Bindle Punk Bruja

An historical fantasy set in 1920s Kansas City in the jazz district? Yes please. The story includes so many elements and real life characters like Pendergast, Capone and a member of the Kessler family as well as workers in the night club that I got a bit overwhelmed and none of the character got the kind of development that would make them fully fleshed out. Even Rose felt scattered. I think there was such good stuff in the book but it really needed a good pass with an editor to make the story cleaner and the pace sharper. There were sections that meandered and seemed to cover the same problems over and over. There was a side story of Rose's relationship with a guy from St. Louis that felt genuinely superfluous. I can tell the writer did a ton of research and knows a lot about the history of Kansas City but all those details did not need to be in the book.

There was mention of bruja in NKC that dabbled in curse magic but it felt so weird to include a nebulous “them” after so many other characters were named specifically.

I suppose I'm critical because I liked so much about the book but the parts that felt like a slog, repetitive or “who is that now?” leaves me unlikely to recommend it to anyone even though I so want to.