Won in a giveaway. Different than what I’d usually pick up and enjoyable! Scenes of Cass losing her love hit me hard in the feels just a couple days after the six month mark of losing my late partner last November after an illness that physically consumed him like Ianthe, but was probably healing to read the words nonetheless. 

Recommend reviewing CWs for folks 💜

Deonn does it again with the second installment in the Legendborn Cycle. So very much looking for more Arthurian Black girl magic. Oh and more Briana and Selwyn, please. 

In addition to this being a great close to The Scholomance series, there is such great reflection on humanity and the choices we make for an end result we think is worth the means. We could all take a page from Galadriel, or El's, book. 

"When I destroyed the maw-mouths, I wasn't just destroying the monster. I was undoing the grotesque lie of deathlessness than had created them in the first place, the lie that anchored the enclave foundations into the void. And so...down went the enclave, and all the enclavers with it, from the most guilt-stained council member to the most innocent child."

"'...So when I got close enough to the core of the maw-mouth, I understood what I was looking at. The foundation of some other enclave. The longing of a circle of wizards for a place where they and their children can be safe and powerful. The bottomless hunger that makes us willing to devour others down to their bones.'"

CWs: manipulation, emotional abuse, gaslighting, fantasy (monster) gore, death

While slower paced than I usually would enjoy, this is a great intro to a series novel that leaves things on an emotionally climactic note, but also makes even this reader interested in reading more (not my usual type of fantasy, often struggle with slower paced novels).  

CWs: fantasy-based xenophobia, class-based discrimination

The star rating is a personal rating, rather than the rating I'll provide for this eARC (which will be four stars). 

First and foremost, thanks to Del Rey and Penguin Random House (shoutout to Sabrina S. at Del Rey for recommending based on other novels I've reviewed!) for providing me access to an eARC of The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro in exchange for an honest review.

Castro's Haunting of Alejandra is a slow-medium paced novel that spans centuries and generations of women who have been haunted by an entity that feeds off of their sorrow. Our protagonist is a modern mother of two who, having grown up in an unstable home environment, is enraptured by a young white man who promises her stability. Unfortunately for our protagonist, she ends up in a marriage without real love or affection and deeply unhappy (her spouse's gaslighting her certainly doesn't help things).

We also get insight into our protagonists femme ancestors, who, all the way back to the inception of colonization in what is today México, have been burdened by this curse, intended to punish colonizers by one of our protagonist's forebears.

Wrapped into this generational curse and its consequences are an interpretation by the author of the myth of la Llorona of Latin American folklore. Perhaps one of the most interesting characters of the novel, this creature, perhaps from another dimension/part of the universe, has an insatiable hunger for violence and malevolence on par with the Spanish conquistadores.

"Before the invasion of this land by other humans, the creature had known that something just as malevolent as itself sailed the horizon. Perched on a jagged rock at the edge of a cliff, the creature had watched the bleeding sunset and inhaled the scent of death carried by the currents from the open waters creeping onto the shores. An omen." (location 544 in eARC via Kindle app)

A great fit for fans of Latin American folklore imbued fantasy, fans of Latin American inspired horror, folks who enjoy fantasy that covers broad time periods/is multi-generational in nature, readers who want to discover new takes on familiar tropes/stories (la Llorona, in this case), and emotional or heavier fantasy. I'll be on the lookout for more by V. Castro! 

CWs: thoughts of unaliving oneself, horror, ghost stories, family/generational curses, emotional manipulation and gaslighting, childhood emotional abuse, childbirth, regret of having children, adoption + associated emotions for birth parent and adoptee

Read for Indie Ink awards. Rating here reflects my personal rating of the novel, not how I rated it for categories I judged it for. 

Slow paced is hard for me, but I like the world built here and would definitely recommend to folks who enjoy slower paced novels with some LGBTQ+ protagonist representation, as well as are comfortable with some mental health themes around amnesia and depression, etc. 

First and foremost, big ups to Random House Children's team for granting me access to an eARC of Lucha of the Night Forest. I have enjoyed other YA novels by Tehlor Kay Mejia, and Lucha was no different.

Originally drawn to the novel due to my familiarity with the author, when I read the description, I got even more intrigued.

Lucha is well-paced, fantasy novel featuring an LGBTQNIA2S+ representative young femme protagonist. A number of themes within the novel struck me, including: enemies to lovers; the power of sibling love (sister love specifically); tropes of redemption, revenge, and justice; the evils of addiction and how it steals loved ones from us (either literally or figuratively); the power of life, nature, and hope; a coming into self/coming of age narrative that's centered most on a young femme coming into her own personal power and knowing herself/believing in herself. 

A hunter of the evil things that lurk in the dark of the forest, our protagonist, named Lucha (literally "fight" or "struggle" in Spanish), is trying to keep her family together at all costs in a working poor community where the evils of capital keep people indebted, addicted, and treat human beings as disposable along with the earth. When their mother disappears on a bender (again), Lucha is determined to take care of her younger sister Lis, who she sees as naive and unfamiliar with what is required in order to survive the hand they've been dealt. Lucha meets another young woman, Paz, and her adventure unfolds from there. 

Well-written prose combined with a storyline that compels the reader to turn the page makes for a great new YA fantasy novel from Mejia. I also love the ways in which Latinidad bleeds onto the pages, as well as larger reflections around societal issues that are relatable to all readers, regardless of their identities or where they come from geographically. I love the world that Mejia has created for us with Lucha and will continue to be on the lookout for new works in the future.