Lobizona: Wolves of No World, Book 1
- Garber's gorgeous novel combines the wonder of a Hogwarts-style magic school with the Twilight-esque dynamics of a hidden magical species that has strict rules about interacting with the human world.
In LOBIZONA, every time Manu has menstrual cramps her mother gives her special pills that knock her out for three days. In that time she dreams of a world of monsters and magic and wakes up feeling different. She's always been different, thanks to having pupils that look like tiny suns, but one month she grew three inches, another her vision became razor-sharp, and this month she woke up hearing even the faintest sound. She also woke up to seeing something strange on her apartment's rooftop: two people talking of hunting and giving off red smoke, one wearing a leather jacket in the Miami heat. She manages not to be seen, and her mother tells her to be careful. Manu and her mother are undocumented and have been in hiding for years after fleeing Argentina when Manu's father disappeared. She doesn't want trouble. But trouble comes when there's an ICE raid at her mother's work and Manu barely escapes. Manu sees the man in the leather jacket again and, on instinct, climbs into the back of his truck in secret. She jumps out of the truck in the Everglades and is soon discovered by a boy her age with the same wild eyes. He offers to take her back to "the group" for orientation and she plays along, wondering if she will finally find out the secrets about who she is.
Some people ARE illegal. Lobizonas do NOT exist. Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.
Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past-a mysterious "Z" emblem-which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past.
A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizon, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S.
residency that's illegal. . ..it's her entire existence.
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