feared the ending of this story, because bittersweet stories aren’t my usual preference, but like the rest of this book, the ending was perfect, everything it should be, deeply satisfying and perfectly aligned with the rest of the story.

In a year when I struggle to read, and often find myself underwhelmed by even much-anticipated books, Gods of Jade and Shadow stands out from the crowd as a fantastic book. Effortlessly diverse, beautifully written, deeply emotional, and always engaging. I am extremely grateful to #NetGalley and Random House Publishing for sharing a free digital #advancedcopy of #GodsofJadeandShadow with me in exchange for my honest review. I highly recommend this book.

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