* 2.5 stars *

Unfortunately, one of the most disappointing reads this year from a book I thought I was going to love.

Representation was great and characters individually were great and this definitely had some good bones to work off of but ultimately lacked in every technical department for me. Clunky writing, underdeveloped romance, scenes that got nowhere that dragged on for pages, plot bounced all over the place, villain was weak, and it definitely felt like it needed a few more editing passes.

I'm Latinx, born and raised in LA, and my dad's side is mostly from East LA so I felt like the world building when it came to these particular areas felt so extremely flat to me from what I know growing up in this specific world/demographic. East LA is such a vibrant community I'm sad that you can basically not grasp that at all from this book. Also dialogue was kind of strange and textbookish as compared to what I know from living here my whole life. Teen life is so specific in LA that it's hard to get that vibe through writing sometimes. Unsure if the author is from LA or not but definitely felt like an outsider looking in to me.

I loved Julian THE MOST and some aspects of the world building when it came to the brujx community were really cool and I can tell the author put a lot of love developing this lore and magic system. I just felt that other areas in this book lacked so much that I can't fully give it a three star rating. Unfortunately a victim to the overhype train for me :(

I'm interested in reading more from this author and might pick up the second book when it comes out, but this one just wasn't for me.