I received an ARC of this book from BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.
Rating 3.5/4, rounded up to 4 stars
This is a really wonderful debut novel. The setting of the new world we're thrust into is lush and verdant, drawing inspiration from Mesoamerican culture and history. From the first few pages, I was immersed in the story and the uniqueness of the narrative. I am a huge advocate for representation in the YA genre and there are not enough books out there currently that use this sort of setting as inspiration for their fantasy. (Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, one of my favorite novels, is another that comes to mind).
At the end of the day, this is your average YA fantasy novel (not a bad thing!). I enjoyed reading it and finished it in two days. But as I stated above, what makes it a fresh of breath air in the community is the inspiration of the setting and the diversity of the characters. Over the past two or so years, diversity has been more prevalent in YA novels; I hope this is a trend that continues to grow across 2022 as well.
Rating 3.5/4, rounded up to 4 stars
This is a really wonderful debut novel. The setting of the new world we're thrust into is lush and verdant, drawing inspiration from Mesoamerican culture and history. From the first few pages, I was immersed in the story and the uniqueness of the narrative. I am a huge advocate for representation in the YA genre and there are not enough books out there currently that use this sort of setting as inspiration for their fantasy. (Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, one of my favorite novels, is another that comes to mind).
At the end of the day, this is your average YA fantasy novel (not a bad thing!). I enjoyed reading it and finished it in two days. But as I stated above, what makes it a fresh of breath air in the community is the inspiration of the setting and the diversity of the characters. Over the past two or so years, diversity has been more prevalent in YA novels; I hope this is a trend that continues to grow across 2022 as well.