GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW: Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an author I admire for her genre-bending stories. Her writing style immediately pulls you into the story and gradually lets you live inside it. It was so refreshing to read, the story is set in 1920s Mexico. It’s a fun, and engaging read, the mix of folklore and mythology is at a perfect balance. The protagonist Casiopea reminded me of Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle a little bit (which I also love.) I really enjoyed this book’s plot which was packed with fun information about Mayan god’s and Mexican folklore which just brought the entire story to life (no pun intended that this is a book about the Mayan god of death.) Casiopea is ferocious and vulnerable as is Hun-Kamé. This is a story that brings those two aspects in its characters and makes you fall in love with them. Personally, it piqued my interest a lot to learn more about my own culture and its mythology, which I haven’t seen many books about in the adult genre. So it was such a thrill to read a book that brought that to the surface. One other thing I really liked was the pace which built the rights amount of tension where there needed to be tension and the spaces in between where I could catch my breath with the beautiful depiction of 1920s Mexico and the Mayan Underworld. I think this also added something to help unravel Casiopea’s journey of discovery, as a young woman living in the 1920s and as she dives into a life-changing adventure with Hun-Kamé. One thing I also enjoyed was the subtle romance that is present; it will break your heart. I adore stories like that. Fun and exciting read, a magical adventure I definitely recommend.
GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW releases July 23, 2019.
I received an e-arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Netgalley!
About this Book: The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Signal to Noise, named one of the best books of the year by BookRiot, Tordotcom, BuzzFeed, io9, and more; Certain Dark Things, one of NPR’s best books of the year and a Publishers Weekly top ten; the fantasy of manners The Beautiful Ones; and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu’s Daughters). Gods of Jade and Shadow is her latest novel.
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