Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Journey to San Jacinto by Melodie A. Cuate, the second book in the Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk series and the sequel to Journey to the Alamo. There are light spoilers for this book in this review.
Let's get into the review!
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I like that Melodie A. Cuate decided to write from both perspectives of the war. It does a very good job of humanizing the Mexicans instead of vilifying them.
To parade the fighters at the Alamo as heroes is a bit much to me. They were brave, yes, but I wouldn't call them heroes. Neither them nor the Mexicans who fought in the battle were complete heroes.
In most books about the Alamo, the Mexican army and Santa Anna are the villains. They are horrible people. Now, Santa Anna did end up being a dictator, which is a bad thing, but to say all the Mexican army was evil is a bit of stretch, in my opinion.
This book, while not talking about Santa Anna, mentions some of the other Mexican army troops who fought in the war and humanized them in a way that other books do not. I found this to be very refreshing.
It showcases that not everyone who was a part of the Mexican army was evil. Some were just innocent bystanders, such as Diego (a Mexican drummer boy; an unnamed Mexican drummer boy supposedly died at San Jacinto; Melodie A. Cuate later decided to name the boy Diego).
I like that Mrs. Cuate decided to include both sides of the conflict instead of just writing from the perspective of the Texians. It's very educational. It was handled very well, and I appreciated the change of pace.
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The only thing I don't really like about this series so far is the fact that the events in the books are historically out of order. The first book was about the Alamo, the second San Jacinto, the third Gonzales, and the fourth Goliad.
I understand why the Alamo was first as it is the most famous battle in the Texas Revolution, however, I got very annoyed that San Jacinto came before Goliad. Historically, the order is: Gonzales, Alamo, Goliad, then San Jacinto.
So far, this is the only gripe I have with this series. We'll see if any other complaints pop up. I hope not.
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Overall, I really liked Journey to San Jacinto. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed continuing Hannah's, Nick's, and Jackie's story and am excited to read more books in this series.
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