Name: Labyrinth Lost
ISBN: 9781492620945

Zoraida Cordova

"Alex is a bruja and the most powerful witch in her family. But she's hated magic ever since it made her father disappear into thin air. When a curse she performs to rid herself of magic backfires and her family vanishes, she must travel to Los Lagos, a land in-between as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland, to get her family back"--

Labyrinth Lost

Nova

The only way to get her family back is to travel to a land in between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland... 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's not sure she can trust, but who may be Alex's only chance at saving her family. Brooklyn Brujas Series: Labyrinth Lost (Book 1) Bruja Born (Book 2) Praise for Labyrinth Lost: An NPR Best Young Adult Book of 2016 Tor.com's Best YA SFF of 2016 A Bustle Best Book of 2016 Selection A Paste Magazine's Best Books of 2016 "Enchanting and complex. Every page is filled with magic."—Danielle Paige, New York Times best-selling author of Dorothy Must Die "... enchants from start to finish. Labyrinth Lost is pure magic." —Melissa Grey, author of The Girl at Midnight "Magical and empowering, Labyrinth Lost is an incredible heroine's journey filled with mythos come to life; but at its heart, honors the importance of love and family."—Cindy Pon, author of Serpentine and Silver Phoenix "A brilliant brown-girl-in-Brooklyn update on Alice in Wonderland and Dante's Inferno. Very creepy, very magical, very necessary."—Daniel Jose Older, author of Shadowshaper

Sarah Sammis

Given the emphasis on family — even dead family — participation in the upkeep of magic, it's not hard to see why or how even the spell went wrong. Alex, along with everyone else living and dead that is related to, ends up in the Los Lagos realm.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

Maya Johnson

I really enjoyed this book! I liked the world and character building throughout the book.

Bruja magic runs in her blood, but a curse to get rid of it may cost Alex more than her power... Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in her family. But she's hated magic ever since it made her father disappear into thin air. So while most girls celebrate their Quincea�era, Alex prepares for Death Day - the most important day in a bruja's life, and her only opportunity to rid herself of magic.But the curse she performs during the ceremony backfires and her family vanishes, forcing Alex to absorb all the magic of her family line. Left alone, Alex seeks help from Nova, a brujo who covets her power for himself. To get her family back they must travel to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...

Jamieson

My feelings are so mixed. On one hand, I loved the Brujo/Bruja 's and Los Lagos and all the magic and witchiness. This book had such unique and interesting story elements due to the incorporation of Latinx culture and I loveddd ittt. 

BUT, I kinda feel like this wasn't what I was expecting and something didn't click with me. I really found this a slog at times, I think it's because I struggled to really connect with the characters so everything happening to them just left no deep impression on me. Also, the f/f romance was not as prominent as everyone made it out to be

Not sure if this is the book, or my mood though. I feel like if I reread this I'd like it more. Will ponder this and then post a full review

Izza

3.5 stars | I really wanted this to be amazing because 1) witches, 2) LGBTQ+ rep, but I think my expectations were a little too high. I felt like the dialogues were a little bit awkward at times and the pacing was slow. I did like Rishi's character and the ending left me wanting to read the second one, so that's pretty good.

Labyrinth Lost has been on my tbr for a cool minute. I’m glad I finally got to read it, but that being said, I got through 75% of it and had a difficult time getting through the last bit. I think the general concept of the book was interesting, and I enjoyed the character dynamics, but some parts kinda fell flat for me. The main twists and the final battle were kinda meh. I think I just expected a lot more to happen and they just ended up being way too easy. Overall I enjoyed this book and I wouldn’t mind reading the sequel. 

Nataly

jess

This was a fun read and very unique in its fantasy world. It's inspired by Mexican culture and the Day of the Dead, and I really enjoyed how developed the magic was. However, it is quite easy to get lost in because there's a lot to take in, but the worldbuilding is excellent. . 

