omnombailey 's review for:

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4.0
adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

What an incredible, unique story. It took some time to adjust to the prose; the omnipotent narration is initially jarring when so few modern stories use it, but it eventually felt like the story was being told me, like I was listening to an elder pass on a legend. The magical realism was amazing, as was the Mayan mythology, and while the pace of the book is rather rapid, the descriptions of each location are vivid, almost tangible. I love the characters and their stories. I couldn't put this down in the last quarter of the story. It's also been a long time since I've teared up over fictional characters, but here we are. Definitely worth the read, even if it's a touch hard to get into at first. It will grow on you.