When I say, I love Historical Fiction, I mean THIS! This book was such an amazing read. An incredible retelling of the woman known to most Hispanics as "Malinche", a traitor to her kind. I was in awe and honored to have had early access to this title. The writing is outstanding. This retelling was overdue.

this one was so frustrating. it started off incredible, but it really does fizzle once the spaniards get involved. it honestly makes me wish the author went full fantasy instead of keeping the historical aspects, because, to be honest— i just didn’t care for them. i wanted to go back to the world before the spaniards… and most of the scenes with them, they aren’t even doing the full on colonizing yet! so it’s just doubly boring! but i did really love the writing and the first half, and i’m glad to see more indigenous stories in this subgenre

This was a great book! I love the plot and the pacing. I also love how they added in the Mexican history and mythology that was throughout the book. I enjoyed the writing style, and the way this book flowed. Overall super enjoyable!!!


Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Note: Goodreads is only giving me the option to review the audiobook. I read this book in print.

Wow, this book. Such an incredible concept and story. Chapa has taken the historical figure La Malinche (or Malinalli, Malinalxochitl, Malintzin, Marina), who is seen by history as a temptress and a traitor, and reset her story in a vibrant epic. Chapa's Malinalli is a complicated character shaped by grief and rage, desperate to save her people from not one but two tyrants, caught between a clash of two civilizations - so much more than the weak or seductive female archetype from our history books.

The prose took some time to get used to, but although it mostly tells rather than shows, the all-5-senses imagery was so descriptive that I really felt immersed in the beautiful and brutal ancient world. The indigenous mythology was woven masterfully into Malinalli's story and added a third dimension to everything. I thought about this book night and day.

But the ending -- the ending. It threw me off guard, and not in a good way. What should have felt like a tense, explosive climax felt more like a fizzle. Mali's actions and motivations became suddenly confusing (which perhaps was intentional, but I couldn't wrap my head around it) and it all went so fast that the conclusion didn't feel like one. I'd really love to talk to someone who loved the ending and get their perspective! But I found it confusing at best and unsatisfying at worst.

4 stars for gorgeous book with an inventive (and important) reimagining of history but a strange and abrupt conclusion.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC! All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that retelling element that I was looking for from the description. It uses the Mexican history and was wonderfully done. The characters were everything that I was expecting and thought the fantasy element weaved a great story. I was able to learn more about Mexican mythology and appreciated getting to read this. I enjoyed how good Veronica Chapa's writing was and can't wait for more.

Malinalli is a beautifully written retelling of La Malinche - vivid imagery, rich mythology and intricate magic are tied into this story and make it feel tangible and genuine. I liked that Malinalli was both flawed and endlessly motivated, though she was somewhat static and didn't change much through the course of the book. The side characters were also very flat and I would have liked to see some development in the rest of the cast.
The writing was really pretty and the first half of the book did a great job introducing the world of magic and priestesses. The second half, however, was inconsistently paced, and the writing seemed to exchange clarity for purple prose at times. I also felt like the ending was anticlimactic and didn't tie up any loose ends - it read like a summary of Malinalli's later years that you would see in a research paper, not a historical fantasy novel. Overall, though, this was a good book and a beautiful reimagination of Malinalli's story through her own eyes.