Hettie and her sister
are travelling to Mexico, where the demonic revolver, El Diablo, was first
created in the hope they can finally destroy it an Hettie can get her life back
But the journey has
complicates - crossing the magical wall into Mexico isn’t easy and despite all
their efforts, local politics catches them as a General with a full army behind
him is less than happy with the magical independence of Villa Del Punta. And
the town itself has divisions inside - not least of which with Walker’s family
And then there’s
Abbie; the Indigo child with impossible magical powers growing by the day… and
she’s picked up some disturbing habits from her captivity with the Kuklos
warlock which is only more worrying...
Hattie is the core of
his book and her conflicts and personality are what really gives the whole
story so much more depth. We’re reminded that Hattie is very young and utterly
out of her depth but equally determined to keep on going for the sake of her
sister. She has this really powerful sense of fatalism while still clinging to
hope. After her experiences she’s almost given up on her own future. She
doesn’t have any long term plans, she doesn’t even seem to consider the future
- focusing only on her sister’s survival and ignoring herself almost entirely.
Yet at the same time she is clinging so desperately to getting rid of the
Diablo and getting her missing years back. And I don’t think it’s worry about
aging or dying - but the desperate desire for a do-over, a wish that she could
go back to where this story began, before the loss of her family, before the
revolver, before she killed people.
On top of that she
has her sister Abbie, impossibly, terrifyingly powerful, increasingly out of
control with more than a few unsavoury habits and a growing sense of almost
desperation.
This is the backbone
of the book -and pretty necessary as the pacing has an odd moment in the
middle. The journey to Mexico and Villa Del Punto has action, magic and
fighting. And the end of the book has some grand reveals and a lot of powerful
scenes and epicness. But the middle? It’s kind of flabby and meandering without
a lot of forward movement. But it does allow a lot of exploration - especially
of Hattie; her trying to fit in with the inhabitants of Villa Del Punta, her dealing with her complicated relationship with Walker,
trying to look after Abbie. Facing the fact she doesn’t really trust anyone
around her. And even her evolving connection with El Diablo.
It also allows for a
lot of world building of magic, the relationship between Mexico and the US as
well as the local politics of this world’s Mexico as well: which has some
interesting twists including magical areas as a vital resource and how this
world with magic has created a much more balanced tension between the US and Mexico.
In fact, there’s a wall across the Mexican border built by the Mexicans to keep
Americans out. I do like to see how our world would differ if magic is
introduced to history; how wars and conflicts would be completely different
when the power is so changed.
We also get to
explore the magic system some more as well as the nature of both the demonic
and the angelic.
It’s still kind of
flabby in the middle since it basically involves Hattie and Abbie settling into
the village, slowly winning over the people’s trust, learning about magic,
learning about Walker’s past, his relationship to the sorcerer who created
Diablo and, of course, his step brother who rules the town and there’s some
tension there. Not a lot happens but it’s ok; it allows the characters to grow
and learn especially after all the action of the last book. And the action
beginning and ending the book which is full of war, and fighting and magic and
guns to definitely make up for a slow middle
I like that Hettie
does meet several women in Villa del Punta and generally respects them… while
I’m not thrilled by Julia. A clear love interest of Walker’s we get a definite
hint of jealousy from Hettie which she handles really well and we have a great
point of it being hettie’s issue and not the objectionable fault of Julia.
Still the ending does kind of have a sense of vindication for Hettie and
demonisation of her.
We also learn a lot
more about Ling’s background, his experiences as a Chinese immigrant in
America, the prejudices he experiences even with his magic and rank - which
this book also excellently developed into a prejudice against “Celestial”
magic. He also brings his deeply terrible experiences with the magical academy
which adds a lot of conflict to his job to bring Abbie in. As well as the
conflict that comes from comparing this terrible fate with the terrible things
Abbie may do if untrained..
We also have the
introduction of Horace, a Black man who joins the group through very unexpected
magical means. His back story is informed by prejudice - people resenting that
he could have success leading to being cursed while he himself is charming,
intelligent and well liked (perhaps a bit much of all? I suspect some possible
nefarious motive). He is one of the few who seems to have earned Hettie’s
uncompromising trust. We also have a brief appearance of Sophie which means an
even briefer appearance of Jemma, her servant and bodyguard.
Since they loved to
Mexico, naturally nearly every inhabitant of Villa Del Punta is Mexican. There
are no LGBTQ characters
The ending was
dramatic but also shows a distinct shift of the story. I’m curious for the next
book because it has set Hettie up on an entirely different path - one that may
not focus on Abbie so much and one which has an entirely different mission. I
look forward to see a story which focuses more on Hettie and her own finding a
path especially with her evolving relationship with El Diablo
