A review by citrus_seasalt
Lucha of the Night Forest by Tehlor Kay Mejia

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

From the first chapter of this story, I was hooked. Lucha herself is a compelling character, as painfully believable as she can be as an unbelievably magically strong girl in a fantasy setting. The bond between her and her sister was strong, although I wished in the beginning I could see more of the two interacting outside of Lucha needing to tend to her needs or keep her barely out of harms way. At times, I was physically sick from the subject matter on-page, but the concepts of the setting and the deliciously evil character of El Sediento made this difficult to put down. Seriously, he stayed consistently scary until the last quarter, and I liked how his manipulation of the main character tied into the book’s themes about human nature, desperation, and forgiveness. The first third of the novel is easily it’s strongest, establishing the harshness of Lucha’s world while providing a kind of resilience that wasn’t entirely hopeful but had some very interesting religious-adjacent undertones about bravery. (Particularly in a few lines, it seemed to establish Lucha as a kind of legend within her own world. Very interesting writing choice.)

The pacing was a little messy after that first escape: There was too much time spent in the forest for my liking, and the romance with Paz didn’t have enough chemistry for it to really stick. There was a sweet moment with them that I liked, but I think that was it? Paz was also a strange choice of a love interest, she’s unmistakably sketchy for most of the plot. Does that make her kindness to Lucha and her sister more multi-faceted..? Don’t know. (There were a couple times where, more than anything, she seemed like a liability to keep around.)

Anyhow. And then
the gods were introduced as characters and not just a way of worldbuilding, and the story got lost on me.
Sure, it added to
Lucha being this religious character/legend within her world, which didn’t come out of nowhere and I already predicted would be the case based on the first third’s writing,
but it took away from the bite of there being a slightly more realistic fantasy setting to discuss the tough subject matter.
Perhaps that’s just a personal preference of mine, though, I’m not one for stories involving gods when it’s a plot twist. “House Of Salt And Sorrows” was an example of the same trope but instead of it taking away from slight commentary it was the horror. Also, Lucha had a sudden power upgrade that really bugged me.
But I liked the ending, it was appropriately bittersweet.

Regardless of me giving this book a rating below 4 stars, that’s due to my gripes with it and not my personal enjoyment. I still think of it from time to time, and I still loved some parts of it. I generally liked the tension and the atmosphere, and honestly, Latine fantasy is one of my favorite genres so I was guaranteed to like this anyhow. I can see someone picking up this book and totally loving it, I’m just not one of those people.
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