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Labyrinth Lost is a 2016 young adult fantasy novel by Zoraida Cordova. It's the first novel in the Brooklyn Brujas series. The book was published by Sourcebooks Fire in September 2016. It can be purchased here from Bookshop.com

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's not sure she can trust, but who may be Alex's only chance at saving her family.

I found the characters in the novel to be okay. I don't think they were extremely fleshed out, but at the same time, they weren't a detriment to the story. The novel wasn't a character-driven novel, so the characters being "good, not great" works fine. Aside from being the first Latinx protagonist I've read in a while, and the first bisexual protagonist I've read in years, very little about Alex made her feel different from other YA protagonists. Nova is the typical bad boy with a mysterious past archetype. Rishi, Alex's best friend, was by far the most entertaining, though I found her frustrating at time. Their personalities service the story and the arcs they go through make a lot of sense. The antagonist of the story, the Devourer, was underdeveloped, but I believe that was by choice. Some villain archetypes don't need an extreme amount of depth and she fits into that category.

While I didn't love the characters, the relationships between characters was one of the areas where Labyrinth Lost really shone. First and foremost, this book is about familial relationships. The entire plot of the book is about Alex trying to get her family back after she accidentally makes them disappear. I think the author did a fantastic job depicting the complexities of family dynamics. The loving but strained bond between Alex and her mother was great. The complex relationship between Alex and her sisters was written beautifully and authentically. I was surprised and delighted to see how much time and effort the author put into building those relationships and making them feel real and significant. Aside from family relationships, this book also has a romance, or more accurately, a love triangle. I'm not usually a fan of love triangles, but the one in this book doesn't overshadow important parts of the story, diverting attention from the plot, and I thought part of it was pretty cute. It gets bonus points for being a bisexual love triangle as well.

The beliefs and practices of Alex and her family, which serve as the magic system of the novel, were inspired by American cultures and Santeria. This resulted in a magic system that felt very unique to me and it was wonderful to see how those cultures and practices were woven into the magic and world. The culture is vital not only to Alex's character, but also the world and the journey she goes on. The world is immersive. The writing itself is imbued with so many minute but vivid details and imagery. This is a portal fantasy with Alex and Nova having to travel to another realm, Los Lagos, to rescue Alex's family. Los Lagos is fascinating and dangerous and the realm was where the author really got to show off her creativity and it worked beautifully. The writing teleported me to this strange, intriguing new world and I wanted to stay there as long as possible.

I enjoyed the premise of this novel, but not the way the plot progressed. By that, I mean that the plot felt a bit formulaic past a point. In Los Lagos, Alex would encounter some being that lived there, there would be some kind of confrontation, Alex and her group would win, and then they moved on and repeated the same process. Two of these instances set up events for the climax, but I would've been much more invested if these events didn't play out in almost the exact same way each time. At the same time, these events marked passage of time, creating increased tension, and showed progress through Los Lagos. I loved the way the big plot twist of the story was executed. I won't say that I didn't predict it, but the way it played out and how it was revealed surprised me. It also did a fantastic job at changing the stakes going into the climax. The twist and its aftermath also served as a way to introduce the answer to a question I'd had for most of the book. The climax was great. It was exciting and well-paced. It took advantage of plot-points that had been set up several chapters earlier. The way it resolved felt satisfying. All in all, it was a great conclusion.

Labyrinth Lost is a book I enjoyed far more than I expected to. I loved the character dynamics and the world. The representation in the novel felt so refreshing. The plot and the conclusion felt so satisfying. At the same time, the characters themselves didn't really stand out to me. The pacing also felt a little slow in the middle, when the plot became repetitive. The ending of this book really sold me and I'm definitely going to read the next book in the series.

Rating: 4.1 Stars

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