Bindle Punk Bruja
by Desideria MesaGenres: Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Fantasy / Urban, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Gay
Published on September 13, 2022
Pages: 400
Format: eBook Source: Library
Boardwalk Empire meets The Vanishing Half with a touch of earth magic in this sexy and action-packed historical fantasy set in the luminous Golden Twenties from debut author Desideria Mesa, where a part-time reporter and club owner takes on crooked city councilmen, mysterious and deadly mobsters, and society’s deeply rooted sexism and racism, all while keeping her true identity and magical abilities hidden—inspired by an ancient Mexican folktale.
Yo soy quien soy. I am who I am.
Luna—or depending on who’s asking, Rose—is the white-passing daughter of an immigrant mother who has seen what happens to people from her culture. This world is prejudicial, and she must hide her identity in pursuit of owning an illegal jazz club. Using her cunning powers, Rose negotiates with dangerous criminals as she climbs up Kansas City’s bootlegging ladder. Luna, however, runs the risk of losing everything if the crooked city councilmen and ruthless mobsters discover her ties to an immigrant boxcar community that secretly houses witches. Last thing she wants is to put her entire family in danger.
But this bruja with ever-growing magical abilities can never resist a good fight. With her new identity, Rose, an unabashed flapper, defies societal expectations all the while struggling to keep her true self and witchcraft in check. However, the harder she tries to avoid scrutiny, the more her efforts eventually capture unwanted attention. Soon, she finds herself surrounded by greed and every brand of bigotry—from local gangsters who want a piece of the action and businessmen who hate her diverse staff to the Ku Klux Klan and Al Capone. Will her earth magic be enough to save her friends and family? As much as she hates to admit it, she may need to learn to have faith in others—and learning to trust may prove to be her biggest ambition yet.
When I was at the National Book Festival the Missouri booth had bookmarks out advertising this book. It worked because while I was sitting in a session I looked it up on my library website. They had the ebook available so I started reading immediately.
The premise reminded me a bit of Jordan Hawk’s Prohibition era fantasy novels that I like but with witches instead of shapeshifters.
This book gets into a lot of societal issues of the 1930s. There is racism. Rose is passing as white to try to build a better financial future. She is still in contact with her family but she lives separate from them. Her mother is adamant that she not speak Spanish to them because she doesn’t want to her develop an accent. Her brother Javier works in her bar but she has to deny her relationship to him especially whenever outsiders notice that she seems to value the opinion of a Mexican man.
There is sexism. Rose wants to expand but she needs a loan. She can’t get that without a man even though she has a successful business. She has a day job at a newspaper but she can only copy edit male reporters’ stories. Her female coworkers have domestic issues that are trivialized all the time.
“Not that I’m the first lady to walk into the newsroom with a shiner. If I were married, no one would think twice.”
There is homophobia. Rose befriends a gay white man who seeks out her family’s magic to remove his homosexuality. There is violence towards him in the book.
Rose is working hard to get ahead with all of these obstacles in her way. She also doesn’t have the magical skills that she feels that she should have. Her best skill is Charm. She uses it to coerce men to do what she wants but it doesn’t always work for her. She isn’t a powerful witch like her grandmother but her grandmother is weakening with age and Rose doesn’t know what to do.
I liked Rose. She’s sassy and knows what she wants. She’ll do anything to get it even if she doesn’t always think first and make the best decisions.
“Oh, stay. You’re already dressed for bed, and I can’t have a mostly nude man leaving my apartment at this hour.”
“Wait till morning so they can truly appreciate what you’ve accomplished?”
There is a sequel that I will probably check out also.
