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A review by nightmarebees
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death and Sexism