#it makes the most sense seeing as hes santero

[classychassiss]

I was moving the sofa around to get to a cat toy and I found I THINK is probably my uncle's written blessing for the house ;-;

[siriuslyreads]

Ballad & Dagger by Daniel Jose Older: A Review

Title: Ballad & Dagger

Series: Outlaw Saints

Author: Daniel José Older

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Rating: 3/5

Release Date: May 3rd 2022

Format: Physical Book

Synopsis:

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. From the author of the award-winning Shadowshaper Cypher series comes the first novel in the Outlaw Saints duology--a brilliant story that will transport readers to a world where magic, myth, and gods reign over the streets of Brooklyn.

Review:

I gotta be upfront with y’all from the beginning. I did not like this book. Something about it kept me reading the entire things, but it just did not hit right for me. It seemed like there was something always just on the brink of being fantastic, but the twists and reveals never delivered on the promise. Even the twist at the ending seemed trite to me. I got the Owlcrate edition of this and I always try to give those special editions the most honest shot I can, but this didn’t deliver what I hoped for. I think I am the wrong audience for this book. Maybe if I was younger, or a POC and not white. I think the story and the lore of the book were well presented, and for a lot of people it would resonate well with them.

I think in the beginning you were supposed to feel for Mateo, a boy raised by his tia and his ghost aunt. His mother and father are off being doctors somewhere and he doesn’t see them often. But Mateo never seemed to struggle with these things. He had a loving family, he knew his mother and father cared for him, and he didn’t seem to care overly much that they were out of the picture. Indeed he seemed to mind more that when he was a child they would shepherd him around the world instead of letting him stay in Brooklyn and Little Madrigal. Mateo did not make sense to me and did not have a lot of depth. In the end he became this being that saved the world, but that did not tie in with who he was in the beginning. I understand character growth, and I understand that in these circumstances, Matteo was actually also the spirit of one of his people’s maker gods. But that should not mean that Mateo changed so completely that by the end of a book he is completely unrecognizable, especially since not much truly happened before he changed.

The first two thirds of this book are all about the politics and the issues between the ruling factions of the city, but honestly, I can still tell you nothing other than one of those factions was pirates? It wasn’t until Mateo was betrayed that the book even picked up speed, and honestly, I think we all expected that betrayal. Then once the book picked up speed, it did not slow down, but it also felt disjointed. Almost like the author took separate scenes and tried to piece them together with the middle bits, without a clear understanding of what the story was supposed to be.

So much of the story was talking about finding a way to resurrect San Madrigal from the ocean, but we never truly know anything about San Madrigal. Maybe that is the point honestly. We are viewing this world through someone who was too young to remember the sinking of San Madrigal, but it also felt as if this grand thing that the book was leading towards meant absolutely nothing to Mateo, and thus we as readers don’t really know why we should care either. I loved the story of Atlantis growing up, and I expected to feel some kind of way about San Madrigal, but by the end of the book, when Mateo and Chela are seeing the island for the first time, I felt nothing but bored.

And Chela, I did not understand the relationship between Mateo and Chela. There were no sparks leading up to it, nothing at all to indicate the interest. Mateo went from being scared of Chela because she killed someone in front of him, to being in love with her. It did not make sense.

This book felt altogether too long and too short. The politics and factions of the beginning should have been cut down. The interesting fast paced story of the end should have been stretched out. And Mateo and Chela should not have been together in this book until maybe, MAYBE the very end.