Bruja Born: 10/22/18

Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova is the second of the Brooklyn Brujas and like Labyrinth Lost, is a road narrative, though this one more metaphorically so than its predecessor.

These two books are connected through the sisters. The first one was from Alex's point of view. This novel is Lula's story and comes months after the conclusion of book one.

I admit to buying and reading the book without reading a single blurb about the book, not even the one included with the book. I knew I was going to read it and I didn't care to know what it was about. That ended up being very effective because after the start of a rather humdrum sister feeling out of sort and needing her own time to heal post return from Los Lagos, everything is literally and figuratively violently turned upside down. (If you want to know how, go read the second paragraph of the blurb on Goodreads or any other online book website)

Put bluntly, Lulu like everyone else in the accident, should have died. But she's a bruja with bruja sisters and they were able to help her live. When she tries to do the same for her boyfriend, Maks, who is one of the victims, things go horribly wrong.

For my road narrative project I've put the orphan or lone protagonist at the top as the most powerful traveler. However, coven stories have their own traditions, where sisterhood is more powerful than a single witch or bruja. Córdova broadens that tradition to include la familia, living and dead. It's well in keeping with Latinx traditions.

While an orphan protagonist might be the most magical for many types of road narratives, sometimes family is. Lulu is only able to fix the mess she's made (raising an undead horde) after she brings in her entire family to help.

Bruja Born, then, is a 3300FF (family city cornfield). The family is Lulu's sisters and parents. The city is New York, though more specifically, Brooklyn. The cornfield is Coney Island, used as the entry point to where Death herself is trapped. Coney Island as a place along the water is a tkaronto crossing.

Five stars

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