A review by corallydeer
The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

Although the beginning was kind of slow for me I enjoyed this book by the end. The fantasy elements were unique and explored in a racial way that I don't see too often. The extent of the portrayals for racism and religious bigotry was often quite sobering and a bit tough to get through, but it felt worthwhile by the end. It was also a bit tough, at first, to sympathize or relate to the characters since many of their situations felt so dire and the choices they had to make so manipulated, but by the end of the book I really rooted for the main group. They all grew in really great ways and I wanted so many of them to achieve real happiness and freedom from their abusive origins.

I will say, as someone who doesn't speak/know a lick of Spanish, that I made sure to pair the book with the audiobook so that I could hear how words and names were pronounced and I definitely think that was a 10/10 decision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, and Gore

Moderate: Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Cursing, Murder, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Misogyny, Slavery, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, and Colonisation

Child Abuse

(young babies are used to check if someone is a reincarnated wife of Rahamagut by being abandoned on a mountain and potentially left for dead)

| Death (of Parent(s) & Child)

(Doña Laurel and her baby pass away in childbirth; babies left on the mountain as mentioned in first tag; various dead relatives mentioned from the past or experienced through the course of the book)

| Domestic Abuse

(Javier physically abuses his wife, Eva, once they're married and treats her poorly once they're legally and magically bound)

| Gore

(attacks, especially from the tinieblas, are graphic)

| Pregnancy

(Doña Laurel becomes pregnant and labor is described somewhat graphically)

| Racism

(Reina and Eva are both mixed-race characters who experience open and hidden discrimination regularly)

| Religious Bigotry

(Eva deals with religious bigotry related to the fact that she's part valco; bigotry against those that don't follow the human's religion of saints; Eva's curandera mentor is burned alive for being a "witch")

| Violence

(Reina gets attacked by monsters; sword fighting training; valcos are known to scalp antlers from other valcos they best in battle)

| Blood

(moderate depictions of blood, gore descriptions are worse)

| Cursing & Racial Slurs

(moderate levels of cursing around the fantasy racial slurs)

| Grief

(moderate depictions of grief over lost loved ones, choices made, etc)

| Kidnapping

(Reina and Javier kidnap young girls to help with reincarnating Doña Laurel, but the process isn't described in too much detail)

| Murder

(Don Enrique openly kills a witness to their plans; Reina kills her grandmother; Reina's grandmother murder's seven of the nine wives)

| Colonization

(it's mentioned in passing that humans colonized Venazia, taking nozariels as slaves, valcos as warriors, and eradicating yares)

| Gun Violence

(mentioned in passing as part of a story)

| Homophobia

(not really outright, but insinuated here and there, and explained to be a colonizer mindset brought in related to the ability to produce heirs)

| Incest

(valcos are mentioned to have inter-bred for breed purity in passing)

| Misogyny

(Javier makes some remarks to Doña Laurel about her role being for breeding)

| Slavery

(slavery of other races used to be legal, but was outlawed so it's mentioned in passing somewhat frequently)