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Reading Wednesday
Nov. 27th, 2019 05:54 pmGods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A fantasy novel set in 1920s Mexico. (Apparently the author is insistent that this is not YA, but both the writing style and characters felt incredibly YA-ish to me, so... *shrugs* Decide for yourself.) In a small town in rural Yucatan, young Casiopea is used as servant by her rich grandfather and looked down upon by the rest of her family, especially her cousin Martín. Until one day when Casiopea is left alone in the house and out of spite opens a locked chest in her grandfather's room, only to release the ancient Maya death god Hun-Kamé, who was trapped there by his twin brother in a battle for control of Xibalba, the Underworld. Now Hun-Kamé and Casiopea are linked; her morality seeping into him allows him to exist in the world of humans, but it will only last for so long before she runs of out of life and they both die permanently. In the short time they have, Hun-Kamé must travel across Mexico (stopping at Mexico City, Mérida, El Paso, Tijuana, and a luxurious spa resort on the Pacific coast) to regather what his brother stole from him before the two gods can meet again in battle; he brings Casiopea along, allowing her to see the outside world she always dreamed of. Meanwhile, Hun-Kamé's twin chooses Martín as his own mortal champion (gods are fond of parallels, you know), using him to force Casiopea back home.
As I said, the prose struck me as very standard YA, particularly at the beginning of the book. (Which I don't mean as an insult; lots of genres have their standard styles.) It did seem to deepen and become more complex as the story went on, though I'm not sure if that was a choice of Moreno-Garcia's, or just me becoming more used to her writing.
On the other hand, I really loved the worldbuilding. Hun-Kamé and Casiopea meet all sorts of other characters from folklore, and not just from Maya mythology – there's figures from European, modern Mexican, and other Indigenous groups in here as well. Though the Maya connections are obviously the most prominent, and are really, really well-done. The scenes set in Xibalba itself do a wonderful job of conveying its creepy otherworldliness.
I absolutely loved Hun-Kamé's characterization. Moreno-Garcia gives him an agelessness, a stillness, and a detachment which felt so plausible for a god, and a death god (however benevolent) in particular. His slow transformation as morality grows in him was very effective. Speaking of characterizations, I also appreciated that Moreno-Garcia gave even the 'bad guys' a lot of empathy and understanding as to the root of their actions. Finally, the relationship between Hun-Kamé and Casiopea was fantastic. This is possibly the very best god/mortal romance I've ever read, and its resolution just could not have been better.
So, overall: do I recommend it? The beginning is definitely not as good as the latter parts, and it still comes off as fairly YA-ish, but if that's a genre you enjoy, you really should check this one out.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle. Sort of fantasy, sort of literary fiction, all entirely wonderful. This is the story of Apollo Kagwa, a young father in modern NYC. His own father disappeared from Apollo's life so early that he barely remembers him, and consequently he struggles with learning to be a father himself. The first hundred or so pages of The Changeling are a non-fantastic, mundane but enthralling account of Apollo's life: how his parents met and divorced, how he grew into a rare book dealer, how he met and wooed his wife Emma, her pregnancy, her sister's role as at-home midwife, the birth of their son. It's all sweet and surprisingly engaging despite the lack of suspense or, really, plot (Apollo's obsession with posting too many baby photos on Facebook was so adorable that it made me coo out loud, and I DON'T EVEN LIKE BABY-FIC, Y'ALL).
And then everything changes. It starts when Emma is either being stalked or is descending into a particularly hallucinatory bout of postpartum depression; Apollo is fairly firmly convinced that it's the latter, but the narrative leaves either possibility open. This culminates in a horrific scene of violence (look at the title and think about the recommended response to changelings in the original stories, and you'll have some sense of what happens) that leaves Emma missing, Apollo filled with a desire for revenge, and everyone else in their lives confused.
The Changeling is mostly about fatherhood: good fathers, bad fathers, generational differences in fathering styles, how one becomes a father, how one fails at it despite the best of intentions. Even a first-edition of To Kill a Mockingbird that provides a major MacGuffin is signed by Harper Lee herself with “Here's to the Daddy of our dreams". Despite this, The Changeling is not a book about daddy issues, which is a slightly different thing and one that (in my opinion) is way overdone these days, but something rarer and more profound. It also makes the lack of Emma's perspective (who is very clearly having her own complex adventures just offscreen) a deliberate choice about where to focus rather than simply shunting aside the main female character, which it could have descended into but miraculously doesn't.
The Changeling is also about fairytales. Not just changelings, who of course are central (and the paired scenes where first Emma and then Apollo finally learn the truth about changelings are far scarier and more primal than any of the other modern literature about changelings that I've read; though I wouldn't put the book as a whole into the horror genre, those two scenes absolutely qualify), but also witches, Rapunzel, trolls (both the internet kind and the lives-in-a-cave, turns-to-stone-in-the-daylight kind), three magic wishes, and Maurice Sendak. Plus the American Dream, ideas of masculinity, and white supremacy – all their own kinds of fairytale – which twist and turn on the tellers.
