Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives. 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 can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin. The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…
I read Labyrinth Lost as one of the selections for a book circle on queer young adult fantasy. However, I found both the fantasy aspects and queer representation to be undeveloped. Córdova took inspiration for her magic system and world from “some Latin American religions and cultures” (317) but fails to develop that inspiration into something engaging. Los Lagos in particular feels like a series of obstacles for Alex to overcome, rather than a fully realized world. The queer romance, meant to be incidental to the main plot, adds little to the story. This could be due in part to the lack of character development in the main characters. Rishi and Nova especially are one dimensional characters, existing just for Alex to play off of them.
The Bottom Line: Fans of romance or fantasy may be disappointed if they pick up this book in search of either of those, but less picky readers might enjoy the Latin-inspired story that’s more about family than anything else.
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