Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Visit the author’s website here.
I went into this book thinking that I would love it. But, alas, I did not. I wanted to love it, and that is probably why I tried so hard to like it. I’d heard so many good things about it, and I was excited about reading it. But it was not to be.
For starters, I could not click with the author’s writing style and that affected my overall enjoyment of the book as a whole. There was something about it that I didn’t like, and I was never able to get past that for some reason. Second, I didn’t like the main character. Casiopea is the girl who isn’t like the other girls; the one that doesn’t fit the mold. And that’s okay. That’s not why I didn’t like her. There was just nothing about her that made me like her. The fact that she’s different than the other girls didn’t particularly make her stand out. And Hun-Kamé isn’t any better.
“She longed. Not for one specific thing but for everything; she had longed for a long time.”
I think my biggest problem with Casiopea and Hun-Kamé is that there’s no backstory to either one of them. The story is set in Mexico during the 1920s, and there was a lot going on in Mexico during that time, ten years after the Mexican Revolution. I understand though that the Mexican Revolution is not the backdrop of this story, however I felt that an explanation of the social norms, the culture, and the way of living during that time in Mexico would have enriched the story a lot more. Explaining, for example, Casiopea’s and her mother’s position in her grandfather’s house more in depth (which was reminiscent to Cinderella, in a way) would have helped a lot for me understand Casiopea’s better, and maybe even like her but there were only hints as to why they are in such a position. The author did a better job at explaining her cousin Martin’s treatment of Casiopea, but the explanation still fell rather short. This is where all the social norms of the era come in, the position of women in the household, marriage, what is expected of them, and how they should behave, all of that I think would have enriched the antagonism between Casiopea and Martin a lot more because that antagonism eventually translates into the antagonism between Hun-Kamé and his brother. Casiopea and Martin are, after all, their champions. Even Yucatán’s history is important because this entity has always seen itself as different from the rest of the country and has sought its independence from Mexico before. I would have also loved to know a lot more about Casiopea’s grandfather and his backstory (though, I admit, that is another story altogether).
Hun-Kamé is shrouded in mystery. The problem is there is no allure to him. Yes, he’s a god but his powers as a god are never explained. I think that if we had gotten glimpses of when he was strong before, of the time before he was deposed and hidden in the chest, and of his brother’s discontent during that time, we would have appreciated Hun-Kamé’s change during his travels with Casiopea a lot more, and he wouldn’t have felt so bland and unremarkable. There would have been layers to him that explained why he was so weak now and why changing as he is now is so unusual and mayhap dangerous, since gods never change. As is, I thought that Hun-Kamé lacked depth and appeal.
“Xibalba can be a frightful place, with its House of Knives and its House of Bats and many strange sights, but the court of the Lords of Death also possessed the allure of shadows and the glimmer of obsidian, for there is as much beauty as there is terror in the night.”
What I did like about this novel is the importance it gives to duality, which is a basic tenet in Aztec and Mayan religion. For instance, Hun Kamé and his brother are twins. And most gods in this tradition have both a male and female representation. Casiopea’s and Martin’s relationship is also a part of this duality, and theirs is the relationship that contrasts directly with that of Hun-Kamé and Vucub-Kamé, which is why each one becomes their respective champion during the final trek through the Black Road to the Jade Palace. I also liked the author’s portrayal of Xibalba and the magic surrounding the creatures inhabiting it. I particularly liked the scene where Hun-Kamé summons the ghosts in the hotel room or when Vucub-Kamé travels through his domain on the alligator. I also liked when we meet the demons, each one of which is guarding one of Hun-Kamé’s missing body parts. My only complaint is that we didn’t get enough of the underworld, and that the book focuses too much on Casiopea’s and Hun-Kamé’s (potential) romantic relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance. But for some reason I was not on board with this couple. I don’t know why. And the fact that the book focused more on the romance between these two characters than on Xibalba and its magic was rather disappointing. I guess I was expecting the Mayan underworld to become a character within this novel (as happened in The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo; read my review here) as important as Casiopea and Hun-Kamé, and that is not what we get here. Thus, I was rather disillusioned by that. Nonetheless this book has a lot of love, and many people have enjoyed it thoroughly. It was just not a book for me. I gave this book an I Didn’t Like It rating. I do not think I will be reading any more from this author.
