Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends.

Goodreads description: Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in SHADOWSHAPER, an action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent. Comparing this to Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments is a disservice to Older. Everything here is BETTER, from the dialogue to the authentic and believable characters to the quick plot pacing. This will be such an easy sell to 8th-HS. Kids will see themselves in Sierra and her friends and family and hopefully this won't be the last we see her. Highly recommend the audio book - Anika Noni Rose gave a tone-perfect performance.

I love the Shadowshaper world and history. I like the historical secret that Sierra finds out. I like the people Sierra gets to help her fight the bad guy. I also like the way she is able to fight for her culture as she is growing in her Shadowshaper abilities.

Much better the second time around! The audiobook bring this story to life. Enjoyed!

I loved the setting, but found Sierra a deeply under-written character and the magic system to be also inadequately built out. I wanted to like it more than I actually did, I mostly got bored with it.