Hi friends!
I’m so glad I finally read this series! I only wish that I had picked Zoraida Córdova’s books up sooner but I have now and I can’t wait to read some of her other stuff! (Incendiary has been on my list for what feels like forever I’m just waiting for the perfect mood to strike).
Each book in this series is so different and doesn’t end on major cliff hangers but the story definitely builds and is intricately tied to each other which is why I wanted to review them all together!
My mom likes to say that belief has to be unyielding. Part of what makes magic so powerful is that the bruja believes in her canto. She believes in what she’s trying to do.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
CW // violence, death, self-harm (for ritual purposes), blood & gore
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
Published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2016
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Fantasy)| Latinx MC| Queer Rep (Bisexual MC)
Summary: 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 she can’t trust, but who may be Alex’s only chance at saving her family.
But we aren’t like normal families. Our monsters are real. Sometimes we are the monsters.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
Reasons to Read
Bisexual love triangle // As I’m sure we all know, love triangles are hard to pull off, but I like the way it was done here. First, the feelings were subtle and built so slowly to the point that there were times I wondered if I was simply reaching for a romance and specifically a bisexual love triangle. Second, because of the way the feelings developed it made it hard to ship one couple over the other and even harder to predict how it was going to end which is really all I can ask of a love triangle.
Not all loves are meant to last forever. Some burn like fire until there is nothing left but ash and black ink on skin. Others…stay close to the heart so I’ll never forget.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
the use of the ~reluctant~ chosen one trope // I’m always a sucker for a good chosen one trope especially when they’re reluctant or really bad at being the chosen one and this story fit the bill because Alex is the chosen one on multiple counts, but she doesn’t realize it until the halfway point at the earliest and it takes her even longer to accept it and even longer to fully embrace it.
I’m not the encantrix everyone thought I would be. Right now, I’m just a girl, and there is also magic in that.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
The family dynamics // This was super important since it’s the first book in the series and the following books are from the sisters’ POVs and I think the author did an amazing job considering I was hooked and attached to the whole family despite their limited appearance. Just the strength of Alex’s connection to them was enough to make me want more of the Mortiz family.
Love is Lula. Love is my mom. Love is Rose. Love is in this power that I never asked for but courses through my veins like the blood of my ancestors.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
This is the heart I was born with, and I have to decide how strong it will be. And though it’s being consumed by the darkness I unleashed into this world, it has never been stronger.
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
CW // graphic bus accident, death, blood,
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
Published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2018
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Fantasy)| Latinx Rep
Summary: Lula Mortiz may be a bruja with healing powers, but after her family’s battle in Los Lagos, she feels broken in a way she can’t seem to fix. Then tragedy strikes when a bus crash leaves her friends and her boyfriend, Maks, dead. Lula invokes a dark spell to bring Maks back but when all of the bodies from the crash go missing she realizes something is wrong. Lula has unwittingly raised an army of casimuertos–creatures between the living and dead–and they’re hungry for freedom…which they can only achieve if Lula dies.
When I was little, I used to root for Snow, but lately, I feel the queen was way misunderstood. Women with power always get a bad rep.
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
Reasons to Read
Forgiveness (of family and self) // At the start of this book Lula is so angry with Alex over the events in Labyrinth Lost and I loved the complexity of their relationship when it had seemed so easy before because Lula clearly still loved her and understood Alex was sorry, but forgiveness isn’t always easy. And then that anger shifts inward as things go from bad to worse with a horrific bus accident of which Lula is the only survivor thanks to her family’s magic. But Lula has lost too much to let her boyfriend go and she’s willing to go to drastic measures to save him. Needless to say things backfire and she almost destroys New York. But the growth she goes through and the strength she finds is what makes this story so powerful.
My body is different and strange and new to me, and I have to be kind to it. I have to learn this version of myself and love her like she deserves. But now, I know I’m telling the truth when I say, “I’m going to be fine.”
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
How far would you go for love? // This was one of my main takeaways from this book because not only do we follow Lula willing to do anything first for the boy she loves and then for her family and friends but we also follow her family who’s willing to do anything for her even her sisters who against their better judgement help her try to save Maks. And then there’s Lula’s whole journey of self-love and finally putting herself first even if that simultaneously means making some pretty big sacrifices.
