Review Detail

Into Dust is a story of a Latina girl with a superhero heritage. She doesn't know her dad is the famous vigilante Zarco Zancón. She doesn't know that the comics she loves to read are actually scenes that her dad experiences in his everyday life. What she does know is that she has been dreaming things, scary things- like her dad dying. She didn't expect for it to come true.

This story is exciting and easy to get into. Amy Quick Parrish writes a humorous but yet dangerous story. It all happens in the towns bordering México, so there is a lot of cartel, narcos, and dangerous situations going on where Janey lives. And because it happens near the border, there are a lot of Latinxs in the story, most of them are! This is something that I enjoyed, because I am Mexican myself. It is always nice to find more books that feature Latinxs as main characters. Of course, there is always the stereotype of all Mexicans being narcos and being on the cartels, which to be honest, I don't enjoy a lot, but I actually like the superhero aspect to the story where the hero has to fight the bad guys aka the narcos.

Written with two POVs, Janey's and Augusto's, the story develops into an adventurous and, actually, a day-to-day life of Janey in high school and making new friends and getting to know the guy who her dad asked him to protect his daughter. It also has some jaw-dropping moments where you will have to grab your seat; it will have some swoony moments where Augusto and Janey will make you go all heart eyes emoji.

Something that I didn't enjoy so much was the typical mean girl trope. I'm tired of that trope and actually want girls to support girls. To be honest, I do not know a lot about Letizia and the story didn't give me a lot to go on to get to know her more. The only thing I got from her is she was always angry at Janey for no apparent reason other than maybe she is a bruja because of her last name. She always did rude and mean things to Janey and this is what I am referring to the typical mean girl trope. We get it a lot in young adult books, and to be honest, for me I don't really enjoy it and wish for it to go away.

Yet the book actually appealed to me at the end. It's rather a fun and entertaining paranormal book where a girl has to claim her heritage as a vigilante to protect people and her family. I like the perfect Spanish translations and the fact that the author put the sentences in Spanish and didn't put some translations. The different traditions Mexican have - they were all there, like Dia de los Muertos and some legends it has. It's a entertaining story, sure to appeal to From Dusk till Dawn fans (but obviously more tame and not gory) and if you liked Not Your Sidekick and Superior (or any superhero book!)