Reading: Gods of Jade and Shadow

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow is a fantasy set in Mexico in the 1920s and based on Mayan mythology. It begins in a small town in the Yucatán, where Casiopea Tun lives a Cinderella-like existence, treated as a servant in the house of her wealthy grandfather and bullied by her cousin Martín. All of this changes when she opens the trunk at the foot of her grandfather's bed and revives the Mayan god of death, Hun-Kamé, who demands that Casiopea helps him to find the three missing parts of his body which will restore him to his full powers and enable him to defeat his brother, Vucub-Kamé, who has stolen the throne of the underworld, Xibalba, after beheading Hun-Kamé and giving his bones to Casiopea's grandfather to guard. Casiopea and Hun-Kamé's journey takes them across the length and breadth of Mexico, from the Yucatán to Baja California, encountering demons, gods and necromancers in their quest before the brothers finally confront one another.

It was fascinating to read a fantasy based in a mythological tradition I wasn't familiar with at all, and Casiopea is a likeable and sympathetic heroine, but overall I didn't enjoy Gods of Jade and Shadow as much as I'd hoped I would. Mostly I think that was down to the writing style; I can see why Moreno-Garcia decided to opt for a narrative voice reminiscent of fairytales, to underline the mythic subject-matter of the novel, but I found it quite distancing, flattening emotions and the descriptions of the landscapes Casiopea and Hun-Kamé travel through and the places they visit, so that instead of the richly textured, vivid read I felt the book should have been it seemed muted, one-dimensional and ultimately rather forgettable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC for review.