Labyrinth Lost

Alex does not want her magic. As far as her family knows, she's a late bloomer and yet to come into her power. They can't wait to celebrate her Deathday.

The format did remind me a little of the film Labyrinth, and many other quest type stories. Alex accidentally wishes her family away in an act of selfishness and then has to go into another dimension to rescue them, before time runs out. Along the way she meets an assortment of magical creatures and dangerous geographical features.

Alex's family is Puerto Rican by way of plenty of other countries, but the mythology is crafted from inspirations from many sources. Bruja is the Spanish word for witch and the idea of the Deathday was inspired by Día de Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead. It does have a little of the Greek about it too, there's a labyrinth after all and there's a scene that's very similar to the crossing of the River Styx.

Alex is a bit of a special snowflake and I also think the world-building was lacking a baseline in what regular bruja power was like. It's a pretty short book and she has several close encounters with different groups in Los Lagos, not giving much time for the book to feel fully fleshed out. Everything seems resolved just a little too easily, partly in thanks to those snowflake powers.

When the best friend, Rishi, is introduced they didn't come across as that close. When it starts talking about the strength of her love, it was a bit of a surprise. Generally the secondary characters needed a bit more work to really flesh them out.

It was a quick and entertaining read, so I wouldn't dismiss reading the second book in the series when it's out next year.

I heard about this book through the #DSFFBookClub (Diverse Sci Fi/Fantasy) on Twitter a few months ago. From the description somehow I got the impression that this took place in Mexico and perhaps was set in the past. That isn't true at all.

Alex is part of a family of witches in Brooklyn in the present day. Their numbers are dwindling. Alex has been hiding the fact that her powers have appeared because they are very strong and they scare her. She also thinks that magic has been responsible for a lot of the problems in her family. She doesn't want anything to do with it.

She accidentally reveals her powers at school while defending her friend Rishi from a bully. Now her family is planning her Death Day, a traditional celebration of a young bruja's power. Alex doesn't want anything to do with it. She decides to try to relinquish her powers during the ceremony but her attempt to use a canto goes wrong. Her family (living and dead) is banished to another realm and now Alex has to try to get them back.

I liked the depiction of a family for whom magic is a normal and expected part of everyday life. The next book in the series is going to focus on her sister Lula who is a healer.

This book uses a lot of YA Fantasy tropes but twists them in small ways so they weren't totally annoying.

There was a love triangle in this book which I absolutely hate but instead of a perfect girl trying to decide between two guys who love her here she is deciding between a girl and a guy. (I'm still waiting for my dream book where the two objects of affection decide they don't need the perfect one and go off together.)

Alex is, of course, the Chosen One who can fix everything. She's the most powerful witch in generations. Only she can defeat the bad guy. At the end though she had to accept help from others. She does also acknowledge that part of her wants to take all the power and be a despot too.

There is a point where a person who has hurt Alex tries to explain that it was all ok because this person loves Alex so much. She ultimately rejects that but it teetered on the brink. It was a little too close to "stalking is ok because this person loves you SO MUCH" for my liking.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and am interested to read the rest of the series when it comes out.


This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

Maaaaann, definitiv mein Lieblingsbuch in der 50-Bücher-Challenge! Alex aus Brooklyn soll ihren "Death day" feiern, eine Art Jugendweihe für junge Brujas wie sie. Während ihre Schwestern enthusiastisch über ihre magischen Kräfte sind, hat Alex Angst vor ihren, weil sie die Konsequenzen fürchtet. Sie beschließt, ihre Kräfte abzugeben ... was mächtig schief geht. Mithilfe des ziemlich cuten Brujos Nova und ihrer besten Freundin Rishi macht sie sich auf die Suche nach ihrer Familie, die durch ihren Zauber verbannt wurde in eine andere Dimension ...

Die Erzählung ist so warm und liebevoll und Familie spielt eine sehr wichtige Rolle. Außerdem kommt Alex nicht nur Nova näher, sondern auch Rishi, und es ist sooo süß dargestellt, wie sie nach und nach ihrer Gefühle klar wird! Es gibt auch kein "Sie muss sich entscheiden"-Zwang. Die Beziehung zu Rishi ist schon anfangs als total liebevoll dargestellt; Alex fühlt sich einfach immer wohl und wie zuhause bei ihr, ich mochte es total, wie diese Freundschaft dargestellt wurde. Aber zugleich wurde auch die Anziehung zu Nova sehr sexy gemacht, aaach, das Buch kann einfach sehr gut darstellen, wie ich mich selbst zT zu Typen und Frauen angezogen fühle ^^

Außerdem auch großen Crush für den Faun in "Los Lagos", eine Art Gehörnter der anderen Dimension. Ach, ach, tolles Buch.