Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Dioses de jade y sombra

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s character work continues to be exceptional. She establishes complicated familial relationships quickly and easily and weaves a nice touch of magical realism to make the book a bit more fun. I really enjoyed the first half of this guy, but I found my enjoyment waning in the second half. It almost felt like she had plotted the beginning steps to get Casiopeia out of her hometown and she had the end figured out and was pantsing her way through the middle section. It was weirdly slow and I didn’t feel like I learned a lot or that the characters grew very much during that time at all. It also felt like the stakes were very low - their quest for the missing pieces was so easy! Took a lot of propulsion out of the story. I did really like the ending though and the Mayan mythology was definitely the best part of this book.

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad slow-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? No

4.0

Absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed the overall ambiance of the book and the way it followed the structure of traditional folklore. All of the stylistic, writing aspects of it were spot on, and although the story was also good, it was the style that really spoke to me. I'm more and more impressed with Silvia Moreno-Garcia's stylistic range!

As a story, I enjoyed stepping into the world of Mexican folklore. The world was rich, but so too were the characters. There's a great conversation here about traditional male and female roles in the 1920s Yucatán. The characters had excellent internal struggles which I really appreciated and the relationship between the gods and mortals, the gods and their underlings, and the gods and one another were all interesting.

I'll be perfectly honest - this book was fantastic, but I wasn't able to mentally focus on it the way I wanted to by no fault of the author. I think if I'd been able to close my eyes, quiet my mind, and give the book my full attention, this would have been a 5-star read. As it is, it's one I'll likely revisit.

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emily_mh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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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