Member Review

So, I dove head first into a fantasy romance novel knowing full well I don’t do “romantasy.” However, I love the blurb and the cover too much not to give it a try.

I was both right and wrong about this book. I both loved AND hated it. Let’s start with the hate because it’s the smallest teeniest amount of dislike that stems one hundred percent from the romance. It was cheesy. It was flowery AND cheesy. Slightly cute but super cheesy.

“I love you, my sweet Sitlali. Through time and space, and everything beyond, I love you.”—SUPER cute but heavy on the cheese. The expression of this kind of love is lost in English. It needs a love language. What I would give to be able to read and understand this in Spanish.

Now, that we're done with that. Let’s head to the good because there’s so much more great writing and storytelling in this book than there is cheesy love story. In fact, the greatness of the other themes and storylines in the novel is what makes me dislike the romance altogether. It feels like it takes away from the other aspects of the main characters’ plights. And, those main characters are two such extremely endearing characters that the love story kind of cheapens their greatness.

Sitlali is a seventeen year old girl living in Zongolica, Mexico. Her father left for America when she was a child, abandoning her and her mother. Her mother dies of a broken heart. She is left in the care of her grandmother. When her grandmother dies shortly before the beginning of the book, Sitlali is basically all alone in the world. To escape being entrapped by a local gang member, Sitlali makes a break for the US border. Mind you, this book takes place in 2019, so there is a lot of heat around illegal border-crossings. The journey that Sitlali takes in order to cross into the US is one of nightmares. In fact, the life she is thrown into after crossing the border is also one of nightmares. She basically runs from one traumatic event to the next. But, she is not alone.

Through a magical connection that involves a sacred moon conch from the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui, Sitlali shares emotions and experiences with Calitzo, a teenage warrior in early 1500s Mexico. For his time, Calitzo is a man. He is the last of his line as the Spanish attack and kill his family and people all around him. Just like Sitlali, he finds himself moving from one traumatic and murderous event to the other. The connection they share and the relationship that grows between them is one born out of loneliness. They each fulfill a hole in each other’s hearts. Their relationship gives off a found family vibe (which is probably another reason why the romance seems off to me). I would have much preferred a loving friend relationship. Everything doesn’t have to be about romance, at least not in the beginning. There are other stronger forms of love.

The underlying message of this book is about colonization, enslavement, and cultures trying to continue to exist in a world that prefers the default culture. This book pulls zero punches when discussing both the massacre of Mexican natives and the detainment of Mexican immigrants at the US border during the Trump regime. Seeing the US border crisis through the eyes of Mexican and Mexican-American perspectives helped me to understand those conditions even more than when I saw it on the news in 2019. The history of the Mexica people was extremely educational. Learning about Cuauhtemoc, Moteuczoma, and their gods and goddesses makes me want to dive into as many references as I can to learn more about the Nahua and other indigenous people of Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed going to Google and Wikipedia every other page to look up former emperors, empresses, words, languages, and events from Mexico’s past. I also appreciated the inclusion of Ofirin, an African slave stolen from his land and brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. Thanks to both the authors for not making Africans and people of African descent disappear when telling important aspects of history.

Romance aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Sitlali and Calitzo’s stories. May they live long fictional lives because they have both struggled enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books/Bloomsbury YA for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review will post to my Instagram account on Wednesday, June 28, 2023.
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