There's so much I loved in this book; I can't fit it all into this review. NYC is depicted vividly and precisely, which I am always a total sucker for: pilgrimages to the Strand! dancers on the subway! the sounds of Riker Island! the gray of its winters and the surprising green of its little parks! Zipcars and long waits for the bus! Libraries crowded with screaming children and the barren emptiness of the beaches in winter! Race (Apollo and Emma are black) is omnipresent in the book while rarely being directly referenced, in a subtle portrayal of how it's both unimportant (everyone has parental anxieties!) and yet absolutely central to modern life. Also, somehow this book made me cheer for an app download, which is not a thing I previously thought possible. The Changeling manages such a wonderful mix of grief and humor and shock and optimism. It's the perfect novel.
I loved every single word in this book and cannot recommend it highly enough. Don't make the mistake I did of waiting two years to read it! READ IT NOW. It hooked me from the very first page and never let me down.
In summary: READ IT. SO. GOOD.
As I said, the prose struck me as very standard YA, particularly at the beginning of the book. (Which I don't mean as an insult; lots of genres have their standard styles.) It did seem to deepen and become more complex as the story went on, though I'm not sure if that was a choice of Moreno-Garcia's, or just me becoming more used to her writing.
On the other hand, I really loved the worldbuilding. Hun-Kamé and Casiopea meet all sorts of other characters from folklore, and not just from Maya mythology – there's figures from European, modern Mexican, and other Indigenous groups in here as well. Though the Maya connections are obviously the most prominent, and are really, really well-done. The scenes set in Xibalba itself do a wonderful job of conveying its creepy otherworldliness.
I absolutely loved Hun-Kamé's characterization. Moreno-Garcia gives him an agelessness, a stillness, and a detachment which felt so plausible for a god, and a death god (however benevolent) in particular. His slow transformation as morality grows in him was very effective. Speaking of characterizations, I also appreciated that Moreno-Garcia gave even the 'bad guys' a lot of empathy and understanding as to the root of their actions. Finally, the relationship between Hun-Kamé and Casiopea was fantastic. This is possibly the very best god/mortal romance I've ever read, and its resolution just could not have been better.
So, overall: do I recommend it? The beginning is definitely not as good as the latter parts, and it still comes off as fairly YA-ish, but if that's a genre you enjoy, you really should check this one out.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle. Sort of fantasy, sort of literary fiction, all entirely wonderful. This is the story of Apollo Kagwa, a young father in modern NYC. His own father disappeared from Apollo's life so early that he barely remembers him, and consequently he struggles with learning to be a father himself. The first hundred or so pages of The Changeling are a non-fantastic, mundane but enthralling account of Apollo's life: how his parents met and divorced, how he grew into a rare book dealer, how he met and wooed his wife Emma, her pregnancy, her sister's role as at-home midwife, the birth of their son. It's all sweet and surprisingly engaging despite the lack of suspense or, really, plot (Apollo's obsession with posting too many baby photos on Facebook was so adorable that it made me coo out loud, and I DON'T EVEN LIKE BABY-FIC, Y'ALL).
And then everything changes. It starts when Emma is either being stalked or is descending into a particularly hallucinatory bout of postpartum depression; Apollo is fairly firmly convinced that it's the latter, but the narrative leaves either possibility open. This culminates in a horrific scene of violence (look at the title and think about the recommended response to changelings in the original stories, and you'll have some sense of what happens) that leaves Emma missing, Apollo filled with a desire for revenge, and everyone else in their lives confused.
The Changeling is mostly about fatherhood: good fathers, bad fathers, generational differences in fathering styles, how one becomes a father, how one fails at it despite the best of intentions. Even a first-edition of To Kill a Mockingbird that provides a major MacGuffin is signed by Harper Lee herself with “Here's to the Daddy of our dreams". Despite this, The Changeling is not a book about daddy issues, which is a slightly different thing and one that (in my opinion) is way overdone these days, but something rarer and more profound. It also makes the lack of Emma's perspective (who is very clearly having her own complex adventures just offscreen) a deliberate choice about where to focus rather than simply shunting aside the main female character, which it could have descended into but miraculously doesn't.
The Changeling is also about fairytales. Not just changelings, who of course are central (and the paired scenes where first Emma and then Apollo finally learn the truth about changelings are far scarier and more primal than any of the other modern literature about changelings that I've read; though I wouldn't put the book as a whole into the horror genre, those two scenes absolutely qualify), but also witches, Rapunzel, trolls (both the internet kind and the lives-in-a-cave, turns-to-stone-in-the-daylight kind), three magic wishes, and Maurice Sendak. Plus the American Dream, ideas of masculinity, and white supremacy – all their own kinds of fairytale – which twist and turn on the tellers.
There's so much I loved in this book; I can't fit it all into this review. NYC is depicted vividly and precisely, which I am always a total sucker for: pilgrimages to the Strand! dancers on the subway! the sounds of Riker Island! the gray of its winters and the surprising green of its little parks! Zipcars and long waits for the bus! Libraries crowded with screaming children and the barren emptiness of the beaches in winter! Race (Apollo and Emma are black) is omnipresent in the book while rarely being directly referenced, in a subtle portrayal of how it's both unimportant (everyone has parental anxieties!) and yet absolutely central to modern life. Also, somehow this book made me cheer for an app download, which is not a thing I previously thought possible. The Changeling manages such a wonderful mix of grief and humor and shock and optimism. It's the perfect novel.
I loved every single word in this book and cannot recommend it highly enough. Don't make the mistake I did of waiting two years to read it! READ IT NOW. It hooked me from the very first page and never let me down.
In summary: READ IT. SO. GOOD.
