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onthesamepage's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-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
3.0
This was a mixed bag. I really loved the world and the way the author described it—it felt lush, beautiful, and so vivid. The focus on Mexican history and Mesoamerican mythology was fascinating to me, and I'm genuinely happy we're getting more and more books like this.
Unfortunately, the characters and the plot are a let down.
Once again, this falls into the pitfall of being labeled an adult book, but reading like a YA book, with a heroine whose entire character development is about her finding her place in the world. I wanted Leonora to be more confident. If this is a reimagining of Zorro, then I want to see someone who is fearless, and who understands that the price of resistance is bloody sometimes. Instead, she got wobbly in her convictions more than once, and it made parts of this really drag.
The other issue is that there were way too many different plotlines. It starts with Leonora opposing the Spanish, and dealing with an arranged marriage with the prince of Spain. She doesn't care about him, by the way, but when he sleeps with someone else and she finds out, she barges into his room all huffy with a speech about how he can't hurt her pride like this. Then she meets Andres, who she thinks is a pirate and who stole something from her, and they develop a "will they won't they" romantic vibe. Also, there's a prophecy about her death, and another one about the end of the world, and actually the end of the world is closer than we think, and also there are all these gods walking among people, and who is Leonora, really?
It's not even a very long book, but this could've been 200 pages shorter, focused on 1-2 plot lines, and then used the rest to build up a series. I honestly just wanted a bit of a fun romp with a female Zorro, but that's not really what this is.
Unfortunately, the characters and the plot are a let down.
Once again, this falls into the pitfall of being labeled an adult book, but reading like a YA book, with a heroine whose entire character development is about her finding her place in the world. I wanted Leonora to be more confident. If this is a reimagining of Zorro, then I want to see someone who is fearless, and who understands that the price of resistance is bloody sometimes. Instead, she got wobbly in her convictions more than once, and it made parts of this really drag.
The other issue is that there were way too many different plotlines. It starts with Leonora opposing the Spanish, and dealing with an arranged marriage with the prince of Spain. She doesn't care about him, by the way, but when he sleeps with someone else and she finds out, she barges into his room all huffy with a speech about how he can't hurt her pride like this. Then she meets Andres, who she thinks is a pirate and who stole something from her, and they develop a "will they won't they" romantic vibe. Also, there's a prophecy about her death, and another one about the end of the world, and actually the end of the world is closer than we think, and also there are all these gods walking among people, and who is Leonora, really?
It's not even a very long book, but this could've been 200 pages shorter, focused on 1-2 plot lines, and then used the rest to build up a series. I honestly just wanted a bit of a fun romp with a female Zorro, but that's not really what this is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
jvbook_reader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
bessadams's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
starrysteph's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
A Zorro-inspired vigilante who can shapeshift into a panther, torn between her role as the Spanish heir to the throne and her half-Indigenous identity? What a delicious concept.
The ideas in Sun of Blood and Ruin were phenomenal, but the execution unfortunately made it a very challenging story to read & enjoy.
Pantera is a warrior sorceress, but underneath that bold identity is Leonora, a charming young lady who is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. While Pantera fights to protect the Indigenous people from Spanish tyranny on the streets, Leonora wages a war of politics inside the palace.
But Leonora knows she’s been prophesied to have a short life, and to die in battle. And when the earthquakes begin - signaling the changing of a Sun and tons of destruction - she is ready to fight until the bitter end.
There is so much happening here, from palace politics to fights in the street to ancient gods to promises of paradise to anti-colonialism escapades to a budding romance … and truly so much more. There are so many intriguing elements, especially when you bring in real (slightly and fantastically altered) history and folklore. But it turned into total chaos.
I love a large cast of characters, and mythology, and lots of different threads. Here it felt like the writing was bubbling with excitement and attempting to weave in every single brilliant idea. I just think it needed a lot more structure, more information around the main elements (most readers won’t know the intricacies of this mythology), and someone to cut some of the excess elements.
I was not in flow with the writing and not totally aligned with Leonora as a main character. She’s very immature and adolescent, and while she definitely has a bit of a coming-of-age journey, it just felt like she was too young & too flat to shoulder all the story elements. Her realization towards the end was just so simplistic, and much of the dialogue is cheesy.
I think I was far more into the first half, which had a lot less action, but more of a clear plot. When we get into the action scenes, people are just popping around and it felt impossible to envision what was actually going on half of the time. And then nonsensical plot twist after nonsensical plot twist after revelation after revelation after character death (!) where we’re just moving on. And the stuff between was all so murky. I wasn’t sure why this story was written and who the author’s intended audience was.
I am so bummed. I saw the vision!!
CW: death (parent), murder, religious bigotry, colonization, racism, genocide, xenophonia, grief, war, animal death, classism, guns
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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bookish_hollyx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War
seubecca's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Classism
bluejayreads's review against another edition
Second book in a row with a fantastic historical setting but the writing just didn't do it justice. (I keep wanting to give historical novels a chance, but they're sure not making it easy.) I'm not against a good in media res but this story throws our protagonist into "hero of the people" scenarios without ever establishing that the people care about her, or even know about her. The writing was simplistic, the characters were bland and felt more like cutouts wafting through an admittedly interesting plot than real people with emotions and desires and flaws. For a supposedly anti-colonialism story, the protagonist has a lot of positive words for her colonial-ruler father and so far nothing but criticism for the Indigenous resistance movement. She seems to be doing Zorro-style, Mesoamerican-superhero kind of things without any real motivation to do so - it's cool, to be sure, but I never get the sense that she has any reasoning to do so. And it seems an awful lot of harm to put oneself in the way of without having some very clear reason, either emotional or moral, to go to all the trouble. Which is disappointing because the world is interesting and South/Central America is woefully underutilized as a fantasy setting, especially when history provides so many rich opportunities for mythologies and/or historical events to integrate into the narrative. Unfortunately, it ends up being very much like Neferura - a great idea with mediocre execution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Death of parent
Execution, arranged/forced marriagemadscientistcat's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The tempo and plot feel very young adult, though the violence is certainly not. The familiar plot with a beautiful overlay of indigenous Mexican religion and magic will be appealing to romantasy fans who are interested in a different perspective than the well-tread Eurocentric-style worlds. I appreciated Lares’s introduction and explanation and loved that she used Spanish and Nahuatl unabashedly and with no in-text clarifications.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail