Parents' Guide to Lucha of the Forgotten Spring

This fantasy duology may have started with too many ideas brewing, but this installment remedies that with a focus on saving a town from drug addiction and the natural world from destruction. This time, confusing mythologies take a back seat to Lucha's personal journey. She returns to her hometown to destroy the drug that destroyed her family and finds community and purpose. Two women in her life, Cruz and Paz, pull her in opposite directions, toward community and the divine. Lucha struggles to find the right path for her as those two worlds merge in jarring ways. The town endures floods, famine, fires, and blighted rabid zombie-like creatures because the mythological world is out of balance. Lucha's meditative journeys to plead the goddess Almudena for help are also intriguing and laced with tension as reality blurs with the dreamworld—author Tehlor Kay Mejia could have developed this idea much more, and made it clearer to the reader. Scenes that feature more action could also use clearer descriptions and details to make visualizing them easier, especially during the climactic action. The story is most clear and compelling in its moments of conviction. Certain poignant scenes really stand out, like when Lucha talks Cruz out of keeping the last brick of Olvido. And when Lucha battles with herself over the goddess' power. All this assures that Lucha and the Forgotten Spring will definitely be remembered.