SEP 8 2016 4

Book Review: Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas

#1) by Zoraida Córdova

Reviewed by Cindy L. Rodriguez and Cecilia Cackley; ARC received from Sourcebooks Fire.

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the
spirits of your dead relatives.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a

generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday
celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of
her power. But it backfires. Her whole family
vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a
brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are
as dark as the strange marks on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with

Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as
Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

OUR TWO CENTS: We’re thrilled to kick off our

new blogging year with a celebration of Labyrinth
Lost, an action-packed, urban, portal fantasy with a
powerful, complex Latina main character. This novel
tackles family, friendship, love, survival, and self-
acceptance all while Alejandra Mortiz and her
friends Nova and Rishi fight for their lives in a
dangerous underworld.

Alex, a 16-year-old Ecuadorian-Puerto Rican, has been fighting against her magical powers for
years, feeling her growing abilities are more of a burden than a blessing. She believes her magic
is responsible for her father’s disappearance, and she fears more harm will come to herself and
her family if she wholly embraces her magic during her Deathday ceremony. Alex, therefore,
sabotages the ceremony, which causes her family to be kidnapped from their Brooklyn home to
Los Lagos, where they may die at the hands of The Devourer, an evil, power-hungry bruja
who’s happy to destroy anyone who gets in her way. The first few chapters really establish
Alex’s character and her position in her family so that you understand and care about how
conflicted and guilty she is about her family’s disappearance. The stakes could not be higher,
and you want Alex to succeed.

Alex’s journey through Los Lagos feels very classic. The

different communities she encounters, each with its own history
and strengths and weaknesses, may remind readers of classic
adventures like The Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, and Alice in
Wonderland. Every new area of Los Lagos brings a ton of action.
Not every writer can create battle scenes so the reader can
clearly visualize them without having to re-read. Zoraida is
GREAT at this.

For those who like some romance with their action-adventure

story, Labyrinth Lost delivers there as well. Alex has feelings for
both Nova and Rishi throughout the narrative, making her one
of the few bisexual Latinas in young adult fiction. We especially
love that neither Alex’s bisexuality nor her bruja lifestyle are
depicted as “issues” or morally problematic. Alex struggles to
accept the responsibility and consequences of her magic and her
place within her immediate family and the larger bruja community with its deep history and
traditions. But, neither her cultural identities or sexual preferences are depicted as “the
problems,” thank the Deos.

Labyrinth Lost, the first in a series, ends in a way that will leave you hungry for the sequel with
promises of further family complications and more development of secondary characters, Nova
and Rishi. We can’t wait!

TEACHING TIPS:

compare/contrast inhabitants of Los Lagos with creatures from other folklore traditions and
classical mythology
research Santeria and other traditions listed in the author note–which is amazing and a
must-read
re-write a key scene from the point of view of Nova or Rishi
include this novel in a study of the supernatural, and witches specifically, in literature, along
with titles such as MacBeth.
AND NOW FOR TONS OF AWESOME BONUS
STUFF, including Chapter 1, the book trailer, and a
giveaway!!

FIRST, you’ve got to see this:

 Labyrinth Lost Book Trailer

NOW, you’ve got to read this:

Chapter 1:

Follow our voices, sister.

Tell us the secret of your death.

—-Resurrection Canto,
Book of Cantos
The second time I saw my dead aunt Rosaria, she was dancing.

Earlier that day, my mom had warned me, pressing a long, red fingernail on the tip of my nose,
“Alejandra, don’t go downstairs when the Circle arrives.”

But I was seven and asked too many questions. Every Sunday, cars piled up in our driveway,
down the street, and around the corner of our old, narrow house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Mom’s Circle usually brought cellophane–wrapped dishes and jars of dirt and tubs of brackish
water that made the Hudson River look clean. This time, they carried something more.
When my sisters started snoring, I threw off my covers and crept down the stairs. The
floorboards were uneven and creaky, but I was good at not being seen. Fuzzy, yellow streetlight
shone through our attic window and followed me down every flight until I reached the
basement.

A soft hum made its way through the thin walls. I remember thinking I should listen to my
mom’s warning and go back upstairs. But our house had been restless all week, and Lula, Rose,
and I were shoved into the attic, out of the way while the grown–ups prepared the funeral. I
wanted out. I wanted to see.

The night was moonless and cold one week after the Witch’s New Year, when Aunt Rosaria
died of a sickness that made her skin yellow like hundred–year–old paper and her nails turn
black as coal. We tried to make her beautiful again. My sisters and I spent all day weaving good
luck charms from peonies, corn husks, and string—-one loop over, under, two loops over,
under. Not even the morticians, the Magos de Muerte, could fix her once–lovely face.

Aunt Rosaria was dead. I was there when we mourned her. I was there when we buried her.
Then, I watched my father and two others shoulder a dirty cloth bundle into the house, and I
knew I couldn’t stay in bed, no matter what my mother said.

So I opened the basement door.

Red light bathed the steep stairs. I leaned my head toward the light, toward the beating sound
of drums and sharp plucks of fat, nylon guitar strings.

