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The 2016 novel Labyrinth Lost is the first book in a new series called Brooklyn Brujas by Zoraida Cordova. Alejandra Mortiz is a powerful bruja that doesn't want her magical powers. At her Deathday celebration Alex tries to rid herself of her powers, but instead she puts her family in danger. Alex and a mysterious boy named Nova along with her best friend Rishi go into a magical and dangerous land to try to save her family.

The sequel was released in 2018 and is called Bruja Born.


Labyrinth Lost features examples of these tropes:

  • All Your Powers Combined: Essentially what makes an encantrix an encantrix. Most brujos have only one talent like healing or illusion or weather work. An encantrix has them all, and then some.
  • Badass Normal: Rishi has no magic, but she keeps up with Alex and Nova just fine even in a Magical Land.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Alex and Nova fight a lot while also checking each other out and getting pretty touchy.
  • Bisexual Love Triangle: Heroine Alex spends the entire book having to decide whether to be with her best friend Rishi or bad boy Nova. With it being a choice between a friend she's known for a long time or a passionate relationship. She eventually chooses Rishi, with Nova and her settling for just being friends.
  • Cast from Lifespan: Nova never received the blessing, so his magic sucks away his life with every use.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Nova, in spades, from growing up in an abusive family, in extreme poverty, and never receiving his ancestors' blessing.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Typical for a work based on Latin American culture, respect and veneration for the dead, the occult, and the frightening things in life are celebrated by all except Alex, who eventually learns to embrace them as well. It's telling that the first ritual we see is a necromantic ritual involving Alex's dead aunt that would be nightmarish in any other media, but is simply a part of honoring the dead.
  • Disappeared Dad: Alex has very different feelings about her father leaving than her mother and sisters.
  • The Fair Folk: While apparently a little it more in tune with human morality, the Meadowkin fit the bill.
  • First Girl Wins: Rishi ends up with Alex
  • Glamour Failure: The Meadowkin's feast is rotten fruit covered in maggots and their silver bracelets are actually painful shackles from the Devourer.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Alex, because her experiences with magic have traumatized her from a very young age. When Nova offers her a way to be rid of it, she jumps without thinking with terrible consequences.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After Nova and Rishi see Alex naked she asks them to never mention this again.
  • Love Redeems: Nova ceases helping The Devourer for Alex. Nova genuinely regrets hurting Alex and working for The Devourer because he has fallen in love with her. He tells her that he can never make up for what he did, but he's going to try.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Alex's reaction to what her attempt to lose her powers does to her family.
  • Posthumous Character: There are a few of these with the most important being Mama Juanita and Aunt Rosaria.
  • Rescued from the Underworld: Alex's goal is to journey to Los Lagos and free her family from the one that took them.
  • Spell Book: The Book of Cantos contains all of the cantos and magical knowledge of Alex's family.
  • To Hell and Back: While Los Lagos isn't exactly Hell, it's very dangerous to be there if you don't know what you're doing. Made all the more dangerous due to the Labyrinth's master twisting the land, enslaving the inhabitants and letting monsters roam free.
  • Troubled, but Cute: Nova again. It is deliberate
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Alex is an Encantrix, that is, the most powerful bruja of her generation, and essentially The Chosen One. However, she spent most of her life avoiding her magic, and doesn't have a slightest idea about what she is doing as a result

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