Monday, July 26, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Cazadora by Romina Garber

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 17, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Cazadora is the sequel to 2020's Lobizona (my review here), a book I read earlier this year and absolutely fell in love with (and tried desperately to fit on my Hugo/Lodestar ballot).  I knew going in that Lobizona would be a YA Fantasy story dealing with the plight of illegal immigrants inspired by Argentinian culture, and well as is typical for YA, I didn't expect it to be subtle about it.  But it was also very much a story of queer allegory, featuring not just issues of immigration but also the plight of not fitting in in a cis-hetero world, and it tied all the themes together so well in often really surprising and interesting ways as it told a story of werewolves (lobizones) and brujas in a world parallel to our own. 

Cazadora continues that story tremendously, showing Garber very much has a feel with the plights and issues involved here.*  Whereas book 1 wasn't exactly subtle with its trans allegory and theme about its main protagonist struggling with the idea of always having to hide who she herself is, Cazadora takes off any hint of subtlety whatsoever, as it dives fully into the Argentinian world of Septimus and introduces to a whole group of non-conforming lobizones and brujas who don't fit this cis heteronormative world.  And the struggle of its protagonist Manu, along with her trio of best friends, with the balance between safety and freedom and being who they are, is just tremendously done from start to finish, with the book ending on a tremendous cliffhanger.  I cannot wait for book 3.  

*Obvious Caveat here - I'm a cis straight white male person reviewing this book, so it's always possible I'm overlooking problematic elements in how things are portrayed.  But I can only lend my perspective.*

Spoilers for book 1 are inevitable:

-----------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
Manu and her close friends - Tiago, Cata, and Saysa - have escaped the Cazadores hunting her in Lunaris and managed to make into Kerana, the mystical realm of Lobizones and Brujas in Argentina.  Manu may now know who she herself is and the truth about her heritage and her father and may have made friends who she would trust with her life, but she still knows practically nothing about this world.  Where can they go to find safety?  And will she always be running from the Cazadores?  And what about her human mother, left behind in ICE custody?  

The struggle to stay ahead of their pursuers starts to wear thing on Manu and her friends, all of whom are still struggling to deal with the revelations about each other.  But when Yamila, the Cazadora who nearly chased her down, nearly catches Manu in a trap, the quartet is able to escape thanks to the help of the Coven, a group of Septimus who don't conform to the rules of their society, and see in Manu an inspiring figurehead for change.  

But even as the Coven seems to be everything Manu might need in allies, and everything Saysa has ever dreamed of joining, Manu fears revealing the entire truth to them - for legends abound in Septimus culture of the half-human known as La Ladrona, and will her new allies be willing to help her if they know that might really be her?  And if they aren't so willing, will Manu really need to keep hiding who she is forever?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I mentioned above the jump, Lobizona was not just the story of an illegal alien, caught between two worlds without proper papers and without any hope of finding acceptance in either, but it was also, in the story of its first person protagonist of Manu, very much the story about being queer/trans in a cis heteronormative world (and comparing those two oppressed groups by equating them in some respects).  Manu is a Lobizona, a female werewolf, in a society where men are werewolves (Lobizones) and women are brujas (witches) and there are no exceptions, and so her existence breaks the gender paradigm upon which the whole society runs - which mandates special rules for each sex, requires procreation, and does not tolerate non hetero relationships - a struggle for Manu's friends Saysa and Cata, two brujas who love each other and have to keep it quiet.  So much of Manu's hiding as an illegal also translates to her hiding as a Lobizona, hiding who she is, and struggling between the need to be safe and the need to be free to be who she is, and that struggle was just beginning after book 1.  

Cazadora continues hitting these themes hard, as each of the four main characters have a different perspective on the whole thing.  In many ways - and this is absolutely not subtly pointed out in the narrative but it still works - Tiago is the one outlier among them all, as a cis hetero dude who could absolutely find a life in this world, even if it meant he wouldn't be with the girl he loves or would have to deal with the attention he absolutely doesn't think he deserves.  And so, from his privileged perspective, he can't help but want to just stay running and not to take a stand for everything. 

Then there's Cata and Saysa, two different sides of the same coin.  The two love each other desperately but have different approaches to their love: Cata still longs in part for parental approval and wishes those she cares about to be safe above all else except those wishes now openly include Manu and Saysa, even if that means still hiding a little; while Saysa has always pushed for Manu to be open and to fight openly for who she is....yet Saysa also now fears the dark powers she almost used to kill the Cazador Nacho, and fears how others will react if she uses them openly.  Both Cata and Saysa are not part of the norm like Tiago and in their own ways they grapple with whether or not their relationship and existences can ever be fully revealed, and whether their differences about it will tear them apart.  

And then there's Manu who has all of the above feelings at times, and feels torn in all directions as a part of it.  This is only amplified by her meeting with the Coven, a group of Septimus fighting for gender and queer equality, who see her as an icon to cherish from the outside.  The Coven Septimus struggle with all the issues Cata and Saysa do and more, and feature trans, ace, disabled, and other Septimus who have little to no place in their own society, and while they all agree there needs to be change and that the current rule must be torn down, they disagree in large part about what should take its place.  And so when it quickly becomes apparent for Manu that some of them would turn on her if she reveals her half-human nature, for their views have a hard time accepting her existence as the same as their own, it only furthers Manu's desperation.  

The result of this all is a plot that winds around with a whole bunch of swerves among some really fun moments (the book even includes a battle with pirates that basically is just there for fun, which well...it's fun!) that really touch about the issues and struggles of these people all the ways they logically react to it all.  The relationships between the main quarter are tremendously well done, each feeling like whole characters you absolutely care about, and many of the side characters (particularly the leader of the Coven) are really really strong as well.  And Cazadora concludes with a moment in which Manu makes a fateful choice that threatens to change everything....and with an epilogue that is absolutely devastating while still being incredibly hopeful, and leaves me in just so much suspense as to how things will move from here.  

Just a tremendous overall package and again highly recommended.  It may be perhaps the opposite of subtle, but sometimes hitting important themes head on works incredibly well, and that's absolutely the case with this series two books in.  

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)