In 1929, Mexico, Casiopea opens a forbidden chest that resides in her grandfather’s home. Inside there is a quest that needs to be had with the help of an ancient Mayan god that Casiopea thought was only a myth. She must help this immortal being reclaim his throne or die a slow and painful death.
Casiopea is like any other young adult fantasy lead heroine. This novel is actually listed as adult on Goodreads but in my opinion it falls more into the category of YA. I started out feeling indifferent on our characters. They were average and I never felt any real connection to any of them. Casiopea was a bit wishy washy, hypocritical, but I think most girls of her age and in any decade, can be like that.
The atmosphere was one of the strong suits of ‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’. I loved getting to travel all across Mexico, and a little bit of Texas, with the characters. It is a country that I know only the basics about so it was so cool getting to read about how each city varies with its culture, landscape, and overall personality. Silvia Moreno-Garcia did a great job with descriptive writing to really put you in a location rather it be our world or the underworld of the Mayan gods!
I briefly mentioned the writing in the paragraph above, the descriptions were pretty good in this book. I also like the paragraphs about Casiopea’s dreams and looking up to the stars as if they would have an answers to all of her questions about life, those paragraphs felt so hopeful and dream like.
The plot is very unique with it being Mayan gods, as we get so many books about Egyptian, Greek, and Roman gods, we also seem to be getting quite a few about Slavic mythology. I find all mythology interesting though, so I am not complaining, but seeing something set in North America is very refreshing. I think if you are a fan of Naomi Novik, you will like this novel, it has some of the similar tropes. I have seen this book labeled as a Cinderella retelling but I would take that very lightly. The plot was something new and nice to see in the fantasy market.
This plot did move along nicely as it was quite fast paced. I think the characters always being on the move in their quest was a part of making it move fast.
An average read, this was new and unique but I could not connect with the characters and found myself skimming through the paragraphs. My min wandered a lot while getting through this 334 page novel. It is more of a plot driven story than one of character development. My opinion is unpopular as many of those I follow on social media really seemed to enjoy, ‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’. I would suggest still picking this book up if you are interested in the fantasy genre or into mythology.
3 out of 5 stars.
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Great review – I very much agree with you that despite the beautiful writing, I struggled to connect to any of the characters!
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