Gripping and cinematic, the novel’s worlds of El Paso past and present will bewitch and enrapture.
A busy El Paso lawyer embarks on a supernatural journey when she uncovers a startling truth about her great-aunt.
In 1943, Elena Eduviges Montoya, called “Nena” by her family, resigns herself to serving her older sisters as a housemaid and nanny while World War II rages, “biding her time until the Germans attacked.” But one sweltering afternoon, Nena has a vision foretelling the death of their landlord, and that night she receives a midnight visit from black-clad Sister Benedicta de la Cruz, who transports her to 1792—when El Paso del Norte was still part of New Spain—and leads her to a strange convent, where the nuns are likewise afflicted by visions. Nena learns she must remain in this enchanted realm in order to undertake training to channel “La Vista,” that part of God that comprises nature and chaos, before she can return home. Fast forward to the present day, and Nena’s great-niece, Marta, juggles her roles as a lawyer at a struggling firm, a mother to two boys, and a wife stuck in a humdrum marriage. All this gets turned upside down when an alarming kitchen incident involving the elderly Nena, burned rice, and handsome firemen brings Nena to live with Marta’s family. After Marta has an unnerving experience with seemingly supernatural soot (“when she opens her eyes again, the wall continues to blink, soot there, soot gone”), Nena comes clean about a secret she’s kept for a lifetime: She gave birth to a baby, Rosa, during her time on “the other side.” The revelation sets the women on a path to recover Rosa from the shadowy realm of El Paso del Norte. Alternating chapters between Nena’s past and Marta’s present, Jaramillo braids the storylines together like a mal de ojo bracelet, seamlessly weaving in Spanish language terms and Mexican cultural touchstones such as pozole, rebozo, and el aquelarre. Jaramillo’s atmospheric prose conjures the dusty El Paso of the past, and depictions of La Vista vibrate with “colorful knots of waves,” glowing indigo, maroon, and bright pink, yielding “a wild spell, like yeast in the air.” This riveting page-turner affirms the adage, “Family stories teach us how to live. Family secrets teach us to kill parts of ourselves.”
Gripping and cinematic, the novel’s worlds of El Paso past and present will bewitch and enrapture.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781668033210
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Primero Sueño Press
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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