Review: Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

Publisher: sourcebooks Fire

Publishing Date: September 2016

ISBN: 9781492620945

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 2.5/4

Publishers Description: Bruja magic runs in her blood, but a curse meant to banish it may cost Alex more than her power… 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. So while most girls celebrate their Quinceañera, Alex prepares for Death Day—the most important day in a bruja’s life, and her only opportunity to rid herself of magic.

Review:  I thought, “Oh, here comes the YA infatuation with the rippled abs on a douche’ with mesmerizing eyes and smells like a pine forest with hints of wood smoke..”. While there is some of that, including blushing and gurl crushing, it didn’t take over the story line and the characters were left to sort themselves out within the epic world building that is Los Lagos.

“So why you no give 5 stars!!”. Well Alex is really Speshul. She is so speshul in fact, that all her thoughts, motivations and inclinations are all about her. Not only is she narcissistic she is the second coming super witch with extra speshully powers that she just doesn’t want…wah! Besides the school bullying scenes that do not make any sense, the grammatical errors were constant throughout the novel and some chapters just ended abruptly, mid-sentence. Really poor editing. Also, the fight scenes were jumbled and lacked logical progression. 

In summary, the world building is fantastic. While Alex was a bit unbelievable and hopelessly myopic she was balanced with a good supporting cast that was developed well with the movement. The real downer is the plethora of grammatical errors. During the author’s afterword, she thanks her editor Gretchen Stelter for correcting “my terribly grammar…..” Too funny. You really can’t make this shjt up.