Bookstagram Review: Lucha of the Night Forest, by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Blurb

An edge-of-your-seat fantasy about a girl who will do anything to protect her sister–even if it means striking a dangerous bargain. Dark forces, forgotten magic, and a heart-stopping queer romance make this young adult novel a must-read.

A scorned god.
A mysterious acolyte.
A forgetting drug.
A dangerous forest.
One girl caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind.
Under the cover of the Night Forest, will Lucha be able to step into her own power…or will she be consumed by it?

This gorgeous and fast-paced fantasy novel from acclaimed author Tehlor Kay Mejia is brimming with adventure, peril, romance, and family bonds–and asks what it means for a teen girl to become fully herself.

My Review

Thanks to the publishers for my copy, as part of the Bookstagram tour. Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours for my copy of this book. I signed up for the Bookstagram tour, but I thought I’d add a review here too, since most of my website readers don’t follow my Instagram.

I enjoyed this book and raced through it on a Sunday evening, like I do sometimes. I hadn’t planned to read it all but by the time I was halfway through I decided I would, because I wanted to know what happened.

I loved the main character Lucha, and her complicated relationships with her sister Lis, mother Lydia, Paz the priestess, and Salvator, the god in her head. The world was brutal and beautiful at the same time. It clearly draws on the experiences of drug cartel run communities in South American and the communities that are in ‘bad neighbourhoods’, run down and forgotten; the people are practically enslaved to the cartel that owns the growing operations, processing plants and shipping, people disappear into drugs to survive in a hard world that ignores the existence of their community and the injustices that thrive there. Hope is hard to find and choices are limited. In an Afterword, the publisher talks about the way we construct worlds, not just fantasy worlds but the world we live in, how newspapers and politicians write the stories of communities from the outside and write them off in the process.

I loved the description of the Night Forest, it’s living and breathing power. The forests could be anywhere where great forests grow, but knowing Mejia lives in Oregon, I think the great forests of the PNW might have inspired some of it. Lucha learns eventually that life and death are balanced by transformation, and the theme of transformations is predominant in this novel, mainly in the form of fungi. Did you know, fungi connect via vast webs of filaments underground and they share information between trees in the woods? It’s called the ‘wood wide web’ by some people.

The relationship between Lucha and Paz starts off with unexpected lust and gently develops, although they barely touch each other and it ends with a promise to wait for each other, which is rather sweet, considering they’re both about 16. Lucha does not trust people, and Paz is too trusting in her mission to save people from the horrors wrought by Salvator and the drug he created from the mild hallucinogenic plant Pensa. That causes conflict when they realise their affections for each other, and that they’re in ostensible opposition to each other (warring gods).

The magic that infuses Lucha and her world is well-written, and the fight scenes are magnificently described. The sanctuary of the goddess is beautifully described, and the tension between Lucha and the acolytes is palpable.

But…
The storytelling is omniscient and moves between Lucha first person and third person, so it could be a bit flat at times; there’s a lot of telling, rather than showing, and it’s hard to feel the depths of emotion we are told Lucha feels. I wonder if a different POV might have worked better, or alternating between Lucha, Lis and Paz?

The abuse Lis is subjected to by Alan isn’t described, although I can guess given the setting, and her recovery is barely mentioned except for her drug addiction. And that seems to be magically cured within a few weeks. I wouldn’t want explicit descriptions of the abuse, because this is a YA book and also because I don’t need the added trauma, thanks, but something about her healing progress would have been good. She goes from a catatonic wreck to a smiling child again in a matter of weeks. That just does not happen, even with all the magic of a sanctuary and the help of giant cats. This is quite a dark book for the intended audience, but apparently that’s a thing these days. Dystopias were popular a few years back, I wonder if this has something of the same appeal?

Anyway, I liked it, even with the little niggling flaws.

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Author Information

TEHLOR KAY MEJIA is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult fantasy duology We Set the Dark on Fire and We Unleash the Merciless Storm. Her debut middle-grade series, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, is in development at Disney as a television series to be produced by Eva Longoria. Tehlor lives with her daughter, partner, and two small dogs in Oregon, where she grows heirloom corn and continues her quest to perfect the vegan tamale.

Website: https://www.tehlorkaymejia.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tehlorkay

Instagram: http://instagram.com/tehlorkay