Gods of Jade and Shadow

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She says you are to go to the butcher. The silly codger demands a good cut of beef for supper. While you’re out, get me my cigarettes.” A lush, bittersweet tale of courage, love, and carving your own place in the world . . . Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s evocative prose will take you on an adventure for the mind and the heart.” —Christina Henry, author of Aliceand The Girl in Red A dark, dazzling fairy tale . . . a whirlwind tour of a 1920s Mexico vivid with jazz, the memories of revolution, and gods, demons, and magic.” —NPR

In the meantime, Casiopea lived in Cirilo’s house. She rose early and committed to her chores, tight-­lipped, like a soldier on a campaign.Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room. She opens it — and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea's demise, but success could make her dreams come true. He looked disappointed. He’d wanted a scuffle. She smiled when he handed her the money she needed to run the errands. He looked so put off by that smile, she thought for a moment he was going to slap her for no reason. Casiopea left the house in her dirty skirt, without even bothering to wrap a shawl around her head. An evocative and moving modern Indigenous fairy tale filled with quiet moments of vulnerability and honesty. Oh, my heart!” —Rebecca Roanhorse, Hugo and Nebula award winning author of the Sixth World series A spellbinding fairy tale rooted in Mexican mythology . . . Gods of Jade and Shadowis a magical fairy tale about identity, freedom, and love, and it's like nothing you've read before.”— Bustle

Think Cinderella, but in Mexico, in the 1920’s. And instead of a handsome prince, there’s a handsome death god. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true. The atlas showed her the distance from the town to the city. She measured it with the tips of her fingers. One day.Casiopea is the eighteen-year-old granddaughter of a town elder. Despite his privileged status, questions over her paternity lead him to treat her like a slave, with his bullying grandson Martín adding to her misery. A dark, dazzling fairy tale . . . a whirlwind tour of a 1920s Mexico vivid with jazz, the memories of revolution, and gods, demons, and magic." --NPR Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucat n to the bright lights of Mexico City--and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. She longs to escape, and gets her chance one day upon finding a heap of bones inside an old discarded chest. Before her very eyes, those bones become Hun-Kamé, the Mayan god of death. With one of his bones embedded in her skin, Casiopea and Hun-Kaméare magically bound together, so he takes her along on a dangerous quest to enact revenge on his treacherous brother, Vacub-Kamé. The journey will change them both, forever.Do as they ask; we wouldn’t want them to say we are spongers,” Casiopea’s mother told her. Casiopea swallowed her angry reply because it made no sense to discuss her mistreatment with Mother, whose solution to every problem was to pray to God. Cirilo was a bitter man, with more poison in his shriveled body than was in the stinger of a white scorpion. Casiopea tended to him. She served his meals, ironed his clothes, and combed his sparse hair. When the old brute, who still had enough strength to beat her over the head with his cane when it pleased him, was not yelling for his grandchild to fetch him a glass of water or his slippers, her aunts and cousins were telling Casiopea to do the laundry, scrub the floors, and dust the living room. Avibrant story of grit, giddiness, and glory with a protagonist whose personality burns bright as a star. Casiopea Tun will capture your heart and draw you into a jewel-toned world of mythmaking and jazz music.” —Lara Elena Donnelly, author of the Amberlough Dossier trilogy The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark, one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore. Do as they ask; we wouldn't want them to say we are spongers," Casiopea's mother told her. Casiopea swallowed her angry reply because it made no sense to discuss her mistreatment with Mother, whose solution to every problem was to pray to God.