I liked Alex, though she did seem a bit selfish at times. Most of the time she's a determined and brave character and really regrets what she did. I wish we'd gotten more of Rishi's character, because I feel like her character was brushed aside in favour for Nova. Nova was cool, (view spoiler)[until he betrayed everyone. (hide spoiler)]

The romance between her and Rishi was welcome but I feel like it came out of left field, right at the end of the book. Most of the romantic development was between Nova and Alex, and while I understand that Rishi and Alex have been friends for longer and there was brief foreshadowing, we didn't get to see much of the why they got together.

mighty dragon 

i love the world building! and though i feel like i could relate to Alex, i have no attachment towards any of the characters here. :[

Nicki

3.5 stars! I genuinely really really liked this book. So many elements to what made it a success with me. Detailed review will be posted on my blog. :D

Flavia Louise

Alexa Jade

Actual rating: 2.5. 
This was more of a disappointment for me in the sense that I wanted to love this but I considered DNF’ing it at least 3 times. I felt like the story had so much potential that was wasted. I didn’t like how underdeveloped the relationship was. Just meh. Meh meh meh.

Laura Kehoe

I received a copy of Labyrinth Lost from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

For most people, magic is a thing of fairy tales and dreams. For Alex and her family, however, magic is real-and it's no sweet fairy tale. While many people dream of one day developing magical powers, all Alex wants to do is find a way to get rid of hers and live a normal life. But she soon realizes everything has a cost, and the price is worse than she ever imagined. 

There are so many things I loved about Labyrinth Lost. The excellent diversity. The unique and beautiful world. The engaging and delightful characters. THE BISEXUAL REPRESENTATION! It was a fantastic read and a real treat. My only complaint is that I felt there were a few things that could have been explained and fleshed out a little more. But that didn't stop me from absolutely adoring this book. I'd HIGHLY recommend everyone give Labyrinth Lost a read!

Sheila

Oh man you guys, this book is so great!! This is definitely a 4.5, but I resisted giving the full 5 because the 'middle-child syndrome' in the first half of the book grates on me. OTHERWISE this is a fabulous gem; so vivid and imaginative! Come for the brujas, stay for the fabulous underworld of Los Lagos & the adooooorable Rishi :3

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Christian Huss

Vera Sokolyanskaya

It's not a bad book: it has a plot, interesting universe, bisexual main character and beautiful mythology. However, the style is particular uninventive and dry and the plot mostly consists of cliches (even the "reveal" in the end is kind of predictable).

Maria

нет, я не могу. очень скучно.

Becky

I wanted to like this book far more than I did, I think;. It had all the makings of being a perfect book for me, especially with the premise of being a book which represents diversity in YA urban fantasy, but it lost me in one simple way. I didn't like the main character.

I was thrilled at the prospect of reading a fantasy read which was about Latin folklore and a culture I was utterly unfamiliar. I was excited that the book focused strongly upon family as the bruja history and culture is very much about people's lineage and their ancestors and their family's knowledge which gets passed down. And even better was the fact Alex was part of a small and close community and she had strong family bonds between her sisters and her mom. I loved that there was the promise of a bisexual MC and a potential M/F/F love triangle which was done well and not problematic. I just liked all of the elements to it, but I didn't love the book itself.

As I've said, the reason for my dislike of this book is simple. I couldn't connect with the character of Alex, in fact, I strongly disliked her. She came across as selfish and she acted so stupidly. She chose not to educate herself on her heritage and that annoyed me. I was bothered by her ignorance of her family and their ways and the fact she intentionally chose to ignore an entire aspect of herself because she feared it. I mean, I understood why Alex acted as she did, and I tried to empathise with her but I just couldn't. I found her too frustrating and that in the end put me off. I couldn't get past my frustration at her character at the beginning of the book and that is my issue.

I get all the positive things people have said about this book and I get the love for it. It probably deserves it, but sadly I found I could not get past my own issues with the main character and enjoy the story itself. We all have our problems I suppose.

Taylor

Yes! A bisexual witch! We did it! 

TWs: death, panic attacks, animal death, blood, self harm (for blood magic), bullying

María Belén

3.5 

Para continuar con la onda latina del libro, esta reseña la escribo en español.

La premisa de Labyrinth Lost es muy simple: chica especial no quiere ser especial y en su afán de ser comunacha mete la pata. Pero no hay que temer, porque el chico sexy y misterioso llega al rescate. Esa es basicamente la idea superficial del libro en la primera mitad. Es algo que leí incontables veces. Pero lo que diferencia, para mí, a este libro es el universo que construyó la autora y, obviamente, la incorporación de mitología y cultura latino americana. 

Alejandra es una protagonista común, nada guau. Pero al final tiene un poco de desarrollo su personaje asi que me terminó gustando. 
Lo que más me gustó de la historia en relación con los personajes fueron Rishi y la familia de Alejandra. La amistad y la dinámica familiar son muy buenas. Me gustó en especial la relación de Alejandra y Rishi. No me esparaba ese giro porque la historia venía siguiendo el camino típico de la mayoría de los libros del género. Así que fue una sorpresa y un buen giro en la historia. 
Creo que Labyrinth Lost es otro buen ejemplo de la diversidad en los libros. 

