CECE RIOS AND THE DESERT OF SOULS

A tween dabbles in dark magic, hoping to do one good deed.

In Tierra del Sol, criaturas are feared and reviled. Some are dark spirits while others, relatively harmless, shape-shift into animals. At 7, Cece wanders too far into the desert and encounters the Criatura of Stars and Devouring, Tzizimitl, who turns out to be more kindly old woman than scary beast. She walks Cece home only to be met with angry, murderous townsfolk. Before Tzizimitl flees, freed by Cece, she observes that Cece has a soul like water—perhaps not what you want as Sun god descendants. Now 12, Cece encounters the Bride Stealer El Sombrerón, another criatura, whose magic guitar bewitches young women. Before Cece can stop him from playing, her sister, Juana, is entranced by his song and kidnapped. Her family mourns, but Cece is determined to get Juana back—but she’ll have to enter the Bruja Fights for aspiring dark witches to get into Devil’s Alley, where El Sombrerón lives. There’s the small problem of her not wanting to actually bea dark witch, but she’ll just fake it and no one will be the wiser, right? Set in a fantasy world filled with figures from Aztec mythology, this culturally rich adventure weaves Spanish and Nahuatl throughout the text. With strong ties to Mesoamerican lore and culture, the story hits the sweet spot between dark and light.

Lively, endearing, and full of character.