A review by amandamlyons
Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

2.0

There are lots of reasons I can see someone picking up this book, it presents itself as the story of a divorced mom with two daughters encountering the terrible wrath of ancient Mesoamerican people murdered and tortured by the Spanish explorers and Catholic religious leaders who came to the Americas with nothing but colonized bigotry in their hearts. Something of an ancient ancestors versus modern colonized descendants story, it is, however, also not one that really holds up either that ancient culture or the many strengths of its still very much present cultural heritage or the truths of either era of Nahuatl culture. Where we could have had a strong story presenting elements of the religious and societal structures which actually existed instead of those stereotypes about the culture recorded by the very hands that harmed them we find something of a Mesoamerican Indian burial ground trope rolled into The Exorcist and centered around very flat and honestly sexist female characters we don't really know or care about apart from the young girl who is all too quickly swallowed up by the darkness just as we get to know her. Female incompetence in the forms of unreliable single mother who leaves her kids alone constantly, tropey elderly stairfall and foreshadowing delerium affected granny, lovestruck teenager who first never cared and then flies toward and away from her sibling on whims, innocent girl who is too open to the world and falls victim to evil because she's inquisitive and intuitive in a way only allowed for boys, and magical psychic indigeneity all show up here. There is also a very clear focus on imagery and scenes over context, story building, and logic which hugely distracts the reader from fully engaging with the narrative, and an all too clearly rushed ending to the book. As someone who enjoys a good revenge arch, cultural deep dive, and strong female narratives this was all too disappointing.