DNF @ Page 175 @ 35%
#ownvoices review - As a Queer Latine individual, I feel it's important to mention this upfront before delving into my review. I had high hopes for this book, even purchasing two copies, expecting it to become an all-time favorite. Unfortunately, my experience was quite the opposite, as this book turned out to be one of the most disappointing reads I've ever encountered.
I find myself questioning who should shoulder the responsibility for this outcome. It genuinely astonishes me that a book in this state was published without the necessary beta readers, critique partners, alpha readers, and extensive editing. The writing feels like a first draft desperately in need of refinement and improvement.
Publishing
I want to address the failure of publishing in regard to this book. It's disheartening to see the limited representation of Latine Fantasy in the literary world. That's not to say that it doesn't exist, but for other BIPOC communities you can easily find SFF written by Asian and Black authors.
Regarding this specific book, it faced numerous delays, pushing its release from 2021 to 2022 and then to 2023. With such an extended timeline, one would assume it was to ensure the book's perfection.
Yet, upon reading it, it became evident that the book didn't meet expectations. There aren't many Goodreads reviews, but I must acknowledge the stunning cover and the beautiful artwork inside, which the author provided.
Despite that, I am left bewildered by how the publishing process allowed this book to be released after so many years. I feel cheated, wondering what potential this book could have achieved with proper support and development.
The Author
While I understand that the publishing process may have contributed to the book's shortcomings, it's difficult to overlook the author's role in its state. Releasing the book in its current form leaves me astonished, especially considering the overall rating of 3.5 on Goodreads, which suggests that many readers aren't enjoying it. Even the 3-star reviews appear overly generous.
It seems plausible that the author either lacked proper critique or disregarded feedback during the editing process. Mistakes abound, evident from the first chapter alone, raising doubts about the involvement of beta readers or any form of critical assessment.
The possibility of the author being indifferent to the feedback or neglecting the editor's notes cannot be dismissed. Understanding the reasons behind these issues, whether the author's obstinacy or a lack of support from the publishing side, remains uncertain.
Additionally, I'm puzzled by the agent's decision to represent this book. Although representing more Latine SFF authors is commendable, it shouldn't entail representing subpar works. I question what the agent saw in this book, considering its glaring issues. It is worth noting that the agent in question, Naomi Davis, is a white literary agent, raising concerns about the lack of Latine literary agents and the reliance of Latine authors on white literary agents. These cultural blind spots might have been factors contributing to the book's unaddressed flaws.
Writing
The writing in this book was undeniably atrocious! It's hard to find the right words to describe just how bad it was. The text felt clunky and robotic, making it difficult to immerse myself in the story. The descriptions were either nonsensical or excessively lengthy, as if the author wanted to control every aspect of the reader's imagination, but the result was overwhelming and cumbersome.
Even though I typically enjoy detailed passages, the overabundance of unnecessary descriptions, like "spicy sunlight," felt awkward and jarring, pulling me out of the story. It seemed like the author was attempting to be creative with her wording, but it only came across as amateurish and confusing.
The frequent focus on food descriptions also became bothersome, as characters seemed to eat excessively, and the incessant details about their meals grew tiresome. Moreover, the dialogue felt unnatural, as if the characters were merely serving the plot rather than engaging in authentic conversations.
The main issue with the book is its needless wordiness, seemingly driven by an attempt to reach a specific word count. Instead of delivering a concise and engaging 300-page book, the author stretched out and over-explained every aspect, resulting in a tedious reading experience.
Overall, there's nothing positive or praiseworthy to say about the writing. Reading the words became physically uncomfortable, as they strained my eyes and made it impossible to continue without frustration.
Characters
These characters are incredibly flat and lack any depth or agency, making them some of the most basic and 2-dimensional characters I've encountered in my reading life. I agree with the review's assessment that both of the main characters, Reine and Eva, are merely passive observers in the story. They seem to have no control over their circumstances, as events happen to them, and they merely go along with it. Surprisingly, even though the plot presents supposedly interesting situations, they end up feeling mundane and uninteresting to read about. Moreover, every event in the story is overly melodramatic, leading to eye-rolling and head-shaking moments.
In the first chapter, one of the main characters is almost killed while being chased, but I found myself completely apathetic towards her fate. The book tries to create a sense of urgency and emotional investment, but it fails to establish any reason for me to care about the characters in the first place. The book tells us about character relationships without adequately showing them, leaving me with nothing to empathize or connect with.
Another issue arises from the overwhelming info-dumping of around 20 different characters in the early chapters or pages. This flood of names and relationships feels like character soup, making it impossible to keep track of everyone and their significance. While the book provides a character sheet at the beginning, it proves inadequate and unhelpful in providing meaningful insights into the characters.
