Zorro

A child of two worlds the son of an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner and a Shoshone warrior woman young Diego de la Vega cannot silently bear the brutal injustices visited upon the helpless in late-eighteenth-century California.

–StoryGraph

MY REVIEW

I’ve been a fan of Zorro since I was a little kid, a mix of because of my Dad and late night Disney channel lol. That being said, it never felt like there was enough media for Zorro. I hadn’t been into comics at that point, and aside from the few movies, I just felt like I could have done with more. Not to mention our original Zorro stories are a little dated in some aspects so having something by Allende was great. She gives us a great background/origin story of Zorro and it feels a lot more authentic somehow even if Zorro isn’t real. (He is to me though lol, in my heart)

With a deeper history to give Diego, and therefore Zorro, Isabel gives a much more filled out character by the end of the book.

His motivations are made clear as is his bond with Bernardo who also gets some much needed background. Of course she’s made some differences to suit this story and they make sense, especially with Diego’s father. Plus, Diego’s mother, not only was she Native American but her mother and their tribe were able to shape this story too.

This is my first read by Allende, not to say I haven’t had my eye on her or her books on my TBR, just so happened this was the one I picked. She did a great job with little details, so much history and moving parts. She had Zorro, she had pirates, she had arcs to get Diego to where he should be, and she had a fantastic narrator through it all.

One thing I wasn’t too fond of was just how dry the childhood section of the story was. I actually wasn’t sure I would enjoy the book very much but the moment we left Diego and Bernardo’s childhood behind, it really changed the pacing and I was a big fan from there on out. This is fair warning, it might be a very slow or too slow a start for some of you. For me, she more than made up for it with their adventures in Spain and Diego’s later adventures in returning home.

I was almost afraid we wouldn’t get to see him be Zorro but even better than that was seeing how Zorro morphed and became part of a bigger picture that I can’t say much on because I never give spoilers lol. Last year I had a Zorro themed birthday, so, needless to say I was excited to read this and I hope for more Zorro media in general.

So, if you’re a fan of Zorro, if you feel like reading something on the historical side, I highly recommend this.

4/5 Cups of coffee from me, now I’ll go slash a ‘Z’ onto a side of a building after taking care of some injustices.