First published 2019
Lula Mortiz survives a bus crash. Her classmates do not. Neither does Maks, her boyfriend, the one person who made her feel seen while her sister's magic left invisible wounds no healing spell could touch. Lula is a bruja born to fix things, and she cannot leave Maks in the ground. She goes to her sisters, she defies Death, and she pulls him back. It works. Mostly. Maks returns, but he is not the only one. The ritual drags others along with him, and what comes back is not entirely what was lost. Now Lula is responsible for a small army of the undead loose in Brooklyn, and the magic she used to save one person is unraveling in ways she cannot control. The Deos do not forgive easily. The New York Times Book Review called it "organ-meat" fantasy and meant it as a compliment. Bruja Born is the second book in Zoraida Córdova's Brooklyn Brujas series, which follows three witch-born sisters navigating power, family, and the cost of love in their own neighborhood.
Genres: fantasy, contemporary, young-adult, dark-fantasy, urban-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, gritty, haunting
Tropes: consequences, cost-of-magic, found-family, grief-driven-choices
Setting: Brooklyn, New York
352 pages · Paperback · Sourcebooks Fire
Content warnings: death