MEMORIES OF LUCINDA ECO

In Barnes’ debut YA novel, a Mexican teenager takes up witchcraft in an attempt to lift a curse placed on her grandmother.

Lucinda Eco, 15, lives in modern-day Punta Colonet, a small town with dirt roads and no streetlights in Baja California North, Mexico. The people of Punta Colonet live in fear of local gang boss El Jaguar, a self-styled brujo, or witch, who practices dark magic. During an altercation between Lucinda and her grandmother and El Jaguar, the boss’s Rottweiler attacks Lucinda. Abuelita, a bruja herself, transforms into a puma and kills El Jaguar. She then falls under a magic curse that takes away her memories and starts draining her of life. The doctors assume she’s suffered a stroke, but Lucinda knows better. Teaming up with her fashion-conscious best friend, Eva Navarro, and their classmate Mateo Morales (El Jaguar’s abused son), the teenager gains access to another realm from which they can enter Abuelita’s fading memories. Back in 1967, Abuelita was a teen herself—17-year-old Herminia—working as a maid in Santa Rosalía, Baja California South. Bored with her regular job, she takes a one-off commission guiding American tourists to see Cochimí Indian cave paintings in the nearby mountains. Here she encounters Don Esteban Ríos, an unpleasant shaman who instructs her on the three types of “allies” (animal spiritual guardians) would-be brujos may bond with to regain power stripped from humanity ages ago. Herminia also meets, and begins a tumultuous courtship with, Don Esteban’s moody apprentice, Faustino Arce, a revolutionary. When this relationship sours, Herminia puts her powers to good use in a clinic for abused women and abandoned children, one of whom is the young El Jaguar. Can Herminia find the witch who’s been experimenting on local children? Can Lucinda uncover who cursed her Abuelita?

Barnes alternates chapters between Lucinda’s present-day perspective and Abuelita Herminia’s POV in the 1960s. The plot threads wind through an overarching mystery, which itself is artfully revealed. These dual narratives deliver plenty of revelations, not only in terms of plot twists or character development, but also through unexpected slants of perspective—such as when a chapter about Abuelita is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Lucinda, Eva, and Mateo. Barnes’ polished prose engages throughout, shading its minor characters and capably portraying Lucinda’s and Herminia’s two distinct teen personalities, as well as the familial culture of Mexico and the disquieting spiritual magic of brujería. Lucinda’s home life feels very natural (at odds with her relatives, though always respectful of them), as does Herminia’s coming-of-age in a Mexico influenced by both U.S. hippie culture and exploitative business interests. From the moment Herminia encounters lizards with their mouths and eyes sewn shut, the Latin American–flavored magic makes its presence felt. The result is an ominous, dreamy tale that grabs readers and pulls them into the multidecade story. The denouement, perhaps inevitably, does a slight injustice to the buildup, but readers will nonetheless happily immerse themselves in the journey.

A resonant and unsettling fantasy steeped in small-town Mexican culture.