Rutabaga's Reads 2023: Part 4

In this compilation, you’ll find two familiar and one new-to-me author. This isn’t on purpose, but all stories are part of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Aug. 4, 2020) by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

*This is the first novel in a series.*

            Stay away from the Gila River, as it is a place where children mysteriously disappear, a place where monsters of myth lurk. 12-year-old Paolo Santiago prefers science and logic, would rather obsess over outer space or ponder the wonders of algae as a fuel, than heed her mother’s stories of La Llorona, the wailing ghost mother who drowned her own children and now seeks others to drag into the river, or any other stories of legend. Major. Eye. Roll. She blames her mom for why no one takes people like them seriously, like the local police when her best friend, Emma Lockwood, goes missing. Together with her other best friend, Dante Mata, they will take refuge with Los Niños de la Luz, an army of child warriors who don’t age as long as they help guard the world’s liminal spaces. The third quarter is approaching as well as the solstice, which is a double whammy. It turns out Pao’s mom was right. Things like chupacabras and manos pachonas (i.e. disembodied hands) exist, but so do fantastical weapons like the Arma del Alma. Pao and Dante will help the niños, but her priority is saving Emma. Into the rift she’ll go to confront relentless spirits (ahogados) and other monsters like lechuzas (shape-shifting witches). But who is the biggest bad of all? Who is Ondina, because she’s no typical ahogado? As if being 12 doesn’t have its own growing pains and the emergence of “boy-girl weirdness” between her and Dante, logic has sailed out the window while the stuff of myth has moved right in.

            Although I initially struggled with Pao’s brattiness, I was still swept up in Mejia’s Mexican legend and how the author draws on her Latinx heritage to conjure creatures of lore and meld them with the contemporary world. Despite the fantasy element, there are realistic plot points: socioeconomic differences and immigration status and the stereotypes associated with both. Probably all of Pao’s bratty behavior and bad attitude stem from anger issues and her inability to forgive others. The mother-daughter strife is real and deep; Pao’s been trying to push away her Mexican ancestry too long. The imagery of the story is colorful, the prose engaging, and the mindset of an angry, insecure preteen tumultuous and therefore believable. Action is plentiful, the southwestern setting is full of cacti, and there is good character development. Many should be able to understand the scattered Spanish phrases by context if they do not outright know them. I plan to continue the series. After all, how can I resist a world full of sinister magical forces?

            Clever line: “Her anger was the perfect breeding ground for this supernatural bacteria.” (p. 294, paperback ed.)

Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe (May 5, 2020) by Carlos Hernandez.

*This is the second novel in a series.*

Three weeks have passed since Sal & Gabi saved Iggy, but life is anything but calm. Culeco Academy is in the midst of tech week. They’re preparing for Rompenoche, and they will break the night with their performance of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for parent-teacher conference night. Sal’s encountered “FixGabi,” who’s popped in from another universe, and has told Sal that Papi Vidón, a calamity physicist, will create a remembranation machine that will close all the holes (tears) in the multiverse, but instead of fixing it, will break the world that Sal lives in. FixGabi lost her own Sal, but says there’s nothing to worry about until the remembranation machine becomes sentient, and, well, it asked Sal this morning if it was alive, and Sal said yes, so ... whoops? Maybe? I mean, FixGabi isn’t exactly like his own Gabi, but he can still trust her. Right? What Sal does know is that, when the machine is on, he feels “as empty as a grave without a ghost. Just a soulless corpse.” On top of that, he wants Yasmany to find a new home and winds up co-directing Culeco’s performance after he’s too truthful (the biggest sandwich of them all). Sal’s a showman, but that’s a lot for even him to juggle. He isn’t on his own, what with the Gabi from his own universe, and Yasmany, who’s now his friend (quite a difference from mere weeks ago when Yasmany wanted to beat him up), though Yasmany knows nothing of multiverses. There’s also his AI friends: Sweeps, the entropy sweeper, Brana, the remembranation machine, and Vorágine, the talking toilet. Yes, you read that correctly. A talking toilet. Whether breaking or destroying or fixing, just this one universe has enough going on!

            The sophomore installment in the Sal & Gabi Series is the best kind of calamitous, for it’s a “wonderboom” of high-octane entertainment, madcap adventure and tickle-your-funny-bone moments. Hernandez seamlessly weaves science fiction with middle school mayhem while focusing on family (biological and found), friendship, self-awareness and the impact love can have on someone who readers intuit is abused and feels unloved. It is simultaneously hilarious and heartwarming with an ever-moving plot and Cuban influence. Sal appears to identify as aromantic. New readers to this series from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint should definitely begin with the first novel. This series is the opposite of a “stupid-and-mayonnaise sandwich” and is as tasty as a homemade empanada.

            Book 1: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe

Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Oct. 6, 2020) by Kwame Mbalia.

*This is the second novel in a series.*

*Spoilers included if one hasn’t read the first novel.*

Three weeks have passed since Tristan Strong’s return to his grandparents’ farm from Alke, the land of West African gods and African American folk heroes. His time there was harrowing and exhausting, but victorious. He’s still missing his best friend; there is trauma surrounding him, but there will be no rest when his nana is abducted by a masked villain covered in iron monsters (fetterlings, brand flies, a hullbeast and a bossling) called the Shamble Man. With Anansi trapped in the SBP (Story Box Phone), he and Tristan find themselves back in Alke. He reunites with familiar faces like Ayanna and the loud-mouthed and sticky Gum Baby. He meets new allies in Keelboat Annie, Lady Night (a boo hag) and Junior, though his start with Junior is rocky, and who is Junior, really? Since Nana’s abduction, Tristan’s Anansesem ability seems to have left him. How can he be a storyteller if he can’t tell stories? The Shamble Man, possibly a MidPass god, blames Tristan for everything and wants to exact revenge. Something is terribly wrong with John Henry after he’s attacked. Missing like his nana is Mami Wata, goddess of Nyanza, source of the City of Lakes. Along this new quest, Tristan will find that he isn’t the only one dealing with trauma. Trauma is a deeply distressing event, and sometimes others handle trauma very badly. Tristan is a hero, but he has major fails, too. He must overcome the brutal truth of failure and knit the brokenness back together, because if he and his allies can’t save Alke, it and his world will fall.

            The second in the Tristan Strong Series packs a punch. With its focus on what it means to be part of a diaspora and the effects of trauma, this sequel story is heavily weighted in tough stuff that’s not easy to discuss. There’s heartbreak, but humor, too. The humans are all Black and have varying shades of brown skin. The action is nonstop, the world-building is magnificent, and concluding this story reminds me that I haven’t bought the next story and need to. The way Mbalia takes folktales and mythology and threads them like any master weaver is impressive. Tristan is the series’ Anansesem, yes, but Mbalia is the real storyteller, and his story showcases that stories are communal. One person may weave a tale, but stories don’t come from only one. They come from all over the world or Alke or the multiverse!

            Book 1: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky