SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova: https://t.co/5Iz8Yv20N0
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 28, 2021
Short Review: 7.5 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): The final Brooklyn Brujas book features youngest sister Rose as she and her father get kidnapped to the Realm of Adas, a fairy realm that is dying unless Rose can figure out her new power in time to save it. A solid fun installment.
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) May 28, 2021
2/3
Wayward Witch is the third book in Zoraida Córdova's Brooklyn Bruja series* of young adult fantasy novels which began with Labyrinth Lost (Review Here) and continued with Bruja Born (Review Here). I've really enjoyed this series, which features a Latin-American/Ecuadorian inspired world of Brujas (witches) and Brujos in various environments: first a portal fantasy to a fantasy-filled purgatory-esque land and then an urban fantasy adventure in Brooklyn/New York City in general. The books have often featured some pretty common plot elements and tropes, but have always done those tropes really well, and each of its main characters - a trio of bruja sisters struggling with their teenage lives and their magical powers - have been really tremendous, which has led me to devour this series within a month.
*The series was advertised at first as a trilogy and apparently there are no future books scheduled to be published; however, the series leaves open a clear fourth book possibility which the author has said in an interview might eventually come in the future.*
Wayward Witch focuses upon the third and last of the Mortiz sisters, 15 year old Rose, who was thought previously to have psychic powers dealing with the dead, but was revealed instead in book 2 to have powers based upon power-copying from other magical beings. Rose's mentality is sort of a combination of her older sisters from the prior books - like Alex, she feels disturbed by the expectations people now have of her new powers and like Lula, she feels a bit like no one understands the trauma she's undergone as a result not just of her older sisters' actions, but also her father's disappearance and reappearance without memory. The result is another portal fantasy story like book 1, but one tailored quite differently as a result. To be honest, this is probably my least favorite of the trilogy because it doesn't quite get as resolved as effectively on a character level, but it's still a strong YA novel and I really do hope it's not the end of the series.
Note: This book, like the rest in the series, is stand-alone in terms of its plot, but a lot of its character work and background is based upon developments from prior books in the series. As such, I would not recommend starting with this book if you haven't read the prior works. ---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Rose Mortiz feels like everyone just doesn't understand. Her magical powers as a Bruja, which she believed her whole life to be based upon seeing through the veil, are instead some never-seen-before combination of powers based upon taking the powers of other magical beings, and everyone expects big things from her as a result while she just feels lost without the powers and sounds of the dead she grew up with. Her sisters seem happy with their significant others, bur Rose can still see them a bit traumatized from their experiences that pushed them to their limits. And their father still seems lost, without remembering his mysterious absence from their lives, and no one but Rose seems to be willing to acknowledge these things exist and that problems still plague their family.
And then, when Rose casts a truth spell that goes wrong, her father admits that he does remember and that he's been lying to them. But when Rose confronts him, they're interrupted by fairies from the fairy realm of Adas, who kidnap them and throw them through a portal to a different magical land. And unlike the last time Rose was cast into a magical land, this time there's no one there to rescue her but herself.....and Adas contains a bastard king known for his cruelty, a magical rot spreading throughout the land and destroying it, and is known for making the humans who come to its shores forget all that they care about. And Adas' evil ruler believes that Rose possesses the power of a Deos who brings the end of all - a potentially monstrous power that could save everything....if Rose can somehow control it...and if she doesn't forget all she cares about in the process.
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As I mentioned above the jump, Wayward Witch feels very much like a fusion of Labyrinth Lost and Bruja Born in a lot of ways. Like book 1 protagonist Alex, Rose feels discomforted by new revelations about how powerful her magic is and how unprecedented it is - and how it has changed her life (although in her case it's from going from a power she understood to this new one she doesn't) - and this only gets worse when the people in Adas refer to her as a siphon, with the same power as book 1's villain. And of course, like Alex, Rose finds herself in a portal fantasy world, one with all kinds of fantasy beings and that has been ruled cruelly and ruined by a monstrous ruler. Like Book 2's protagonist Lula, Rose is distressed and traumatized a bit by all the things that have befallen their family and finds it hard to explain any of this to her sisters or mother when they all claim to be so happy after everything that has happened* - and so when it's revealed that one of those traumas, her father's disappearance and loss of memory, may have an answer he's hidden from her, she's absolutely outraged and driven to reaction just like her eldest sister.
