I'm back with another NetGalley Book Review! I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I made a personal goal to try and do one NetGalley review every month and so far I am doing a terrible job at fulfilling that goal. Either way, I am always excited to review these books on my blog so here's another one!
Before I start my review I want to thank NetGalley and Daphne Press for giving me an ARC of this novel to review.
So, without further ado, here's my review:
Reina wasn't unfamiliar with aches of the heart, but this pain was unlike anything she'd experienced before
Chapter 39, p. 405
In a fantasy world inspired by South American history and folklore, this novel follows the story of two young women: Reina and Eva.
Image taken from NetGalley.
Reina is isolated and living on the edges of society. When she gets an invitation from a grandmother she's never met or known, her desperation convinces her to go to her grandmother.
On the way, Reina was attacked by creatures, leaving her on the verge of death. That is until her grandmother appeared and healed her with sorcery. Reina is now dependent on her grandmother's magic and she will do anything to stay in her grandmother's favour. Even if she has to listen to an ancient god.
Then we have Eva.
Eva is an illegitimate child of mixed heritage and she is constantly trying to fit in and hide her oddities. But Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls out to her. Eva tries to fight the temptation of magic, her religion sees it as the influence of an evil god and using magic is punishable by death.
Both Eva and Reina are in a fight for their lives and for a sense of belonging. Will they succeed?
So, I have mixed feelings about this novel.
First: I loved certain aspects of the writing style and language. I thought that there were some great one-liners and quotes throughout the novel. In saying so, my main issue was that the writing style in general, was hard for me to connect to and focus on.
World-building and discovering new universes' is my favourite party for picking up a new fantasy novel. So, I absolutely LOVED the inclusion of South American folklore and the integration of Spanish in this novel (there's a glossary at the end of the novel for all the Spanish terms used). I love and support WOC and POC authors who include details about their culture and heritage in their work so I enjoyed these aspects of the novel.
Now, I'm used to slow-paced storytelling since I read a lot of high fantasy novels so, I didn't mind the slow pace and extreme detail in the world-building and politics in the first sections of the novel. But, this slow pacing may be an issue for other readers.
I appreciated the themes in the novel as well. There are themes of prejudice and colonisation - both of which affect our main characters. As a woman of colour, I was able to relate to a lot of these themes, they're heartbreaking, difficult and complex topics and I was intrigued by these themes. In saying so, there are a lot of triggering topics which come up such as traumatic scenes of infanticide, childbirth and pregnancy as well as racism, slavery, and gore/violence.
I am relatively neutral about the characters, although Reina and Celeste both have a place in my heart.
Overall, I liked this novel and I love the world-building. In saying so, something about the writing style made it difficult for me to click with this novel. I did enjoy it just not that much.
No comments:
Post a Comment