Monday, August 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

 



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 September 7, 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.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina is the latest novel by Zoraida Córdova, the prolific Ecuadorian-American fantasy writer, whose YA works (for example, Brooklyn Brujas) I've been enjoying a lot this year (having now read 4 of them this year alone).  This is however, not a YA novel, it's a fantasy/magical-realism novel featuring mostly a family of mostly adult characters, with the family headed by an Ecuadorian matriarch and potential witch who came to live in a small town in America decades ago.  

It's a fascinating novel filled with themes of family and bonds, and the pain of both not knowing where you came from.....and worse not actually being wanted and cared for by those who should be family.  For all those themes, the novel sometimes verges into horror territory (do not expect everyone to survive), but this works fairly well, as the novel tells essentially two narratives: the past story of how the family matriarch, bastard and unwanted daughter, became who she is, and the present story of how her sprawling descendants must now deal with the consequences of her actions.  It's a really well done novel with some strong characters, and well worth the advance hype that I've seen online. 

 -------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Decades ago, Orquídea Divina Montoya, a woman from Ecuador, arrived at the fertile valley outside the small town of Four Rivers.  And somehow, perhaps magically, a beautiful house and fertile land sprang up where she put down roots, causing whispers the town to whisper of witchcraft.  But Orquídea Divina never bothered anybody, and years past, and her family grew and spread outwards across the nation, leaving her and Four Rivers behind.  

Now, that same family, some cast out bitterly from Four Rivers, and others still with fond feelings, find a surprise at their doors: an invitation back to Four Rivers to claim their inheritance from the dying Orquídea.  For Marimar Montoya, that means a return to the house she fled in anger after her mother's drowning; for her best friend and cousin Rey Montoya Restrepo, it means a return to the woman who lied to him; for the pregnant Tatinelly Sullivan, it means a return to the fierce grandmother she always admired just in time for her to know her newest great grandchild.  

But what the three of them, and the rest of the large family of Montoyas, could never expect is how the magical gifts Orquídea will bestow upon them all will transform them forever....if the Divina's past deeds don't catch up to them first.  For Orquídea Divina was cursed with bad luck as a child, a bastard girl unwanted by her mother, and she changed that luck and her destiny through acts and bargains, whose cost has yet to be truly paid......
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The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina is a novel set within multiple time periods, with the story jumping back between them as the novel goes on.  You have the present timeline, told from the third person perspectives of Rey, Marimar, and less frequently Tatinelly and then you have the timeline of Orquídea's childhood and early life, told from the perspective of a seemingly omniscient narrator (with it jumping at time between various point of views.).  Naturally the past storyline affects the present, as Orquídea's acts back then eventually come back to haunt her and her descendants, and the past storyline slows down to reveal exactly what happened just in time for those reveals to occur to the present characters - a structure that should be familiar, but works really well.  

And it works really well again, because this book's characters and themes are excellent.  In the present timeline you have Marimar, the young woman who is sort of lost in her current life (as a failed novelist in New York), who only wanted to know who her father is, and how her mother - a extremely good swimmer - could actually die by drowning.  Marimar longs to know her past and the truth, and wants more from her family and its magic.  Rey is bitter about the magic, and gave up art to be an accountant, but really did want to be an artist and to find a guy to settle down with, so his grandmother's interference, reminding him of the father he lost, is not appreciated.  And Tatinelly is actually happy, having wanted to settle down and have a child from a young age, and having done exactly that, and wants to show her grandmother and her family what she has done.  They're all people with memories and distinct feelings about family, and even the side family members all have their own opinions on the grandmother who seemingly kicked them out the moment they decided to move away - it's a family that feels real as fantastic events keep happening and start to threaten their lives.

And then there's Orquídea herself, who was a child born out of wedlock in Ecuador and always treated like a burden by her mother, and then her stepdad and stepsiblings.  Orquídea was bright, capable, and good hearted, helping the fisherman and people in the village, but she could not find the love she craved, and she went on in search of it forever.  And this neglect carried on through her own life, such that the older Orquídea did do some of it to her own grandkids, even though she tried to be better, especially once she got her hands on magical abilities.  You desperately feel for Orquídea as you learn more about her past, even as you see how much her actions and words hurt some of her grandchildren - she deserved far better, and her acts here are an attempt to make amends and change her descendants' future.  

And this leads to a plot that, warning does verge on Horror at quite a few times, resulting in the deaths of multiple relevant characters in the story.  But it does in the service of a story about the importance of family, of caring about each other, and about the power of such bonds, as contrasted to the pain of being forced to grow up and live without people to care for you and to care about.  For Orquídea growing up, she didn't have anyone, and as she ran away and became an adult, the person she thought would care for her, who she grew to love first, failed to honor that responsibility.  And Orquídea's mother's neglect stemmed in part from her own mother's neglect, and it is something that despite her best efforts Orquídea passed on to a much smaller extent to her kids and grandchildren.  But unlike her, those grandchildren are able to come together and find something in one another, despite their very differences.  And that leads them to a new and better path.  

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina is a novel that has some flaws, and the less you think about the reality of some of the plot events the better (one example: where is the money the characters would need to live/travel like this coming from?  I have no idea).  But the themes and characters are strong, the world is great, and the conclusion surprises and works rather well.  Definitely a book worthy of the hype.  

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