Gods of Jade and Shadow is one of those books that was written just for me. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has excellent prose, imaginative world-building and plays around in the tropes that resonate with me deeply. She's two for two at this point and after this stellar outing, I'm predicting she'll soon become a favourite author.

The book follows Casiopea Tun, a headstrong girl from a small town who finds herself on a road trip with the lord of the underworld, Hun Kamé, as they attempt to restore his power and seek vengeance. These two travel across Mexico on the hunt for artifacts to restore Hun Kamé's power while being hunted by Hun Kamé's traitorous brother and Casiopea's mean-spirited cousin.

The story itself is a simple travelling story, we move linearly from points A to B to C with few radical shifts in the typical journey formula. But, despite its lack of complexity, Moreno-Garcia crafted a compelling and satisfying narrative. There was something so warm about going through the motions of all of the expected plot beats of the journey. The story builds on itself slowly but steadily over the course of the novel in a meticulous way. What she captures perfectly is the catharsis of the experience. The emotional release of feeling emotions that aren't surprising, but true is done wonderfully. Moreno-Garcia plays in the sandbox of storytelling to give us something old, but new.

Moreno-Garcia's characters are as well crafted as her plot. Casiopea, because of her low social status, is forced by the men and matriarchs around her to tolerate disrespect and degradation. However, she carries a spark of defiance with her and seeing that flicker fanned into a flame over the course of the story was wonderful. Casiopea's transformation and development is so well done because Moreno-Garcia takes the time to show the moments of tension that push her further and further away from the constrained passivity of her hometown and it builds into a satisfying flourish. I also really appreciated how this transformation was reflected in her growing ties to the magical world around her.

Hun Kamé was equally engaging. While austere and reserved at the start of the novel, his slow development of warmth and humanity was a great compliment to Casiopea's own journey. What initially sold me on his character was his immediate and unwavering respect for Casiopea. Death and Maiden tales often feel the need to make the Death archetype unnecessarily cruel to their love interest, therefore, making it impossible to connect with him and buy into the romance. Hun-Kamé, in contrast, while cold initially is never rude or callous to Casiopea. He begins the story as an aloof old school gentleman and as the story develops he grows more and more human, and romantic, in turn. Sidestepping a superfluous 'enemies-to-loves' dynamic was just the cherry on top delicious character sundae.

I'm always on the hunt for fantasy romances that invest equally into their fantasy and romance. Moreno-Garcia delivered the gold standard in that regard. The aching, tender slow-burn romance between Casiopea and Hun-Kamé was stunning. What made it such an immaculately crafted romance was how their individual character arcs and the plot were so intricately tied into their romantic development. Seeing Hun-Kamé's creeping mortality interplay with his growing affection for Casiopea and seeing the swell fierce protectiveness Casiopea gains for Hun-Kamé in tandem was beautiful. I cannot oversell how heart-shattering the gentle attraction and the slow build between these in these two's relationship was. Their brief, searing touches and sidelong glances cut straight to my core. The romance was a grower, but that slower pace was so worthwhile because it made the culmination of that romantic tension all the more explosive.

<spoilerI was initially disappointed that Hun-Kamé and Casiopea didn't ultimately stay together. But, in hindsight, that was the perfect ending for this story. To have it any other way would have undermined the internal logic of the world, the themes of the story, and Casiopea's character arc. Plus, a bittersweet ending can be just as cathartic as a happily ever after.

The setting and world-building of Gods of Jade and Shadow was fantastic. The story takes place in post-Revolution Mexico and Moreno-Garcia weaves the class politics and culture of the country at the time well into her story. Mexico comes to life as the characters travel from city to city. The vivid descriptions and unique energy of every stop on the journey made it all the more entrancing. From the coastal paradise of Mérida to the restless bustle of Mexico City I wanted to dive right into its pages.

Equally as delightful was the Mayan mythology at the core of this story. As someone who's never studied Mayan mythology in-depth it was lovely to be introduced to a whole new world of gods, spirits, and lore. Xibalba, The Black Road, Xtabay and even more were foreign concepts to me, but Moreno-Garcia wove a vivid and imaginative world through it and I loved being swept away in the rich worldbuilding. What I loved most about exploring Mayan mythology through this lens was seeing the parallels and clear diversions between Moreno-Garcia's interpretation of Mayan culture and other mythologies and pantheons. While something like Greek mythology is clearly distinct from Mayan the echoes in common narratives were still fun to notice.

Gods of Jade and Shadow, like Certain Dark Things before it, was an immaculately crafted story. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's satisfying narrative and character arcs, standout romance and delightful word building made it a fantastic read. It felt like a romantic myth that has been told for centuries and will continue to be told for centuries to come.