Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova (Brooklyn Brujas #1) | REVIEW

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova (Brooklyn Brujas #1)
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on September 6th 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic
Pages: 336
Format: ARC

LINKS: Good Reads | Amazon | Indigo | Book Depository

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…

🌟🌟

2 Stars

* Received an ARC from Sourcebooks Fire viz NetGalley for a honest review *

First Line:

The second time I saw my dead Aunt Rosaria, she was dancing.

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Review

COVER 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟           PLOT 🌟🌟🌟

CHARACTERS 🌟🌟🌟    ROMANCE 🌟🌟

WRITING 🌟🌟🌟🌟        WORLD 🌟

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The Good

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova is a whimsical fantasy filled book about a bruja (witch in spanish) coming into her powers and her struggles with wanting to be a normal teenager. Over all I hoped for more from Labyrinth Lost, but what I got was Wonderland-ish world filled with cliches.

As this is the good section of the review, I shall talk about what I did like about Labyrinth Lost. First off the cover is spectacular! It depicts the book perfectly. It has our main character Alex with day of the dead make-up. I love the color scheme the design team used as well. A+ to them!

Another great aspect of the book is the writing. Cordova knows how to write a book. Where the story lacked to grasp my attention, the writing kept me reading. It was whimsical and descriptive. The dialogue pushed the story forward instead of keeping it at a stand still and each character was given a very distinctive voice which I appreciated.

I would also like to point out how much I appreciated the diversity Labyrinth Lost provides. We definitely need more books like this one!

The Bad

Now onto the bad news…

The plot was good, but it wasn’t great in my opinion. There were no surprises that I didn’t see coming and it was pretty predictable. I loved the first 30% of the book more than anything else. I preferred the real world plotline over the fantastical one Cordova decided to take it.

Which brings me to the world, my least favorite part of Labyrinth Lost. I hated it, and I know that sounds a bit harsh, but there is no other way to express it. Los Lagos, the world Alex and her friends travel to, to save her family was really dry and boring and nothing I haven’t read before. I wish Cordova stayed in New York with the story because I would have found that aspect more interesting.

Then we have the characters and the “romance” if that’s what you want to call it. I loved the dynamic between Alex and her two sisters, and I disliked the dynamic between Alex, Nova, and Rishi. I found there was a lot of unnecessary bickering between them, and I felt no connection with them what so ever. The whole love triangle that was blooming could have been done better. I felt it to be a bit rushed and there was no sparks at all. Very disappointing.

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Ok, that’s it. Read it for the diversity and Bruja aspects, don’t read it for the dull romance and lack luster world. Let me know what you guys thought of Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova! I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Until next time,

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Zoraida Córdova 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. Send her a tweet @Zlikeinzorro