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Published in February of 2020, Gods of Jade and Shadow is a headlong ride into Mexican mythology, a slow burn romance with a logical ending, and beautiful prose that might lean a bit floral, but it is beautiful to behold none the less.
The main character is a women in need of her own coming of age story. This slow burn provides her the time to develop her wants, desires, and to test her core philosophies when confronted with adversarial situations different from those she was already subjected to. The conclusion for the slow burn is one that I rather appreciated and it made good solid sense the way it did end.
The editing was handled quite well, though there were pacing issues in some sections that would have benefitted from a little bit more of a deft hand in shrinking the floral prose. Not all of it, mind you, just a little bit in some sections.
I don’t often encounter books within my reading familiarity written about Mexico that is presented by a BIPOC author. Often the adventure books I encounter and mass market white guy books with high octane levels of spy/archaeology/who-done-its. This was refreshing. It gave me culture, perspective, and an introduction into a mythology that other than for a few archaeology shows and The Road to El Dorado movie (questionable at the very least), I am entirely unfamiliar with.
I liked the Neil Gaiman style interpretation of the gods and their fallibilities. The stylization and depth that the story went into could be an interesting religious philosophies and social structures of the 1920s study. But, if you aren’t into it for the deeper meanings and symbolism, it still reads as a very good general slow burn with pretty adventure settings.
I finally bought myself a Kobo Libra 2 and rented the book through my local library Libby app. This one I could very much see people putting on a bookshelf. I might buy the ebook at some point. The imagery is really what sold me on the story, and I’d love to revisit that. The cover art is magnificent, but I’m also a sucker for Art Deco and Southwest/Mission style art – which is part of what drew me to look at the story in the first place.
I will say, the Kobo is going to revolutionize my library. I pretty much ditched some hundred and fifty physical books over the winter break. I had wrist surgery a couple years back and holding physical books open hurts after about twenty minutes, which meant my library was getting dusty from disuse. Being able to sit and enjoy this story on an ereader was so much more pleasant.
Would I suggest this book?
Oh yes, yes I would. I liked it a lot.
Books in the Cottage 