The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark, one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.
“A spellbinding fairy tale rooted in Mexican mythology . . . Gods of Jade and Shadow is a magical fairy tale about identity, freedom, and love, and it’s like nothing you’ve read before.”—Bustle
NEBULA AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Tordotcom • The New York Public Library • BookRiot
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
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6 books in catalog
Re-imagining classic horror, dark fantasy, and historical noir through Mexican folklore and history, speculative fiction has found new depth in books like Mexican Gothic. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author, editor, and publisher whose versatile bibliography spans a wide array of subgenres, from 1950s jazz-infused urban fantasy to 1920s Mayan mythology.
Known for combining distinct period settings with gothic atmosphere and cultural heritage, her work has earned major speculative fiction accolades, including the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy awards.
Born on April 25, 1981, in Baja California, Mexico, Moreno-Garcia grew up in various locations throughout the country. Her parents worked at radio stations, surrounding her with extensive vinyl record collections, while stories from her great-grandmother in Hidalgo inspired an early appreciation for oral storytelling. After discovering classic horror literature through Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft as a child, she moved to Canada in 2004, later settling in Vancouver and earning a Master of Arts in Science and Technology Studies from the University of British Columbia.
Describing herself as "Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination," Moreno-Garcia began publishing short fiction in the mid-2000s and expanded into editing and publishing through Innsmouth Free Press. She edited notable horror anthologies, including Cthulhurotica and the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (released in the United States as Cthulhu's Daughters). She published her debut novel, Signal to Noise, in 2015, establishing a pattern of exploring a distinct subgenre with each new project.
Moreno-Garcia's approach to writing is marked by genre fluidity, deliberately shifting styles, eras, and narrative structures between books rather than repeating established templates. Her narratives frequently reframe standard Western literary motifs—such as Lovecraftian mythos, vampire lore, or mad scientist tropes—through Mexican history, mythology, and regional folklore.
Central themes across her catalog include the impacts of colonialism, social class divisions, family secrets, and cultural displacement. Grounded in meticulous historical research, her stories balance vivid atmospheric world-building with nuanced characterization across various historical periods, including Jazz Age Mexico, the 1950s silver-mining estates, and 1990s Mexico City.