The book would have been more engaging if the author had gradually introduced the characters and shown us their relationships instead of resorting to telling us everything upfront. The heavy-handed approach to character introduction and development detracts from the overall reading experience and highlights the shortcomings of the writing.
Worldbuilding
In addition to the character overload at the beginning, the author introduces a plethora of different locations, factions, peoples, and creatures in the world. However, like with the characters, I find myself struggling to keep track of all the details. While the author may have a comprehensive understanding of the world she's created, she fails to effectively translate that for the reader's comprehension. It feels as though we are dropped into this complex world without proper guidance, leading to confusion and a quick sense of being lost.
Despite the presence of a map at the beginning of the book, it proves unhelpful in visualizing the world effectively. The author's overexplanation of the setting, presented in a robotic and list-like manner, does little to help me form a clear mental image of the world. I feel frustrated by the overwhelming amount of information I'm expected to memorize all at once. While I genuinely want to understand how this world operates, the excessive info-dumping hampers my ability to grasp its intricacies, leaving me feeling overwhelmed.
The author's use of names for places and peoples intended to represent real-world locations and cultures falls flat, lacking depth and immersion. It feels superficial and doesn't allow me to connect with the world on a meaningful level. The constant pages of boring and unnecessary exposition, delivered through unnatural character dialogue, add to my struggle in engaging with the story.
Perhaps if the author had avoided the literal pages of info-dumping and found more organic ways to introduce the world and its complexities, I could have had a better experience with the book. As it stands, I find myself grappling with the abundance of information while yearning for a more immersive and enjoyable reading experience.
Magic System
The magic system in this book is utterly perplexing. While the narrative delves into long, tedious exposition and intricate details about various aspects, the magic system remains surprisingly vague. It seems to involve something related to minerals, but the explanation is unclear, and its connection to the gods is ambiguous. Despite its apparent significance and influence on the story, I find myself unable to provide a coherent description of how it works, which is quite frustrating.
I concur with another reviewer who suggested that the magic system appears to serve whatever purpose the author desires for the plot. It lacks clear rules or consistency, leading to random and unexplained occurrences. Even though the book emphasizes the rarity of a particular blue ore/mineral, it is repeatedly mentioned, making it seem less rare and diminishing the sense of uniqueness.
This magic system had the potential to be a distinctive and engaging aspect of the story, particularly with its connection to the different earth elements. However, it ultimately falls flat and becomes a significant disappointment. While the author may have had a clear vision of how the magic system operates, she failed to convey it adequately to the readers, leaving me puzzled and unsatisfied.
Plot
The book's division into two parts feels forced and contrived. It's challenging to pinpoint a clear plot, but I'll attempt to explain based on my understanding and other reviews. The story revolves around two girls, Reina and Eva, who lack agency and depth. Reina's arc involves her needing to sacrifice babies to resurrect some lady you're supposed to care about who died. On the other hand, Eva's story focuses on portraying magic as dangerous and evil, lacking nuance and depth in her character development.
The so-called "inciting incident" for Reina doesn't occur until 35% into the book, after a long and tedious exposition. This lack of a compelling plot makes the reading experience uninteresting and boring. Eva's narrative is equally predictable, with her character and the surrounding individuals being one-dimensional and lacking complexity. The story clumsily emphasizes that people perceive her as evil because of magic, but this fails to add depth or uniqueness to the storyline.
The interactions between characters, whose names are forgettable, feel unrealistic and contrived. They seem present solely for info-dumping or plot progression, rather than being fully fleshed-out individuals. Additionally, the passage of time in Reina's story feels strangely distorted, giving a sense of gaslighting as if readers are expected to believe in a significant passage of time that doesn't feel genuine.
Overall, the characters lack substance and agency, making it challenging to find any redeeming qualities in the book. It even leans towards YA rather than adult, with violence being the primary factor distinguishing it as an adult book. While I acknowledge the presence of sexism when categorizing female authors' works as YA, the main characters' portrayal in this book does indeed feel more like teenagers rather than adults.
Queerness
I'm going to be very careful with how I say this as I know the author is queer, I am queer, and there are queer characters in the book. It appears that the world in the book is not queernorm. However, as a result I feel that the queer characters of the world seem to be used as a shock factor.
Here's my issue with this. I'm assuming based on this fact that this world is set in the past because of these attitudes as many in Latin America today, in general, are more accepting of the LGBTQ community; however, as another reviewer pointed out, "Also Javier asks if Celeste attempted to "troubleshoot" something, a word that comes from working on phone lines, something that doesn't exist in this world." Which is such a good point because there are certain things about this book that are weirdly modern?
