Labyrinth Lost

by Zoraida Cordova

September 6, 2016 · Sourcebooks Fire

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Given the cover art, the characters, the presence of brujas, the series name Brooklyn Brujas, and the summary, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion I’d like this book. It was a stunning and powerful mix of all my catnip. I like witches, I like young women coming into their power, otherworldly or otherwise, and I like the unique sense of family that arises with groups of women practicing said power.

Now that I’ve read it, my anticipation was satisfied, but I also wish there had been more. It’s a mix of Alice in Wonderland and Charmed with an adventure and quest in an immense mythological world that exists within our reality and in an “otherworld” where the heroine journeys to save her family. The more I think about the different elements of the world and the way gods, magical creatures, witches, and the whole mythology itself are represented, the more it fascinates me. But I think about the world and the mythology more than I think about the characters.

Alejandra is a bruja (witch) of immense power that she’s been suppressing because she really, really doesn’t want what she’s got. Her family is descended from a very long line of brujas, and her two sisters have unique powers of their own. Alex has been terrified of the increasing strength of her powers as they manifest in frightening ways – and when the full extent of what she can do is revealed, everyone realizes she is one of the most powerful brujas in a generation.

Alex complains a LOT. She doesn’t like her powers, she is frustrated by her sister’s interference in her life, she is angry and hurt that her father left the family without explanation and never returned, and she blames her magic for that. She wants to confide in her best friend, but she can’t, because said friend isn’t a bruja. When she finally decides to do something about all her frustration, she does a very typical but still annoying young person thing: she trusts a totally slippery and way-too-convenient dude named Nova who shows up at exactly the right time with exactly the right answer to her problems, and is all, “Oh, sure, reject your powers? Yeah, you just have to do this other thing instead of the thing you’re meant to do.”

Alex takes full possession of her powers and safely manifests them in a Deathday celebration, wherein her family summons the spirits of her ancestors and they collectively offer their blessing to Alex. Most of the family, dead and living, are present when Alex does the thing she shouldn’t do instead of the thing she should, and it goes bad in a hurry. When the shouldn’t-thing backfires, her family gets sent to Los Lagos, an otherworld that is unstable and miserable, and of course Nova is right there to help her follow them to get them back, if they are still alive. They might not be.

Here are the things that worked: like I said, I could think about the world-building and mythology all day. I would read for hours more about how the brujas interact with the modern world, and how they hide and co-exist with non-magical people. How do they use their magic? When is it allowed or not allowed? What does a circle do together that is so vital? What if you want to punch some of the members of your circle right in the nose? I love a rich, layered, conflicted secret world, especially one that hangs out alongside or embedded within the “real” one.

I loved Alex’s reliance on her best friend, on her sisters, on her mother, her aunts, and all the women in her life. The strength of the women in this story is staggering – and so beautiful.

What I struggled with was Alex’s dedication to trusting Nova even after he repeatedly proved himself to be dishonest, deceitful, or incredibly stupid. She gets good advice from someone who helps her and keeps her friend safe, but Nova talks her out of following it. She doesn’t question him when she should, and questions him when she doesn’t have reason to. She mixes stubbornness and being easily persuaded with an inconsistency that undermined her intelligence. There were a whole string of, “Oh, honey,” moments in this book for me, and I could make a necklace out of the total number of times she exercises deplorably bad judgment. Learning the full extent of Nova’s backstory, and the degree to which he becomes a vivid character by the end helped somewhat. But nonetheless, through much of the story, Alex’s character is frequently overwheemed by her powers, which she doesn’t want to accept, by her responsibilities to clean up for her own actions, which she does accept, and by her steadfast inability to judge character accurately, which for me, grew frustrating to read about.

I can’t say much about the romance without spoiling a lot of the plot, but I can say that it’s understated, sweet, and adorably satisfying. I wish the story had been able to spend more time on Alex’s relationships, but the primary ones that have the most impact on her life are beautiful, especially her best friend, Rishi. Romance readers may not find a lot of romantic tension in the story, but it’s not meant to be a romance. I still think this will appeal to many of us because of the strength and emotional resonance of Alex’s connections with the women around her – her family, her best friends, and the various beings that help her along her journey. I was also very happy that…

I’m trying not to spoil things, so I apologize for the vagueness.

Overall, I think this book contains a fabulous world with a terrific, galloping adventure through a vivid and wrenching underworld. While I was reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. But the story has most of its strength in the plot and the world-building than in the characters and their emotional development and consistency, and I missed those aspects even while I enjoyed the rest.