Melissa (thereaderandthechef)'s Reviews > The Seventh Sun

Unfortunately, The Seventh Sun is my biggest bookish disappointment of the year.

And *whispers* it is not an Own Voices book.

As a history lover, particularly about my own culture (I am Mexican and I live in Mexico), The Seventh Sun just did not do my people's rich culture & history justice. In fact, this book tried to erase Mexicas (because it keeps being promoted as Aztec when the real term should be Mexica). It draws from several Mesoamerican cultures and smashes them all together + Egyptian too into the "Chicome" people whose lives depend on blood sacrifices to keep their gods happy. And no one objects to the blood sacrifices except for a young princess who *surprisingly* has Christian views/morality that don't fit AT ALL the time and place of the book. Won't even start on the plot itself (the trials were only TWO and super weak?!?!), questionable romance, girl-on-girl hate, and let's not forget our perfect main character (Mayana) who is innocent and ALWAYS right.

---

Edit: The Seventh Sun is obviously a Fantasy book with fictional people (OF COURSE) but this does not erase the fact that someone who is not #ownvoices (aka not from Mesoamerican descent/Indigenous) is writing outside their lane. This is still appropriating culture & you will never be able to properly represent our culture. It is NOT your story to tell nor to profit from.

And if your work was HEAVILY influenced by our history, then sure, you can claim "it's fantasy and should not be seen as historically accurate" because fiction is always like that and we do know the representation is not going to be accurate. In fact, it's probably going to be harmful. But if the presentation and marketing uses our history & culture to boost your sales, criticism will always be valid.

We are in 2020 and the book community is constantly pointing out why it's wrong to appropriate another culture. Why is it so hard to understand? :(

---

This is another *gentle* reminder that you CANNOT insert Christian morality/values into a book about ancient civilizations because that is the CONQUEROR'S POV (aka colonialists). This is not right, particularly when the main character is supposedly from those cultures. Again, it's a big NOPE.

And quick history lesson: this story says it is inspired by Aztec mythology, but that's actually wrong. MEXICA mythology inspired this book. It's actually a disservice to call Mexicas "Aztecs" since, in short words, Mexicas were Aztec descendants who were oppressed by them, which led them to abandon their oppressors and later on build their own empire (Tenochtitlán​​).

But *sigh*, history loves to erase Mexicas and call them Aztecs. They are not interchangeable. And it's sad how everyone keeps making this mistake.

Overall, The Seventh Sun is just hurtful and offensive, it just portrays these ancient civilizations at their worst, just to make way to a character that shows no love or respect to their ways, This is why Indigineous stories should be left alone if you are not part or descended from their community.