It’s 1965 and readers get a glimpse into the aftermath of Zora’s frantic flight to San Francisco. She’s gone now, and her secrets have been hidden from her granddaughter, Blake. Not entirely, she’s aware of her family’s magic and she has “just enough.” Nothing cool like Zora, when she touches objects she gets glimpses of their memories. And while she does wish she could do more, she has a different sort of magic-her art which she is hustling to get recognized with a prestigious internship if only her gender and her race didn’t count against her.

But the magic which she thought was just enough is suddenly growing, expanding to full-on visions of the past with a mysterious girl trapped in a mirror that unleashes Blake on a dangerous mission to uncover and stop her family’s curse.

Just as with Zora’s book, there is a nice focus on the importance of the arts, specifically drawing and how much it means to Blake. It’s a different kind of magic where she feels most powerful and connected while also sharing the beauty/terror she sees throughout the world. It’s also helpful as it allows her to study the visions that come through her dreams and parse out what the signs are telling her.

However, as her magic grows, she becomes overwhelmed by the push-pull of forces inside her that sap away her artistic ability for magic has a price much like the curse that comes in threes.

Readers will enjoy the twisty mystery that adds some horror movie atmosphere with ghosts following Blake around with plenty of red herrings and twists to build up the suspense. There’s the addition of more lore that reveals the secret society of snakes and crows and the danger they actually present. Hint, it’s more than just stealing artifacts.

But its the characters that matter most as Cervantes continues the quartet’s coming of age themes and the consequences of broken promises.

Blake is a sweet girl despite the tragedy that has touched most points of her life. When learning about the family curse, and the potential of that being the cause of so much pain and death in her family, she becomes to determine to stop it.

Part of it is just Blake trying to protect her family, part of it is universal teenhood overconfidence as Blake’s growing powers makes her think that she can handle everything herself. It comes from a good place but it’s clear that she’s overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start. It doesn’t help that she’s distracted by the presence of new love which can be an intense experience that is only prompts her powers.

Luckily, she has her family behind her but even they have their secrets beyond the family curse and magic mirror. The problem with secrets is that it leaves each generation more removed from the facts and history before them. If only they knew who Elva was, then they might understand more about the girl in the mirror or at least, able to guess. The book delivers important lessons on how their good intentions to protect her has only muddled the truth and made Blake hesitate and confused when fully accessing her powers.

Furthermoer, it didn’t even prevent the danger but just created more lies when they could have focused on helping the family. They needed to work together, not let fear stop them. The family aspect is the strongest and there was a good amount of new love and female friendship but the latter gets the shortest shrift which is too bad since I liked Olivia’s character.

I also wished there had been more about Blake’s intersectional opportunity loss and the bruja traditions from her Mexican side. While it’s an important plot point, it feels like the importance to Blake’s identity was vague compared to how African magic traditions were incoporated into Zora’s story. Same with the historical setting. Yes, there was mention of pop culture references and fashions, and of course, MLK but it I didn’t feel like I was sucked into the past like I was previously.

Still, it is a solid entry to the series with an awesome cliffhanger that makes me excited to see how the fmaily curse will be resolved.