Santa Muerte is the first novel in the Santa Muerte series by Cynthia Pelayo.
Finished on: 9.9.2023

Plot:
Ari’s father is a police officer in Mexico, tasked with investigating drug cartels. For her own safety, Ari has been sent to live in Chicago to finish high school, the connection to her father hidden. But then her father unexpectedly comes to Chicago, and brings a load of trouble with him. After he gets in a car accident, Ari starts having visions of ghosts and death. In addition, local gang members start to take an interest in her, suspecting her real identity.

Despite an interesting premise, Santa Muerte is a little rough around the edges and I found myself confused a lot while reading it, not really grasping what’s happening. I actually considered not finishing it, but stayed with it until the end more out of laziness than anything else.

I am always here for diverse, #OwnVoices reads and this is probably how Santa Muerte found its way into my ebook collection a few years ago. I didn’t know much more about it than this when I started reading it, and I quite liked the premise and setting. It is obvios that Pelayo is passionate about the cartel violence in Mexico and the effect it has on all people, but women in particular. This passion bleeds over into Ari. Research was made and finds its way into the book as well, albeit in a slightly clunky fashion.

From what I gather, this is a rather early writing effort for Pelayo, and it shows in many ways (especially the pacing of character and relationship development). Annoyingly, though, there are also many typos and editing fails that should have been avoided. It gives the book a hurried feel that doesn’t do it justice.

The biggest problem I had with the book was that it is written like a movie, as if it was a novelization. That is not a bad thing per se, but I do personally struggle with it because I don’t really see images when I read, and books that rely on cinematic structures also rely heavily on imagery. And they leave me confused more often than not. Coupled with the flawed editing, it was a bit of a clusterfuck of a reading experience for me.

There is a sequel to this, though it doesn’t necessarily need one, I’d say. But I won’t be picking it up.

Summarizing: not for me.