Daniel Jose Older's Ballad and Dagger
So this is apparently the first YA (instead of middle grade) book in the Rick Riordan presents line; I was interested in reading it because of the worldbuilding. It’s set in a neighborhood in Brooklyn where the people who previously lived on a mysterious Caribbean island now live in diaspora, because their island sank fifteen years ago. And the culture is so cool—it was founded by a Sephardic rabbi, a Santero (priest of Santeria), and a pirate! And they took in escaped slaves and European Jews fleeing pogroms and all sorts of other ppl! I was super into all of that. The plot, perhaps less so? The protagonist is a teen boy who only cares about music and feels like an outsider in the culture because he and his parents were often away, but then it turns out he’s the incarnation of one of the island's three spirits, and magic and politics and stuff all come into play. (Plus romance, with the rabbi's daughter who is the incarnation of their goddess of destruction.) I /loved/ the first half, but things definitely falter in the second, and some of the other characters (cool pansexual best friend and her non-binary love interest in particular) are kind of dropped. Still, I am always interested in Jewish fantasy and this is a really fun example. B/B+.
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