Content warnings: racism, sexism, some sexual abuse, death, physical abuse

Woman of Light is the story across five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the America West in the areas of The Lost Territory and Denver. The main character, Luz Lopez, is a tea leaf reader and finds her visions becoming stronger and bringing her to her past family. We follow Luz through 1930s Denver and her experiences as a non-Anglo person.

I loved the premise and learning about stories that have been buried. I recognize that a story like this NEEDS to be out in the world to be celebrated, uplifted, cherished, and shared. I cannot underscore enough the importance of own voices, especially those that are different that those who have historically held the power. The imagery invoked in this novel was absolutely astounding and beautiful. Luz was sweet, strong, and smart. For all those reasons, I absolutely loved it.

But, I struggled with the structure. To me, there wasn't really a plot, at least in terms of beginning/middle/end. I recognize that my view of stories and how they are structured is not the only view or form. However, this was a more fluid story in that the story isn't necessarily bound to the confines of the book, that stories continue before and after the snapshot we're privy to. Which I appreciated but struggled with as overall, this was a mishmash stop/start novel. I did not mind the jumping through different generations but sometimes the multiple jumps in one scene were disjointed and jarring. I also found higher than average grammatical mistakes. I always give some leeway as the review process will not catch everything but this was more than normal.

All in all, I didn't hate it but I didn't love. Very middle of the road for me.