gods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno garcia

Before she quite understands what’s happening, she’s agreed to help him on his quest to reclaim his throne from his villainous brother. One afternoon, left at home alone as punishment while the rest of the household enjoys a family outing, she accidentally awakens the spirit of Hun-Kamé, the Mayan god of death. The revolution passed through it, yet it remained what it had been.’ She yearns to see the sparkling Pacific, to dance to jazz music, and to drive an automobile with the wind in her hair. But she dreams of escaping the dusty drudgery of her hometown of Uukumil: ‘It was 1927, but it might as well have been 1807. Meanwhile, her useless, weaselly, fawning older cousin Martin subjects her to daily abuse and waits to inherit the family estate.Ĭasiopea, named by her parents for the constellation, is regularly reminded of her subordinate place in the world. When her story begins, she’s a cosmic cousin to Jane Eyre or Cinderella, doomed to fetch, carry, and clean for her domineering grandfather. Intelligent, scrappy, and courageous, poor Casiopea is also put upon. That universe gets closer to being ours every day, and we are better for it.What would you do if your daydreams suddenly came true, but not at all in the way you imagined? That’s just what happens to our heroine - 18-year-old Casiopea Tun - when the Mayan god of death appears to her unexpectedly and, in exchange for a favor, promises her everything her heart desires. a dispatch from a universe where indigenous American legends have always been part of the lexicon of fantasy.

It dazzles, instead, showing the reader a world that seems entirely inevitable, a Mexico of the 1920s that would naturally be infused with Precolumbian magic. The book comes into itself the moment Casiopeia is entangled with Hun-Kamé. Nevertheless, for the first few chapters of Gods of Jade and Shadow, the dominant tone is that of the basic fairy-tale retelling, and while Casiopeia's anger, frustration, and family entanglements are all well-drawn, they are nothing particularly special. the pleasure of seeing Mayan mythology underlying what at first seems to be a straightforward rendition of the Cinderella trope adds immediate interest to Moreno-Garcia's work. is at its witty, compelling, and merciless best when it is fully rooted in its setting, a perfectly organic combination of 1920s Jazz Age Mexico and the Mayan mythological text, the Popol Vuh.

Gods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno garcia