Reading Diary: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty, small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it–and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan God of Death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey, from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City–and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. It's pretty trope-y when you get into the plot elements, although given that it's dealing with gods and myth, maybe archetype-y is better. Casiopea is a reluctant Chosen One who has to be a hero. There's a touch of romance. Given the archetypal nature of the story and it's Hero's Journey plot, you can probably guess how it all turns out, although there was a move at the end that I didn't expect that I really liked. The greatest strength of this book for me was the world building and setting description. People who have read Moreno-Garcia's book Mexican Gothic have praised the world building as well, and from what I know of the book (about a spooky house and family) she does it very well. I will not be reading that book because I have an overactive imagination and I do not like spooky books. Looking at her website, it seems like she writes more horror books, so I'm not sure how much more of this author I will read, but I did like her style.