Instead of writing a Latin American fantasy where queer issues aren't present, the author chose to incorporate these issues into the narrative. This decision feels puzzling, as it's not clear if the intention was to accurately represent historical realities or to use queerness as a plot device for shock value. Which to me personally feels like the later, for shock value, which I don't appreciate the author doing.
Race/Ethnicity
Personally, I found the way the author tackled this aspect in the book to be downright offensive. I understand what the author might have been attempting to convey, but in my opinion, it didn't work at all. The allusion to indigenous people as monsters in the book was deeply triggering and unsettling to read about, even more so than the book's violence, which was already boring to me. It's true that historically, colonizers and some racist individuals viewed indigenous peoples in this manner, and sadly, some hold these views even today. However, having the entire framing of the story based on this concept is highly problematic.
Moreover, having the characters refer to themselves as monsters and giving indigenous characters antlers or tails only adds to the discomfort. It feels as if the book is dehumanizing indigenous people and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. The idea could have been handled more responsibly by simply having these characters exist in the story without the need for them to be contrasted with "humans."
As a Latine person, reading about the mixing of heritages and feeling as if the indigenous parts are being depicted as "weird" is a combination of feeling othered from both outside and within. This portrayal misses the mark on addressing the complexities of mixed heritages in Latin America, and it's poorly executed. I find it difficult to comprehend how a book with such problematic content was able to be published.
Let me emphasize once again that INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE and are not monsters. The book's depiction is deeply troubling, and it is distressing to read about indigenous people being presented in this manner. This aspect might not be as bothersome to non-Latine readers, as I have noticed a lack of Latine reviews on Goodreads. Nonetheless, it remains a significant issue that needs to be addressed and acknowledged.
Religion
This is a complex topic that I'll attempt to discuss. Firstly, it should go without saying that colonialism is detrimental, and I see parallels between what the Spanish did historically and the actions of certain groups like Mormons, JW's, and other Evangelicals from the USA in Latin America today, which can be viewed as a form of modern colonialism. That's a topic worthy of a separate discussion, but let's focus on the book.
In the book, we have the Virgin, which is a clear representation of the Catholic Church, and then the Indigenous religion(s). The presentation of these elements is a bit weird because, unsurprisingly, all the Christian characters are depicted as inherently bad, offering no nuance, especially when viewed from a modern perspective. They believe magic is evil, which is one perspective, but the issue arises when the book portrays one of the Indigenous gods as evil, involving the sacrifice of babies and women. This kind of logic makes it understandable why the Christian characters feel the way they do. However, the book seems to frame the ones performing the murders as good or justified, solely because they want to revive a character you're supposedly meant to care about.
Needless to say, this portrayal has numerous issues. Painting all Christians in the story as bad to the extent of needing a trigger warning for "religion" is bizarre and lacks nuance. While there have been terrible acts done in the name of religion, there are also instances of good. The book fails to explore these complexities, making me question who the intended audience is. Another Latine person might find this two-dimensional view on religion disheartening, as it lacks the depth and understanding needed to portray these beliefs accurately.
In the modern day, countries like Colombia or Argentina may be more Christian than the USA, yet they are less conservative. They grant rights such as abortion, whereas the USA's puritanical values still influence its politics. Even among sex workers in Latin America, many identify as Christian. Unfortunately, the book's portrayal of both Christianity and Indigenous religions lacks depth, complexity, and understanding, resulting in a 2-dimensional representation that falls short of conveying the complexities and nuances present in real-world beliefs.
Conclusion
In the end, this book fails on every possible level. It's rare for a book to evoke such strong negative emotions in me—boredom, anger, and annoyance—all at once, but this book managed to do just that. Its numerous issues lead me to believe that either it was never properly edited to address its flaws, or the author chose not to make necessary changes. I'm uncertain which scenario is true, but it's undoubtedly one of them, or perhaps a combination of both.
To be honest, I have nothing positive to say about this book. As a Queer Latine individual, there were elements here that I expected to appreciate, but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, this book serves as a masterclass in what not to do as an author. It's as if all the advice online on what to avoid in writing was compiled into one poorly executed book.
I won't be continuing with the series, and I sincerely hope the author won't be allowed to continue either. A fresh start may be necessary for the author to find her footing and produce something more compelling. The trees sacrificed to produce the paper for this book deserved better than to be wasted on such disappointing literature.
Needless to say, I will be attempting to return both copies of this book in the hope of getting my money back. This reading experience has left me thoroughly dissatisfied, and I believe others would be better off avoiding it altogether.