The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz follows two main characters, both navigating a world where they are seen as lesser beings because of their mixed heritage, both human and other.
Reina is a nozariel, possessing animal-like ears and a tail, though also part human. She is used to living in a world where people look at her with disgust for these animal features, and journeys to find her grandmother in the hopes of finding herself a better life and a place to belong. However, she is grievously injured on her journey and it takes her grandmothers dark magic to keep her alive. Reina begins to serve her grandmother, desperately wanting to learn some of her dark magic, and has to navigate the even darker path this brings her down, all in the hopes of pleasing her grandmother and finding a place and a people to be a part of.
Eva is a valco, another human hybrid that is looked down upon by the full humans. Eva’s journey finds her getting deep into forbidden magic, known as “devil magic” by the townsfolk she lives amongst. Not only is she reviled for her valco nature, but also for her interest in this power which she has to keep as much of a secret as she possibly can as a result.
The Sun and the Void is a fantastic work of fantasy, there was so much world building and such a creative, unique world created which I loved. I will say in the beginning, this felt a little overwhelming at times because it felt like there was just so much information being thrown at the reader in a very quick manner, but once I got passed that it was a wonderful read. It was such a different world, with different magic and I loved every bit of these aspects of this book as they kept me enthralled. Learning bits and pieces about this world, especially the magic and the different creatures was a highlight of reading this and I loved the steady stream of knowledge.
As well, though Eva and Reina were both going through similar crises of identity and figuring out who they were as independent souls, they both had such different journeys and stories to get to the end result that I found both their stories equally engrossing and actually never had a preference of one over the other. Their points of view were so different in the story being told that it never felt redundant. Though their storylines do eventually come together, I found they had very different endings and both were satisfying in their own ways. I truly enjoyed this read and can’t wait to see what else Gabriela Romero Lacruz comes up with!
