Book Review: “Lobizona” by Romina Garber

Date Read:

December 4th, 2020 – December 27th, 2020

Rating:

Format:

Physical Hardback

Summary:

Some people ARE illegal.

Lobizonas do NOT exist.

Both of these statements are false.

Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who’s on the run from her father’s Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.

Until Manu’s protective bubble is shattered.

Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past–a mysterious “Z” emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.

As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it’s not just her U.S. residency that’s illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.

Review:

Trigger warnings for ICE raids involving police brutality, descriptions of heavy menstruation and intense menstrual pain, brief reference to rape described as a “violation”, drugging of a minor, fantastical metaphors that parallel racism, xenophobia, and transphobia, overt sexism and homophobia, and graphic violence.

Content warning for frequent references to Harry Potter.

Having already read this author’s Zodiac series, Lobizona’s slow pacing didn’t surprise me. Romina Garber uses the first two sections of the book to set up parallels between the human world and Septimus culture, establishing how Manu continuously feels like an outcast wherever she goes. While I understand why the reveal regarding Manu’s identity as a lobizona – female werewolf – needs a slow build-up, such understanding didn’t make the pacing less frustrating. I knew she was a werewolf before I picked up the book. The title, summary, and my bare minimum understanding of Spanish gave it away. So, a majority of my reading experience included me impatiently waiting for the reveal and wishing for the love triangle to not last all series long like the one in the Zodiac series.

Luckily, the social commentary made the slower parts bearable. Fantasy readers often turn to the genre for escapism, but Garber uses this fantasy world to illustrate that limited, exclusionary ideas spur misery for those who don’t fit in, noting at one point through dialogue: “Sometimes reality strays so far from what’s rational that we can only explain it through fantasy” (page 36). Through this fantasy setting, she discusses how U.S. immigration laws enforce such systemic abuse, creating overtly sexist, violent, and limiting laws for the Septimus to exaggerate how America often fails immigrants, women, and LGBT+ people. Many of the discussions about half-bred Septimus and lobizonas use language and imagery often associated with real-life social issues, such as people asking Manu why she didn’t “come out” as a lobizona and her having to decide between going into the brujas’ or lobizones’ changing room.

Though Lobizona’s pacing made it fall short of my initial expectations, it doesn’t deter me from continuing the series. The necessary secrecy limited my connection to the characters and decreased most of the action until the last twenty or so pages. However, once all the secrets come to light, the side characters prove that they’re trustworthy, loyal friends for Manu. They have the potential to form a lovable friend group. I can’t wait to see what adventures and commentary Romina Garber has planned for Cazadora.