Title/Author: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Monero-Garcia

Publisher: Random House

In a nutshell (Publisher):

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. 

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Verdict: One of my top reads of the year!

My thoughts:

OMG. What a trip!!! What a fantastic, brilliant book! I want to give it a triple thumbs up. 

Caseopia’s back story was a little like Cinderella’s, only instead of an evil stepmother, she had a grandfather. Enslaved and bullied, she wished to one day get out of this dreadful and dreary life and move to Merida with the riches that her grandfather had promised to give her and her mother upon his passing. 

One day when everyone was out for a family vacation, out of spite and curiosity, she opened a mysterious box which the grandfather had kept in his bedroom. Little did she realize how much this pandora’s box was about to change her entire life. 

When she released Hun Kame, Lord of Xibalba, the Place of Fear, she had awoken the entire Mayan Underworld which then, was ruled by Hun Kame’s twin brother, Vucub Kame, who stole the crown from him. Hence, she got herself tangled up in the fight of the twin brothers for the throne befitting only the strongest and vilest. 

I loved all the characters the author created and developed! Caseopia was strong-willed, intelligent, inquisitive, bold, courageous, and loyal. Hun Kame, although mysterious, stoic and dark as death as he was, was also drawn to Caseopia’s hard-headed devil-may-care attitude. I also loved how the author developed their relationship! 

Her cousin, was totally despicable at first, but as his story progressed, I couldn’t help but empathized with him. I even wanted a good ending for him. The fact that the author was able to do that, to me, showed what a brilliant writer she is. 

The writing and pacing were brilliant too. I didn’t want to miss a word! I enjoyed traveling vicariously through Caseopia to Texas, Mexico City and the Mayan Underworld and awakening all my 5 senses! 

Reading this was like reading The Master and Margarita which I absolutely loved! Some of the characters reminded me of those in that book. (Gahh which reminds me, I should’ve added The Master and Margarita to my all time favorite reads list! If you haven’t read it, please please do!) 

If you love magical realism, mythology and the Jazz Age, you’re in for a treat!

Where are you headed next, Caseiopia? Pray take me along! 

And… I want this book in my shelf! 

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for providing a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Have you read this book? What did you think? If you haven’t, do you intend to? Please share with me your thoughts!

Last but not least, thank you for stopping by! And may the power of good books be with you always!