Gods of Jade and Shadow Review

Summary

Casiopea Tun is stuck in a life she never wanted. She and her mother are forced to work for her crotchy grandfather due to indiscretions from her mother’s past. One day, when she is cleaning her grandfather’s room, she discovers a box with contents inside that will either take her on a mythical journey that could help her escape her life of misery or lead to death.

My Thoughts

Can I just start by saying that the cover of this book is AMAZING!?! I mean it is absolutely gorgeous and drew me into buying it immediately. All of Ms. Moreno-Garcia’s are just so unique and colorful, I love them. In this book’s case, definitely buy the book because of the cover because the inside is great too!

I really loved this book for so many reasons other than the cover, I promise! First of all, the setting of this book was AMAZING!! The time period and the locations they traveled to were just perfect due to the fact that the pandemic has really harmed all of my travel plans. It was nice to escape to a gorgeous world and the author’s descriptions of it were just superb! It had so many sights and smells as I read the book and I was in HEAVEN! It made me want to travel to Mexico immediately!

Each city that they would venture, the author included a little history of the time period which I thought was so interesting and really made me want to keep reading! The text also made me feel extremely guilty because although my family comes from Mexico and I am a proud Mexican, I know next to nothing about its history nor its various cultures different from city to city. This book is not only such a creative and adventurous tale of love and fantasy, but also a great segway to introducing the reader to a culture that they are unfamiliar with. Such a great book!

I was also in love with this book because of the Mayan mythology it incorporated. When you usually think of Mexico, you think of the conquistadors and the poor Aztecs; however, Mayans are not as well taught in school (at least not at my school) so this book was a breath of fresh air when it concerns the use of a unique mythology in fantasy. The mythology in this book was also extremely well researched, but also spun in a different way by the author. I’m sensing I will buy a book of Mayan mythology in my future!

The characters in this book were EXTREMELY interesting and entertaining! Casiopea was such an engaging character and her storyline went in a direction that I did not expect. Yes, she is feisty and spoke her mind at every opportunity, but she also had such a shyness to her that I didn’t expect. She was also so scared to try new things and to expand her horizons. I found her to be a wonderful paradox!

This book was very much about escaping the struggles of your heritage and defeating familial expectations of yourself when it came to all the characters in the book. They were all struggling to find who they were and what they wanted out of life that anyone could relate to. This was an aspect that I liked most of all about this book and why I think a lot of people should read it. Not only was it a book of mystery, fantasy, and wonder, it also touched on a subject that everyone will or has struggled with in their life.