The Druid Scholar

Bruja Born is the second installment in Zoraida Cordova’s Brooklyn Brujas trilogy. While Labyrinth Lost follows the middle sister, Alex, as she comes into her powers somewhat unwillingly and drags her entire family disastrously through it all with her, Bruja Born follows the eldest Mortiz sister Lula.

Lula Mortiz has always been a self-assured bruja, until the traumatizing trip to Los Lagos destroyed her inner peace, and strained her relationship with her boyfriend Maks, who unexpectedly dumps her before they board the bus to the big game. When the bus crashes and they are speared together with mortal wounds, Lula is unwilling to let him go, cheating the Goddess of Death with magic used to tie his life force to hers. The unexpected consequences cause Brooklyn to be overrun by the undead.

Admittedly, this story was less satisfying than Labyrinth Lost for me. I enjoyed it, but I missed the more pleasing fantastic elements of the previous tale. This story, more urban than portal fantasy, felt like it wasn’t continuing enough of the threads from the previous work to make them properly contiguous. I expected more of the previous enemies to make themselves known, and honestly I missed Alex. Lula, understandably to a point, has a somewhat bad attitude throughout this book that made her less fun of a character to follow than Alex. I was more interested in the side characters, especially her sister Rose, who I know to be the subject of the next book. I think this may all be down to my perception that this would be a more contiguous series, but if is better understood as something more loosely connected. Though this book didn’t glitter in my eyes, I still enjoyed it immensely and wouldn’t skip the chance to read it if I could go back in time and reevaluate my choice. I expect that the conclusion of the trilogy will have a larger payoff, but I’m always upset to discover that I see a book more as filler than something that stands well on its own. Or perhaps I am being too harsh in my comparison. Who’s to say?

This series is excellent for readers of books like Aiden Thomas’s Cemetery Boys, The Name-Bearer by Natalia Hernandez, and Angeline Boulley.