Soul Enchilada in Multiculturalism in YA,Fantasy, Sci FI,Paranormal and fun books ;p

May 29, 2012 The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-books-purchased, characters-kick-ass-heroines, omg-humorous, theme-magick, characters-black-heroines, genre-ya-fiction, omg-read-this-book-now, books-that-are-keepers, characters-biracial-heroines, sub-genre-urban-fantasy-faeries

Author David Macinnis Gill gets five stars not just for an amazing, hang-on-to-your hats read, but for populating his YA novel with teens of color who get to save the day, and the world. I loved how this novel was set in El Paso, Texas (a city I've been to several times) and Gill captures the sights, sounds and smells of a real place that straddles the line (and the Rio Grande) between the U.S. and Mexico with its strong Native American roots.

By the way, Mr. Gill is CAUCASIAN. I feel the need t Author David Macinnis Gill gets five stars not just for an amazing, hang-on-to-your hats read, but for populating his YA novel with teens of color who get to save the day, and the world. I loved how this novel was set in El Paso, Texas (a city I've been to several times) and Gill captures the sights, sounds and smells of a real place that straddles the line (and the Rio Grande) between the U.S. and Mexico with its strong Native American roots.

By the way, Mr. Gill is CAUCASIAN. I feel the need to point this out to all the lame authors out there who just can't wrap their small minds around writing characters of color, but have NO problems writing about vampires, angels and faeries. Gill writes about real people who just so happen to come from varying ethnic backgrounds who find themselves in an improbable situation.

Eunice "Bug" Smoot is the kind of heroine that is sadly missed in YA. She's on her own, having fallen on hard times. Yes she has attitude, but the attitude is merely a survival mechanism. I like her pride--that she'd rather work for a lousy pizza joint and live in the real life version of a roach motel rather than go on welfare. I also like that the romantic interest isn't made the raison d'etre of the story (unlike a great deal of YA books) Bug has her pride as well as her grandfather's classic 1958 Cadillac. Or does she?

Seems that dear ol' Papa C (as she calls him) made a deal with the devil, using her soul as collateral. Unfortunately, Papa C is dead and his soul out of reach, so guess who's next? When the bureaucratic-looking demon Mr. Beals comes to collect, Bug's hand-to-mouth but still relatively normal existence is thrown completely out of whack. She finds herself in sore need of some serious supernatural assistance, which she finds with her young supervisor, Pesto. Turns out Pesto belongs to a supernatural hunting agency called ISIS and handling demons is their specialty--that is unless said demon has "diplomatic immunity".

From there it's a roller-coaster ride of Faustian proportions as Bug, Pesto, ISIS and a colorful cast of characters do their damndest to save Bug's soul. There's humor, pathos and witty banter between the characters and Bug doesn't always have it all together.

Every character in Soul Enchilada (save for Beals and Old Scratch) come off like living, breathing if slightly left of center individuals. There's something refreshing about how Gill infuses Mexican culture, Native American myths, biblical lore and good ol' fashioned mythology into the narrative. The setting of El Paso works perfectly here, and even the Cadillac takes on a persona of its own. The action is over the top, but that's fine. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review