A review by hollyd19
Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings