Review: Labyrinth Lost

Brooklyn Brujas, Book 1
By Zoraida Córdova
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy

Zoraida Córdova's The Vicious Deep trilogy is my favorite thing to come from the mermaid mini-trend in YA. I knew I wanted to read her next YA urban fantasy novel, so I was sold on LABYRINTH LOST even before I saw the gorgeous cover.

LABYRINTH LOST did lose me a little at the beginning. Alex is a bruja with great potential, about to step into her full power at her Deathday celebration. But she doesn't want the power, because she believes her power drove her father away. (I found it obvious that this wasn't the full truth, but it is understandable that Alex can't see past the trauma of childhood abandonment.) When she meets a mysterious hot boy named Nova who promises he can help her get rid of her powers, she instantly believes him. No one but Alex is surprised when the spell he gives her goes horribly awry.

Once Alex, Nova, and her non-magical best friend Rishi travel to the liminal Los Lagos to rescue Alex's family, I was fully onboard. I loved the quest through a magical, dangerous land filled with strange people who could be enemies or allies and had their own motivations and stories. But the journey to that point was a slog, with Alex making one obvious bad decision after another.

I'm pretty sure when I reread LABYRINTH LOST I'll skip over most of the beginning. Because the rest of the novel, honestly, was exactly what I wanted. I'd even idly thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if X happened?" and the book delivered. LABYRINTH LOST even recovers from the lame, cliche bad boy setup and develops a believable romance with sparkling chemistry.

I also found the world Córdova creates fascinating. Her brujas are of her own creation, and they stand out from the usual crowd since she syncretizes various Latin American myths and folklore. Fans of Daniel José Older's SHADOWSHAPER and Bone Street Rumba novels will find much to love. 

The beginning had me worried, but I was write to trust that Córdova would deliver a book that I found enthralling. I am eagerly awaiting the second Brooklyn Brujas novel.

Cybils 2016: Graphic Novel Winners

The Cybils announced the 2016 winners on February 14th; I apologize for only posting now.

This year I had the honor of serving as a second-round judge (for the first time!) in the Elementary/Middle Grade and Young Adult Graphic Novels categories. Choosing a winner from the finalists was difficult, because graphic novels are such a broad category. How do you compare an excellent fantasy work to a moving memoir to charming adventure story? Somehow, we managed.

You can look at the finalists' lists to see the excellent works we had to read and vote on:
Elementary/Middle Grade
Young Adult

In the end, our winners were:

Elementary/Middle Grade

Lowriders to the Center of the Earth (Lowriders in Space, Book 2)
By Cathy Camper; illustrated by Raúl the Third

I wrote our blurb about why we chose Lowriders as our winner:

Lupe Impala, Elirio Malaria, and El Chavo Flapjack are back in an adventure that takes them to the underworld of Mictlantecuhtli. When their beloved cat Genie goes missing from their auto shop, they go on a quest to find her—and her epic true identity, as it turns out. Their quest takes them on a tour through Latin pop culture, from el chupacabra and La Llorona to lucha libre wrestling. Bad puns delivered in two languages abound, and every panel (inked in ball point pen!) is bursting with visual detail that adds to the story. This unique art, by Raúl the Third, brings to mind diverse influences such as graffiti, tattoos, and thirties cartoons. The clean lines and busy scenes are a perfect companion to a story that twists and turns while remaining approachable for elementary readers. Unlike the Lowriders themselves, Lowriders to the Center of the Earth is never bajito y suavecito (low and slow). The cultural and linguistic lessons are woven seamlessly into a fast-moving adventure that will entertain readers of all ages.

Young Adult

March: Book Three
By John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell

You can visit the list of winners to see our blurb about this powerful work.

I thought March: Book Three was a strong conclusion to the trilogy as well as a work that can stand on its own, capped by tragedy and success. It is both informative and personal, and shows how the Freedom Summer, Selma marches, and other fights for Civil Rights are more relevant than ever. At points it feels less like history and more like a timely call to action.

Movie Monday: Logan

As a superhero movie fan, I couldn't resist going out opening weekend to see the final X-Men movie featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier.

Logan is set in the future of 2029, where many mutants have died off and none are being born. Tired of his long life and poisoned from the inside, Logan is working as a chauffeur across the Mexico-Texas border to provide from himself and the aging Professor X. Age is interacting with Charles' telepathic powers in deadly ways; when he has a seizure, everyone around freezes in pain. But Logan can't abandon the man who has been like a father to him.

Of course, a wrench has to be thrown into the works. That wrench is Laura, or X-23, an eleven-year-old mutant with suspiciously familiar powers being tracked down by government goons.

Don't go into Logan expecting slick bombast. James Mangold has taken clear inspiration from westerns, most obviously the classic Shane. It's an elegiac film, albeit one that does have plenty of brutal action scenes and sprinklings of humor. Since Deadpool proved to Fox that R-rated superhero films can make buckets of money, Logan leans into its higher rating. The violence is bloody and the language is salty.

I enjoyed seeing two of my favorite characters playing off of each other, and Dafne Keen as Laura works perfectly in the mix. She's an adorable ball of rage with flowered sunglasses who spends over half the movie communicating only in grunts. When she does finally speak, she still accompanies it with a punch to help Logan get over his self-pity. (And let me say that I appreciate Logan's linguistic efforts. Characters born in Mexico speak Spanish.)

 Logan is a moving film about the regrets of the past and the hopes of the future. It also happens to feature Wolverine vs. Wolverine action, for the best of both worlds. I don't think fans of these characters will be disappointed.