Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Woman of Light

On its face, this book feels tailor-made for my reading tastes: a intergenerational historical fiction centered on indigenous & immigrant communities in Colorado.

Unfortunately, it ultimately fell flat for me.

The story is ambitious and parts are truly gorgeous. Fajardo-Anstine is a deeply atmospheric writer and developed a rich sense of place at every juncture of the book. However, I felt the narrative was underdeveloped and found the protagonist, Luz, a bit flat compared to the secondary characters (I was specifically drawn to Avel and Simodecea). Luz is paradoxically presented as both naive and wise, a tension that I struggled to shake as I read. Introduced with a nickname dripping in foreshadowing (“Little Light”), I was disappointed that her inherited gifts were fairly inconsequential to the story.

I had an excellent chat with a friend right after we both finished the book, and I summarized it then as a book that felt like a novella padded with short stories. The depth of development around each generation was very varied, which in the end left me feeling dissatisfied by the lack of closure in all but the main arc.

I was specifically dissatisfied by the sudden drop-off of Simodecea’s story, the incompleteness of Maria Josie’s plot line, and the way Diego shows back up at the end and everything is “fixed,” as if Luz couldn’t figure out how to move forward on her own. Also, I remain perplexed by the way the gift of prophecy is passed down matrilineally but somehow includes and adopted son?

In the end, I enjoyed it well enough, but I wanted more from this read.

Content Warnings

readingtomydogs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Woman of Light is an incredible novel about Mexican women in the West/Colorado region in late 1800s-1930s. It contains such beautiful writing. The backdrop of Colorado evokes such a sense of place and lets nature shine.
The book has a generational theme but switches stories every few chapters, blending beautifully at the end! One of my top reads of the year.
Received an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review from Random House on NetGalley.

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

oldandnewbooksmell's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Luz Lopez lived with her brother Diego and her Aunt Maria Josie in Denver in the 1930’s. Luz reads tea leaves and does the laundry of the rich with her cousin Lizette but after her brother is run out of town by a violent white mob, she is left to fend for herself as she tries to help keep her and her Aunt afloat. As she starts a new job as a secretary in a law firm, Luz begins to have visions of her ancestors’ origins in her nearby Indigenous homeland, Lost Territory. She sees the hardship and sinister forces that have devastated her people for generations. It’s up to Luz to keep her family stories from disappearing.

This is an exquisite multigenerational book that is so captivating it transports you directly into the scenes. Kali Fajardo-Anstine writes such vivid descriptions of the landscapes and settings that when Lizette was getting married, I could practically taste the food the women were making in the kitchen. Fajardo-Anstine is a wonderful, mesmerizing storyteller.

Woman of Light is a story about family, love, loss (lots of loss), and keeping both your story and your family’s story alive so it’s not forgotten. Through the eyes of Luz, we see the treatment of Native and Indigenous peoples as settlers and other white immigrants move further and further west across the country. It’s hauntly heartbreaking and some of the images will stick with me.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction; especially ones with Indigenous history and family sagas. This story will possibly break your heart a bit, but there is so much hope and love within the Lopez family that even in the end, you’ll be glad you met them.

*Thank you Netgalley and One World Publishing for an advanced eBook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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