En fin, si bien al principio pensé que iba a ser una historia más, la historia me terminó atrapando. Es un muy buen libro; entretenido y que le da un toque diferente al género.

3.5 stars

I think I'm just not the right audience for this book (as YA fantasy can really be hit or miss for me). I liked a lot of the elements of the plot and characters, but the writing just didn't click for me. I didn't feel immersed like I wanted to, but that's sometimes an issue with fantasy for me. If there's too much unfamiliarity, it's hard for me to connect.

However, there were things I really enjoyed about this book. The dinner scene with Agosto was my favorite, so creepy and definitely Alice in Wonderland-esque! I also really liked re: the love triangle (view spoiler)[that she got with Rishi in the end, and she and Nova never really had a thing. Starting out, I was very skeptical of the book because the way she described Nova and everything really made it sound like she was super into him, while Rishi was just a convenient "maybe someday" since they were best friends. I almost DNF'd it when she and Nova were in Los Lagos before they found Rishi because I was convinced it was going to just be the two of them the whole time and that Rishi would be shafted. However, I skipped ahead a bit and saw Rishi showed up, so I persevered and was rewarded for it. (hide spoiler)] I do wish we got to see more of Rishi/Alex before the main events of the book, like we got with Nova/Alex's meeting though.

Despite liking Rishi and Alex, and most of the plot points, I did find that some of it was pretty trope-y. Girl suddenly discovers she's super powerful? Decides she doesn't want her powers? Has to save her whole family because of it? Is attracted to a bad boy with a heart of gold? YAWN. However, it did manage to surprise me at times, so the tropes weren't TOO bad, just made me roll my eyes a bit.

Overall, I think this type of book just isn't my thing. I loved reading a story with diversity and some interesting moments, but ultimately the fantasy wasn't as enthralling as I would've liked.

Heather Heaton

A fun and entertaining quest story of a bruja, Alex trying to save her family from the devourer after she accidentally sent them to her. I am a big fan of magical stories (it probably stems from growing up on Harry Potter). This one is no exception, the magic is awesome, the story is again a quest/ journey through another world. Along the way they meet creatures and new terrains that they must navigate and survive. For me it was just enough description to envision and feel as though I was there and could see and feel the world, but not overdone to where I got a little lost. There were multiple battles along the way which I enjoy because otherwise the end takes forever to come and feels as though it was over in one battle and I want the action! Ummm..... Rishi!!! I loved her she was so sweet and just the cutest and I don't wanna give anything away but she is wonderful and fearless. Alex also has strong family relationships and I really connected with that. My family is everything to me and I love them to death and I connected to that part of this story alot!!!

laura

I am so upset that it took me so long to pick up this book. I really loved the witchy elments but mixed with the quest and adventure of a percy jackson read!! I also loved myth and legend focus, I also really liked the focus on not always fitting in with your family, it was super fast pace read and it really put me in the fall mood. I also really loved the focus on the act of pervsing your family line. It was super fun read!! I will def check out the sequel!!

Elaine

This was a good book, but it felt like nothing special. It's a typical story with good characters and a well thought out plot, but that is it. I didn't quite connect to any of the characters, the romance seemed out of place and the whole story was enjoyable but forgettable. I don't know if I will continue in this series, I think not.

Mya Adams 

I read and listened to labyrinth lost by Zoraida Cordova, and I absolutely loved it. I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I loved this book so much, I love books that have Latin/Hispanic representation and this book delivers that and more than I could have hoped for. I also love books with witches and magic of that kind involved in it. The majority of the book is set in a magical place and the world building that Zoraida Córdova did was utterly impressive. I loved all the creatures that we meet in this book. I love how each chapter is started, it gives the book a very polished and loving old-timey feel which makes me feel like the story building was just so thought out and tailored so well to the storyline. I struggle to think of any problem I had with this book because I really can't think of a single one. Every aspect of character development, setting, representation is just so well done. You fall in love with every character, plotline, and you fall for every twist and turn this book takes you through. So brace yourself for a ride this book is going to give you one, and I hope everyone enjoys it as well as I did. I recommend everyone read this book. It's so underappreciated.

Labyrinth Lost

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