A review by stormlightreader
The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro

5.0

The vibe of this book is exactly what I have been looking for in a book set in Mexico and I just knew that V. Castro was going to be the one to deliver it!

Initially, Belinda didn't feel like a main character I was going to get on board with, but she got better as the story went on. Tanya is vile! Ugh, that woman. When an author can make me hate a person who is just words on a page, that is good writing. I've read a few Mexico books over the past week and a common theme in them is the way Mexicans are treated and spoken to or about. In this book, there are a number of infuriating examples including:
  • the disregard the wife of the American farm owner shows when the crime (committed on her land) is brought to her attention,
  • law enforcement commenting "ain't she ugly" upon seeing Milagros' mutilated body and saying that if Milagros was just barely alive they could've "come to some agreement" (presumably to make sure the perpetrators don't face punishment for her horrific murder)😑
The way that Milagros was murdered was horrific. It was reminiscent of the Rodolfo Soler lynching I read about in Fernanda Melchor's This Is Not Miami. Minus the cicadas, obviously.

I enjoy Castro's writing; the atmosphere, the weirdness, the Aztec mythology. I wasn't familiar with Ix Chel or Mictēcacihuātl (Lady of the Dead), so reading about them was fascinating! I always appreciate a book that makes me want to research people and events.  I'm so glad I went into this one after reading some of Castro's other work because it's easily my favourite by her and is one of my top reads of the year so far! 

I absolutely loved this quote:
"The scene was reminiscent of the founding of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico City as we call it now. When the wandering Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a Nopal cactus with a snake in its beak, they took it as a sign from their god, Huitzilopochtli, to build a great city there."