Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can't trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.
The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...
Praise for Labyrinth Lost:
"Zoraida Cordova's prose enchants from start to finish. Labyrinth Lost is pure magic." -Melissa Grey, author of The Girl at Midnight
"Magical and empowering, Labyrinth Lost is an incredible heroine's journey filled with mythos come to life; but at its heart, honors the importance of love and family." -Cindy Pon, author of Serpentine and Silver Phoenix
"A brilliant brown-girl-in-Brooklyn update on Alice in Wonderland and Dante's Inferno. Very creepy, very magical, very necessary." -Daniel Jose Older, author of Shadowshaper
"Labyrinth Lost is a magical story of love, family, and finding yourself. Enchanting from start to finish." -Amy Tintera, author of Ruined.
This book was sent to me by NetGalley.
THIS REVIEW WILL BE SPOILER FREE.
If I could describe this book without giving it away, I would say that it's Witches of East End meets The Book of Life. At first I thought this combination made no sense, but when I really thought of it, it just made me realize that this is literally the child of both Witches of East End and The Book of Life. Off the topic of me comparing kids movies to witch TV shows, I would like to say that this is one of the most original books I have read. I know, I feel like I've said that with various other books but when it comes to Labyrinth Lost, I just can't help but acknowledge the amount of creativity that went into this novel.
Something that is always appreciated when reading books (for me at least) is the way the book feels or the essence of the book itself. I feel like that is something that can be lost within books but with this entire book, everything had a feeling of magic and darkness which is something that I LOVED! It was so intriguing and mysterious.
The world Zoraida created is simply enchanting. If I'm going to be honest, it's one of the best witch books I have read. The world that we read and see in this book is just so very different from what we would typically see today in YA literature. You can already tell that this whole story has such a vivid backstory along with the world.
You know how in YA, we usually have the typical YA character who is only just discovering her true destiny or past? Well, Alex is fully aware. I don't know why, but that is something that caught my eye. She was on such on a different pathway than I had imagined for this novel and it was so great to read about.
Labyrinth Lost has such a rich world, and it's so easy to just get lost in the content of this book and just completely fall in love with it.
Alright, so while this book was unique there were downfalls as well. This is just my opinion, but I think that when it comes to a book like this that is setting up for a really intense ride of a story, it has to be pretty gripping. I found that while it did grab me at some points, I did kind of find myself getting lost in the words without absorbing the story. Or I would just unintentionally skim read a few pages.
Two things I wish were a little more developed would probably be the characters. I just felt like they weren't as well rounded as I would've expected or wanted them to be. However, this is just the first novel, so there is plenty of time for everything to grow.
Now, I'm going to talk about the representation/diversity in this book. I loved how there were so many things that came from Latin culture which I personally found very interesting. Honestly, in real life I just find the culture very fascinating, and would really love to learn about it in the future. One of the best parts was that we had a lead character who identified themselves as part of the LGTBQ+ community! I didn't know that, that was a thing before reading this book, I kind of just picked it up and was like "HEY, MORE DIVERSITY." I'm really glad that it was included because it's really not something we see everyday in YA.
Overall, I would say that I enjoyed this book. The strongest points of this book was definitely the potential this book had and the fact that it had one of the most unique story-lines/worlds I have ever read about. In my opinion, I thought that this was a good intro to a series. I'm looking forward to reading more from this world and Zoraida! I would rate this book a 3 out of 5 stars.
I hope you enjoyed reading this review!
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