Book Review: Labyrinth Lost

by Zoraida Córdova

3.5 Stars

Emotions: Surprised but not disappointed

Brujas. Bisexuals. Mistakes. Apologies. Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Diverse. Alice in Wonderland. All those words describe Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova and yes, I recommend it.

The book follows Alejandra, aka Alex, a powerful encantrix (a bruja, latinx witch, who can essentially do everything) who doesn’t like magic. As a result, she tries to get rid of it on her Deathday (a made up quinceañera but for brujas kind of thing) but instead she ends up getting rid of something else, something more important to her than magic: her family. Frantic, Alex enlists the help of Nova, a bruja who annoys the heck out of her, and together, they venture into Los Lagos (a place in between heaven/hell). There, they discover an evil sorceress has taken the place — and Alex’s family — captive. Together, Nova and Alex have to find a way to defeat her. Oh, and Rishi, Alex’s HUMAN best friend who followed them.

Review: Wow, I… I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. At first, it started out as a badly written fanfiction but it actually, thankfully, got better. Alex was an OK character but truly, I was immersed in the world and the surrounding characters. Zoraida did an incredible job making everything easy to understand but also interesting so props to her for that! On the other hand, I disliked the love-triangle (though loved the queerness-bisexuality- of it). It felt forced and reinforced negative stereotypes about bisexuals not being able to make up their mind. However, I did appreciate the romance that was included- the LI, Love Interest, and the MC, Alex, had a super cute romance.

Conclusion: read it if you like diverse, sapphic, YA, fantasy books!

View in Library Catalogue: Book