Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I started seeing Moreno-Garcia’s book Mexican Gothic all over Instagram a few months ago (I followed bunches of book accounts and believe me, I have no regrets!) but didn’t realize that she was already a prolific writer before her newest book. While I am waiting for the price of Mexican Gothic to go down, I decided to try another of her books, “Gods of Jade and Shadow” which follows a village girl who opens an ancient wooden box and accidentally lets one of the gods of hell loose. He takes her on a journey to free himself from the chains of his twin brother, and in the process frees her as well, as she learns about herself and what she wants from life. This book is filled with Mayan culture, myths, and vocabulary, as well as Mexican geography and culture, and tremendously interesting.
I Am That Girl, Alexis Jones
Jones’ basic premise is that girls (re: women) should empower each other through love and support rather than what the patriarchy ahs taught us to do, which is be catty and competitive, although she never mentions the patriarchy or sexist standards by name at any point in time. I think her ideas are sound (and pretty standard for 2021, but this was published in 2014) but undercut by the way she constantly refers to grown women as girls and the sometimes massive contradictions between her ‘advice’ and the ‘real life’ examples she gives. For example, she is stunningly progressive (for 2014) in stating that 98% of diets don’t work and that self-care should be part of every woman’s daily routine, but then gives an example from her stint on Survivor (unrelatable much?) or references her boyfriend of two months being her soul mate in a chapter supposedly dedicated to learning to love yourself and be with yourself ‘first’. While I do wish I had read a book similar to this when I was a teenager, there are some major flaws that make this book a hard sell for anyone, but especially adolescents and teenagers who are still super impressionable. By the way, I bought this book after seeing a recommendation on Instagram, thinking it was a novel! So I was a bit surprised when I began reading it.