*As I said in my Bruja Born review, the magical world needs therapists badly.*
The result is a portal fantasy adventure that is very beats by numbers, with some very predictable plot points (again like book 1), that relies heavily on Rose as a protagonist to make it work. And on some level, it works - again Córdova imbues Rose with very relatable and understandable concerns - distress about losing her family first emotionally and then physically, distress over a power she doesn't understand and which others suggest is tied to those she knows has done monstrously evil, distress about being thrown into a land she doesn't understand with people she can't possibly know or trust....and of course finally being 15 and possibly feeling romantic feelings for the first time doesn't help either. And Córdova imbues this world with some really magical aspects to make it all work, even if the secondary characters are mostly (see below) not nearly as impressive as in book 1. But Rose's character arc kind of feels half-baked, with her issues with her power just sort of going away on their own rather than being solved by any realization or growth, and a last act plot twist coming out of nowhere, never being explained other than to make an emotional impact, and then quickly disregarded.
There are some really nice points here despite some of my above negativity. The series has previously introduced both guy Brujos and girl Brujas (the traditional spanish word usually is just feminine gendered with "brujas") but this book features a non-binary character named Lin called a "Brujex," which is a really nice addition, inspired according to the author by NB readers wanting to know where they could fit in in this culture. And Lin is really charming, with their ability to teleport through rifts, and it's kind of hard not to love them - and they're basically the 2nd best character in this book by a good margin. And Again, while the resolution of Rose's plot arc doesn't really work too well, Rose as a character, and her voice really really does work, as does the setting, which made it easy for me to devour this book in a single sitting. And the ending, if it is the ending of the series, ends on a rather nice happy note, so I don't want to give the impression at all that this is a bad book, just that it doesn't meet the high standards of its predecessors.
But again, this book leaves a number of cliffhangers open, and clearly sets up a potential fourth book featuring Nova, the former companion of Alex and brother figure who has played a part in the prior two books. And it's a story I'd really love to see, so I hope that one day Córdova gets a chance to write it. Because Brooklyn Brujas has been a really lovely and enjoyable YA setting, one I'd very well recommend after finishing this third and so far final book in the series.
As I mentioned above the jump, Wayward Witch feels very much like a fusion of Labyrinth Lost and Bruja Born in a lot of ways. Like book 1 protagonist Alex, Rose feels discomforted by new revelations about how powerful her magic is and how unprecedented it is - and how it has changed her life (although in her case it's from going from a power she understood to this new one she doesn't) - and this only gets worse when the people in Adas refer to her as a siphon, with the same power as book 1's villain. And of course, like Alex, Rose finds herself in a portal fantasy world, one with all kinds of fantasy beings and that has been ruled cruelly and ruined by a monstrous ruler. Like Book 2's protagonist Lula, Rose is distressed and traumatized a bit by all the things that have befallen their family and finds it hard to explain any of this to her sisters or mother when they all claim to be so happy after everything that has happened* - and so when it's revealed that one of those traumas, her father's disappearance and loss of memory, may have an answer he's hidden from her, she's absolutely outraged and driven to reaction just like her eldest sister.
*As I said in my Bruja Born review, the magical world needs therapists badly.*
The result is a portal fantasy adventure that is very beats by numbers, with some very predictable plot points (again like book 1), that relies heavily on Rose as a protagonist to make it work. And on some level, it works - again Córdova imbues Rose with very relatable and understandable concerns - distress about losing her family first emotionally and then physically, distress over a power she doesn't understand and which others suggest is tied to those she knows has done monstrously evil, distress about being thrown into a land she doesn't understand with people she can't possibly know or trust....and of course finally being 15 and possibly feeling romantic feelings for the first time doesn't help either. And Córdova imbues this world with some really magical aspects to make it all work, even if the secondary characters are mostly (see below) not nearly as impressive as in book 1. But Rose's character arc kind of feels half-baked, with her issues with her power just sort of going away on their own rather than being solved by any realization or growth, and a last act plot twist coming out of nowhere, never being explained other than to make an emotional impact, and then quickly disregarded.
There are some really nice points here despite some of my above negativity. The series has previously introduced both guy Brujos and girl Brujas (the traditional spanish word usually is just feminine gendered with "brujas") but this book features a non-binary character named Lin called a "Brujex," which is a really nice addition, inspired according to the author by NB readers wanting to know where they could fit in in this culture. And Lin is really charming, with their ability to teleport through rifts, and it's kind of hard not to love them - and they're basically the 2nd best character in this book by a good margin. And Again, while the resolution of Rose's plot arc doesn't really work too well, Rose as a character, and her voice really really does work, as does the setting, which made it easy for me to devour this book in a single sitting. And the ending, if it is the ending of the series, ends on a rather nice happy note, so I don't want to give the impression at all that this is a bad book, just that it doesn't meet the high standards of its predecessors.
But again, this book leaves a number of cliffhangers open, and clearly sets up a potential fourth book featuring Nova, the former companion of Alex and brother figure who has played a part in the prior two books. And it's a story I'd really love to see, so I hope that one day Córdova gets a chance to write it. Because Brooklyn Brujas has been a really lovely and enjoyable YA setting, one I'd very well recommend after finishing this third and so far final book in the series.
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