‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’ Wins Sunburst Award

2020 Still TRASH But We Love Hearing About Our Favorite Writers Outchea Thriving!

I was looking online trying to track where my copy of Mexican Gothic was (since the USPS IS WRECKED) when I heard the good news! Silvia Moreno-Garcia ‘s Gods of Jade and Shadow (Del Rey)–a well-loved book is bringing home the awards! “Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination,” the author’s offering from last year was awarded in the Adult category for the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.

Gods of Jade and Shadow is a brightly colored affair with that touch of seductive darkness…”

Photo Credit: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Sunburst Jury commented:

“Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an exquisite genre blender with a painfully human story at its heart. Gods of Jade and Shadow masterfully mixes together fairy tales, romance, historical fantasy, a coming-of-age feminist story, and a lavishly detailed odyssey through Mexican history and mythology. It is truly a tale of the fantastic, defying categorization while celebrating the magic of imagination itself.”

“Reading Gods of Jade and Shadow was like meeting up with an old friend after a while–a comforting, ecstatic feeling that fills you from the inside out.”

Moreno-Garcia’s work beat out these four other titles that were shortlisted for the same category:

As a NEBULA AWARD FINALIST, Gods of Jade and Shadow was the 2020 American Library Association Reading List winner in the Fantasy category. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR the book recently is a winner in the best fantasy category for the 2020 BooktubeSFF Awards. Word?! WHO’S NEXT?!?!?!? Such great news fills my heart. In today’s world, I need any crumbs of good news that I can get. And this? This is the equivalent of a damn cake!

Photo Credit: Erren’s Kitchen

Last year, I devoured this book in a few nights while on vacation. Believe it or not, I was on a cruise ship (Remember those? before ‘Rona?). Each night I would come back to my cabin and jump in bed, eager to read more of the adventure of Casiopea and The Mayan God of Death, in his human body.

With each page that brought me closer to the end, I mourned. Yet, I wouldn’t dare stop reading and be left wondering who made it to the Black throne and whose life was forfeit. I wouldn’t mind taking another trip, being on another ship with this book close to my heart.

I’m so compelled to once again re-read this odyssey that had everything from the bright lights of Mexico City to the darkness of the Mayan underworld. I wouldn’t mind being rocked to sleep by waves big and deep again, with my eyes too heavy to continue reading of the young woman who dared to live and who dared to not give the God of the Underworld his new heart’s desire.

Gods of Jade and Shadow is a tremendous read, deserving of every award that it has won. It is a novel that was one of my favorite books back in 2019, and I’m glad that the book and its author, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, are starting to receive their flowers!

Read our site’s review of the book here.

Follow the author on Twitter, her personal website, and check out her Patreon here.

See this essay Moreno-Garcia wrote about some of the places that inspired the locales of her book.

Read our site’s other literature reviews on our Literature tag. Follow our bookstagram to see what we’re currently reading.

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  • Carrie McClain is writer, editor and media scholar. Other times she's known as a Starfleet Communications Officer, Comics Auntie, and Golden Saucer Frequenter. Nowadays you can usually find her avoiding Truck-kun and forgetting her magical girl transformation device. She/Her

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