Then I realize—what makes this magic powerful is the desire to want to do good. To value life. To save those who are hurt. Healing is the purest magic there is, and it’s part of my life force. When I look at Maks, I see the parts of me that used to be whole, and maybe it’s desperate, maybe it’s wrong, but I can’t let him go.
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
Finding unexpected common ground (with tha and knights) // I haven’t read The Vicious Deep so this was my first introduction to the Thorne Hill Alliance and the Knights of Lavant. Both were mentioned in passing in Labyrinth Lost as part of the world building, but their role wasn’t fleshed out until the Mortiz family needed their help in this book. The inclusion of these other organizations and expansion of the magical/supernatural/paranormal world beyond the Mortiz family opens up so many possibilities and I can’t wait to see what more might come out of this universe (I definitely want to revisit her earlier series). But also it was clear from the first book that brujas don’t trust the THA or Knights so to see them overcome that and learn to trust each other for the sake of the city was just an amazing example of the power of a common enemy.
Part of me wonders why it’s so much harder to ask for help from the people who love us.
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
If our happiness is fragile enough to shatter at any moment, are we even happy at all?
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
CW // death, violence, blood, poison
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
Published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2020
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Fantasy)| Latinx Rep | Queer Rep (nonbinary side character) | Plus Size Rep
Synopsis: Rose Mortiz has always been a fixer, but lately she’s been feeling lost. Then, Rose discovers her father’s memory loss has been a lie. As she rushes to his side, the two are pulled through a portal to the land of Adas, a fairy realm hidden in the Caribbean Sea. Soon, she begins to discover the scope of her powers, the troubling truth about her father’s past, and the sacrifices he made to save her sisters. But if Rose wants to return home so she can repair her broken family, she must figure out how to heal Adas first.
How am I supposed to know what to say? I know the ingredients that will conjure luck and I can brew a potion to talk to the dead, but no one ever taught me how to speak a truth that is uncomfortable.
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
Reasons to Read
Rose being a total badass // In the previous two books there are hints to Rose’s true power and that she was a badass in her own right, but as the baby sister she often got overlooked or underestimated. She is awkward and she’s still learning what her new powers mean and she’s only 15 but never seems truly afraid (if I were in her shoes I would not be okay) and I just 🥺 But she knows who she is at her core and isn’t afraid to be herself even when she’s so uncertain about everything else.
But no matter what it takes, I will find a way back home. I have to. I am my mother’s daughter, and she raised me to survive.
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
Finally, some answers // For those who have read the first two books but haven’t read Wayward Witch yet you’ll be happy to know that questions about their father’s disappearance and time in the Adas realm are finally answered and personally it wasn’t what I expected (it was so much more complicated than I could begin to guess). I had an inkling about halfway through as to what the *big* reveal would be, but you don’t know for sure how the story all comes together until almost the end. Unfortunately, not all questions are answered and there are still quite a few things left open-ended but I’m ✨hoping✨ that means that we’re not done with the Mortiz family even if we’re done with this particularly series 😬
We are miles away from home, realms even. I don’t have many test subjects, but I’m going to bet and say a heart can break the same way no matter where you are.
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
Plus Size Rep (in a fantasy!!!!) // This is so minor and yet so important to me because I can’t remember the last time I read a fantasy with a plus size heroine (why are they all “athletic” and “willowy” ????) so to have Rose be clearly described as curvy was just so 🥺 There’s no judgement or fat shaming (that I can remember?) and the level of self-love and comfort in her own body at the age of 15 is just so important for rep AND while she does have a few moments of insecurity we’re privy to her thought process as she thinks through why she’s uncomfortable and then says ‘fuck it’ anyway!
Sometimes people look to gods for answers when we have everything we need to fix those mistakes.
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova
This was everything I wanted out of a YA fantasy and then some. The character voices were all so unique and engaging and the world building wasn’t overwhelming but at the same time it was vivid and immersive. I loved the magic system and that magic always costs a little something and that it’s not an endless resource. I loved the characters and the little hints of romance and the family dynamics and the sisters and just 🥺
I highly recommend this series to any fans of ya contemporary fantasy because it was super enjoyable and each book was a new experience!
You are the blood of my blood, and you are more than enough.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
💫 Have you read any of the Brooklyn Brujas series yet? What about Zoraida Córdova’s other works? What do you look for in a fantasy?
Just A Little Lit Nerd 
2 thoughts on “YA Series Review: Brooklyn Brujas by Zoraida Córdova // Deathdays, Casimuertos, and Adas Oh My”