Mayan Deities Brought to Life in Silvia Moreno-Garcia's 'Gods of Jade and Shadow'

After reading Mexican Gothic on vacation last year, I was quite pleased to have the audiobook of Gods of Jade and Shadows, also by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, to listen to as I meandered up to the Shenandoah valley of Virginia from Savannah, GA for a vacation this year.  It did not disappoint. The genre is a bit different—instead of Gothic horror, it’s considered historical fantasy, mostly set in Mexico in the 1920s and dealing with ancient Mayan death-gods.  I would recommend the novel for teenagers and adults, especially women, who once enjoyed Rick Riordan’s stories about the gods of various world mythologies and for those who enjoyed the movie Labyrinth, as the antagonist Vucub-Kamé sometimes reminded me of Jareth the Goblin King.  Any lover-of-novels who is curious about Mexico should find it an absorbing story as well.  This is only my second novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, but I’m already a big fan. She brings her main characters and Mexico to vivid, surreal life. Her strong, practical female protagonists are dreamers—they’re likeable, relatable. In Gods of Jade and Shadows, Casiopea worries about her reputation, about the teachings of her family and the church regarding how single young women should behave. The author draws a vivid portrait of her village life, of how her defiant spirit is recognized—and brings her trouble—even when she thinks she’s being servile.  The characters are mostly well-drawn, though some of the action-filled scenes have side characters that seem as though they could have been written by Riordan himself, they’re that cartoonish (I still very much enjoy Riordan’s writing, too, let me add!). Hun-Kamé, the god that she is trying to help, feels tangible, though—and his transition to being more human only makes his initial godly persona that much more authentic.  The betrayal by his brother, and the subsequent finding of body parts to restore himself reminds me so much of the Egyptian legend of Osiris and Seth that I find myself quite curious how much of this story is truly Mayan legend, and if it is, whether or not there is some ancient, shared connection with the Egyptian myths.