e-Audio, 11:41:17
Narrated by: Lee Osorio
Release Date: May 3, 2022
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Read from: May 9-13, 2022
Outlaw Saints, #1
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Violence, Death, Murder, Blood
For Readers Interested In: Fantasy, Pirates, Mythology, Sparkly Covers, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, YARick Riordan presents Daniel José Older’s music-and-magic-filled YA urban fantasy about two teens who discover each other and their powers during a political battle within a diaspora community.
Almost sixteen years ago, Mateo Matisse’s island homeland disappeared into the sea. Weary and hopeless, the survivors of San Madrigal’s sinking escaped to New York.
While the rest of his tight-knit Brooklyn diaspora community dreams of someday finding a way back home, Mateo–now a high school junior and piano prodigy living with his two aunts (one who’s alive, the other not so much)–is focused on one thing: getting the attention of locally-grown musical legend Gerval. Mateo finally gets his chance on the night of the Grand Fete, an annual party celebrating the blended culture of pirates, Cuban Santeros, and Sephardic Jews that created San Madrigal all those centuries ago.
But the evil that sank their island has finally caught up with them, and on the night of the celebration, Mateo’s life is forever changed when he witnesses a brutal murder by a person he thought he knew.
Suddenly Mateo is thrust into an ancient battle that spans years and oceans. Deadly secrets are unraveled and Mateo awakens a power within himself–a power that not only links him to the killer but could also hold the key to unlocking the dark mystery behind his lost homeland.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Anytime there’s a new Rick Riordan Presents novel you can bet that I’m going to try my hardest to read it as soon as I can. And I did that with this one. I requested it as soon as I was able to. But when I tell you it was nothing like I expected! Daniel Older has been a fave since Shadowshaper so I knew I had to get to it soon.
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, or have even just happened upon my blog more than once, you probably know that I LOVE almost everything that comes from the RRP line and I ALWAYS get so immersed into the mythology that I go and look up more info about it as soon as I finish. But this time was different. Why was it different you ask? Not because it wasn’t interesting or bad, but because this was the product of Older’s amazing writing skill. He made up this entire world with all the gods and all the information and everything. I don’t know about you all, but I think that shows off his skill as an author. There is no way he could make up all this and not be considered great. I did feel like the whole story was a bit of an infodump, but it wasn’t enough for me to feel like I wasn’t enjoying the story. But really, I thought he was allowed something great because he weaved multiple myths together to get this one. I think he deserved that grace.
The plot was crazy. There were several scenes I had to re-listen to because I just couldn’t fathom the things that were happening. Like I said, I did feel like it was a bit info dumpy in some places, and I think it could have been thinned out a bit. But as far as the flow, because of the info dumping, it made everything go faster? I think if it had been spread out over the whole book, I think it would have been a lot longer than 12 hours.
The one thing I didn’t care for tho, was the characters. Maybe it’s because of how I was (am*) judging the characters by his other characters in his other series, but they were nowhere near as good as them. Or maybe I’m just salty that we only got Mateo’s POV and I would have LOVED to see more from The Destruction. But it could also be because of all the things we learned about in this book, since we weren’t in Mateo’s skin we didn’t need to know how everyone else felt about this story. I’m hoping there’s another POV in the next one.
This was nothing like I expected it to be. But then again, Older does things like that. Because Lord knows I wasn’t expecting the love I had for Shadowshaper. Here’s to hoping that I love this next installment as well. (And that the thing with abuelita doesn’t come into play and tjat je wpi;dm
ted. Basically I just need to see he’s in good hands.)
Overall, I give this
