Michaela

Love this book! The characters are lively and the story draws you in, even though most of the characters seem designed to exasperate the reader with the choices they make and how cryptic they can be. It reflects a level of paternalism and patronizing (even though the book emphasizes matriarchy a lot) that is often felt in Latine/x families (the way they keep Alex in the dark by telling her she'll learn later as if they shouldn't and tell her the importance of things NOW, and how they don't respect her feelings to the point where she can't confide in her mom or sisters). I was frustrated with the main character and her mother a lot and the lack of development of her sisters and the villain. The main drawbacks to this book were: 1. The editing is absolutely horrid. I don't know if the author didn't have content editors or what, but I swear every other page was full of grammatical errors or incorrect word choice, like, a "for" where a "from" should be. 2. The choice to include African ancestry using Mama Juanita's character and the African Incan enslavement history felt very forced to me (as an Afro Puertorriquena/African American woman & scholar). It was giving both "la gran familia" mestizaje and "y tu abuela donde esta" vibes, considering nothing in the brujeria reflected African religiosity (in my opinion) and none of the other characters reflected Blackness in any form. Even Afro Latines know we're Black.