Sometimes you read books with characters gaining special powers and after the journey to gain the powers the adventure is pretty tame or disjointed. Sometimes the story is awesome all the way through (Cassidy Jones, Matt Archer). With Jaguar Sun I found the start – the discovery of Maya’s ‘difference’ – a little tedious, but I think mainly because it was very high-school based, with all the angst of teenage crushes and bullies and apparent misfits. Having got over that phase, the rest of the story was awesome!
Maya turns out to be a shifter (which she sees as a huge stigma early in the book), and not only that, she may well be the one who is cited in a Mayan prediction regarding the end of the world. And that is due to take place on the winter solstice just a few months ahead. Friends turn out to be enemies, staid and boring people turn out to be friends, and some buddies turn out to be about as awesome as Maya is herself. All the ingredients for the prediction have been gathered together just waiting for the time to be right.
Once past the discovery of powers the characters settle down and become well-drawn, the plot fairly sizzles along and I found it hard to put the ebook down. I trust that Martha Bourke’s research on Mayan culture is good, since she acknowledges help in this respect, and it hangs together for me, compared with other legends and cultures. It probably helps if you understand a little Spanish, although Maya herself doesnt, yet it doesn’t appear to stop people talking to her in it.
From at one stage wondering if I really wanted to finish the book, I’m now looking forward to the next challenge in her quest. I’d recommend Jaguar Sun to everyone from about 10 and up who doesn’t mind a little mushy stuff! (mushy=love interest, in case that doesn’t translate!)