A soft mew followed by whiskers against my arm made my heart jump to the back of my rib
cage. I bit my tongue to stop the scream. It was just my cat, Miluna. She stared at me with her
white, glowing eyes and hissed a warning, as if telling me to turn back. But Aunt Rosaria was
my godmother, my family, my friend. And I wanted to see her again.

“Sh!” I brushed the cat’s head back.

Miluna nudged my leg, then ran away as the singing started.

I took my first step down, into the warm, red light. Raspy voices called out to our gods, the
Deos, asking for blessings beyond the veil of our worlds. Their melody pulled me step by step
until I was crouched at the bottom of the landing.

They were dancing.

Brujas and brujos were dressed in mourning white, their faces painted in the aspects of the
dead, white clay and black coal to trace the bones. They danced in two circles—-the outer ring
going clockwise, the inner counterclockwise—hands clasped tight, voices vibrating to the
pulsing drums.
And in the middle was Aunt Rosaria.

Her body jerked upward. Her black hair pooled in the air like she was suspended in water.
There was still dirt on her skin. The white skirt we buried her in billowed around her slender
legs. Black smoke slithered out of her open mouth. It weaved in and out of the circle—-one loop
over, under, two loops over, under. It tugged Aunt Rosaria higher and higher, matching the
rhythm of the canto.

Then, the black smoke perked up and changed its target. It could smell me. I tried to backpedal,
but the tiles were slick, and I slid toward the circle. My head smacked the tiles. Pain splintered
my skull, and a broken scream lodged in my throat.

The music stopped. Heavy, tired breaths filled the silence of the pulsing red dark. The
enchantment was broken. Aunt Rosaria’s reanimated corpse turned to me. Her body purged
black smoke, lowering her back to the ground. Her ankles cracked where the bone was brittle,
but still she took a step. Her dead eyes gaped at me. Her wrinkled mouth growled my name:
Alejandra.

She took another step. Her ankle turned and broke at the joint, sending her flying forward. She
landed on top of me. The rot of her skin filled my nose, and grave dirt fell into my eyes.

Tongues clucked against crooked teeth. The voices of the circle hissed, “What’s the girl doing
out of bed?”

There was the scent of extinguished candles and melting wax. Decay and perfume oil
smothered me until they pulled the body away.

My mother jerked me up by the ear, pulling me up two flights of stairs until I was back in my
bed, the scream stuck in my throat like a stone.

“Never,” she said. “You hear me, Alejandra? Never break a Circle.”

I lay still. So still that after a while, she brushed my hair, thinking I had fallen asleep.

I wasn’t. How could I ever sleep again? Blood and rot and smoke and whispers filled my head.

“One day you’ll learn,” she whispered.

Then she went back down the street–lit stairs, down into the warm red light and to Aunt
Rosaria’s body. My mother clapped her hands, drums beat, strings plucked, and she said,
“Again.”
AND NOW, you’ve got to get this:

To find Labyrinth Lost, check your local public library, your

local bookstore, or IndieBound
(http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781492620945). Also,
check out Goodreads
(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27969081-labyrinth-
lost?from_search=true), Amazon
(https://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth-Brooklyn-Brujas-Zoraida-
Cordova/dp/1492620947/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&qid=1471380069&sr=8-1&keywords=labyrinth+lost),
and Barnes & Noble
(http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/labyrinth-lost-zoraida-
cordova/1122999298?ean=9781492620945). You can also…..

CLICK HERE FOR A RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

(https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/54ca7af7402/)
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zoraida Córdova
(http://www.zoraidacordova.com/) was born in Ecuador and
raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of The Vicious
Deep trilogy, the On the Verge series, and Labyrinth Lost. She
loves black coffee, snark, and still believes in magic.

Author Website: http://www.zoraidacordova.com/

(http://www.zoraidacordova.com/)

Labyrinth Lost Website:

http://books.sourcebooks.com/labyrinth-lost/
(http://books.sourcebooks.com/labyrinth-lost/)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CordovaBooks
(https://www.facebook.com/CordovaBooks)

Twitter: @zlikeinzorro (https://twitter.com/zlikeinzorro)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanderwheel/
(https://www.instagram.com/wanderwheel/)

Author Tumblr: http://wanderlands.tumblr.com/ (http://wanderlands.tumblr.com/)

Labyrinth Lost Tumblr: http://labyrinthlostbooks.tumblr.com/

(http://labyrinthlostbooks.tumblr.com/)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZoraidaLand
(https://www.youtube.com/user/ZoraidaLand)

Labyrinth Lost Coloring Page: http://www.sourcebooks.com/images/LabyrinthLost-

ColoringPage.pdf (http://www.sourcebooks.com/images/LabyrinthLost-ColoringPage.pdf)

By cindylrodriguez • Posted in Intersectionality, Latinx Literature, Libros Latinxs, Young Adult

• Tagged 2016 release, 2016 releases, action-adventure, bisexual, Brooklyn, bruja, Ecuador,
fantasy, intersectionality, Labyrinth Lost, Latina MCs, magic, Puerto Rico, romance, young
adult, Zoraida Córdova

4 comments on “Book Review: Labyrinth Lost

(Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Córdova”
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