Labyrinth Lost

Read Harder: Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey.

2.5 stars. This book was unlike anything I've read before. And it was exactly like a million things I've read before.

Alex, a plain, ordinary girl (witch/bruja) who worships her pretty, perfect older sister (healer bruja) learns she is The Chosen One (encantrix/super special bruja with all the powers) and then does something dumb to screw it up (tries to get rid of her powers because she wants to be normal, and accidentally makes her family disappear into a different dimension called Los Lagos) and has to go on an epic journey to make things right (save her family that is stuck in a magic Soul Tree in Los Lagos) and has to battle a super powerful force (the Devourer) and win even though she's a beginner at whatever makes her special (magic) and doesn't want this responsibility.

Also it started out with a map, and that was the first sign I wasn't going to love it.

There were snippets of pages from Alex's family's book of spells at the beginning of each chapter. There were usually only two or three lines each time; I kind of wish those had either been used more sparingly or fleshed out more. Either would have been fine, but as it was, it felt kind of like a tease. Also ... and I feel like this is a really petty complaint (just call me Tom Petty), but the gods' names were too ... easy. Generic? I don't know. I have a decent grasp of Spanish, and when the gods are all named things like El Corazon (The Heart), El Cielo (The Heaven) and El Guardia (The Guard) – I'll leave La Mama and El Papa out of this – it felt lazy in a way I know the author is not, because obviously building this world was an undertaking (even if it's laid on a foundation of a story we've all heard before).

OK, I'm done complaining. Believe it or not, there were things I liked too! I liked reading about Alex's family and their heritage and how magic was incorporated into their history. I liked Alex's relationship with her sisters. I liked how vividly some of the locations in Los Lagos were painted, particularly the Meadow del Sol. I liked her relationship with Rishi and Nova's backstory and how they traveled with her (even though Rishi wasn't magic). It was a fast read in a genre that I don't usually like, and so I'm probably not the best reviewer, but whatever.