Just Your Average Cosmic Struggle with Humanity at Stake: A QUETZAL’S LABYRINTH Talk with Karla Valenti

So…. I don’t wanna brag… but I wanna brag. I’ve got this really killer writing group. It’s here in the Chicago area and it contains some stellar members. One of them may have missed her calling as an editor, actually. You know the kind of person I mean. The sort who has such a firm, concise method of giving notes that I’m just kind of in awe of her. I am speaking, naturally, about today’s guest, Karla Valenti. It isn’t just that Karla’s a Pura Belpré Award-winning author. It isn’t just that nobody writes fantasy the way that she does. A lot of it is, instead, the simple fact that whenever there’s a new Valenti novel on the horizon, it is an EVENT. Today, we celebrate one such event. Quetzal’s Labyrinth comes out September 1st and is a marvelous mash-up of Aztec gods and the occasional sassy rubber chicken. Or, put another way:

“From the Pura Belpré Award–winning author of Lola comes an action-packed middle grade fantasy where Aztec mythology crashes into everyday life. When twelve-year old Diego discovers ancient gods are real, he must journey into a deadly labyrinth to stop a vengeful power before it destroys the world.

Diego never believed his abuelo’s stories of gods and monsters and the ancient magic woven through Mexican history. Not until he finds himself sprinting down a dark hallway, chased by a beast straight out of lore—its fur as coarse as iron and five human hands clawing furiously at his throat.

Turns out, the myths are real, and their magic is erupting into Diego’s world. As shadowy creatures besiege his apartment, abuelo’s dog Cholo fixes Diego with a human gaze and speaks. Cholo reveals they’ve been unwittingly ensnared in a centuries-old rivalry between the great God Quetzal and his ruthless brother Tezca. Tezca is rising, summoning an army of minions, while Quetzal, the only one strong enough to stop him, has vanished.

The stakes are legendary, but maybe, deep down, Diego is too.”

Today, Karla joins us to give us the inside scoop on all things Quetzal.

Betsy Bird: Karla! Thank so much for answering my questions today! I don’t want to brag, but I had the chance to read a very very early draft of QUETZAL’S LABYRINTH a while ago, so you can imagine how friggin’ thrilled I am to see it in its final form! But before we get into any of that, let’s back up a bit. Tell us about the origins of the book. Where did you get the idea to go all in on the Aztec gods with this story?

Karla Valenti: The book actually started as a story about two human brothers who stumble on a hidden maze in their grandfather’s building—a maze that leads to a secret world coveted by an evil billionaire. The billionaire pits the brothers against each other with ugly consequences for the brothers. While I was drafting that version, I was also deep in research for my Legendarios chapter book series. At the time I was specifically exploring the Aztec origin myth, featuring two cosmic brothers who fight each other with devastating consequences for humanity. The overlap was hard to miss and suddenly my story pivoted to focus on two brothers locked in a cosmic struggle with humanity at stake… except now the brothers weren’t human but gods. Once I made that connection, the rest felt inevitable and the story opened up into full Aztec mythology, a rich storytelling terrain to pull from!

BB: I know everyone loves the Greek gods, but whenever I encounter the Aztec ones I can’t help but wonder why they aren’t better known. The sheer variety amongst them alone is worth the price of admission! Do you have any theories on why people don’t know them as well (and ideas for getting their names out there)? 

Karla: This is such a good question! Speaking strictly about the U.S. children’s literature market, it has long drawn from European traditions where Greek and Roman mythology is deeply embedded in the educational canon and is treated as foundational to “Western civilization.” Aztec mythology, by contrast, was never part of that literary lineage. When it does appear in classrooms, it’s usually as a brief, tangential unit (an “other”). I think the reason for that has to do with narrative accessibility. Greek myths center on anthropomorphic gods with stable personalities and familiar story structures. They map easily onto character‑driven storytelling, which makes them feel immediately accessible to young readers. Aztec deities, however, operate very differently. They are complex, shape‑shifting, and often function more as embodiments of forces (time, fertility, duality, creation) than as characters with fixed traits. Their stories are tied to ritual cycles, cosmology, and layered symbolism. As you note, that richness is extraordinary, but it requires more cultural grounding to fully appreciate. Complicating things further, much of what we know about Aztec religion was filtered through Spanish chroniclers who misunderstood or distorted the stories. They often emphasized violent or unfamiliar aspects in ways that propagated a narrative of Aztecs as “other.” Meanwhile, Greek myths contain plenty of violence, but those acts were absorbed into a narrative presented as the heroic origin of Western culture. That framing shaped which mythologies were deemed “classical,” “educational,” or “appropriate” for adaptation in the U.S. Finally there’s a sort of feedback loop at play: Greek myths have been retold in countless novels, films, and children’s stories, which reinforces their familiarity. Aztec mythology has fewer widely known entry points for general audiences. With that in mind, thank you to all the teachers, educators, and librarians who actively support creators drawing from Mesoamerican traditions. The more narrative “on‑ramps” we build, the more readers will discover just how exciting and varied these stories truly are.

BB: SUCH an excellent point about the influence of the Spanish on these stories, thank you!Now you’ve done fantasy novels before, or at least novels that incorporated fantastical elements. I feel like QUETZAL’S LABYRINTH is a slight departure into, what I might define as, high fantasy instead. The stakes are higher. The fate of humanity and all that. In fact, the first sentence in your book is, “It is said that, in the end, the fate of humanity hung on one kid and one word, taxes.” Was this a conscious decision on your part or, as you wrote this book, did you find that you were inclined to go big?

Karla: Ha! That was the goal from the very start and my inspiration was Katherine Rundells’ Impossible Creatures series. I had read the first book and had the great privilege of interviewing Katherine as part of her book tour for The Poisoned King. Once I got over being entirely star-struck, I was blown away by the scale of her world: huge stakes, huge heart, and characters who feel mythic without losing their humanity. So, I treated her books like mentor texts and set myself the challenge of writing a story with massive stakes (the fate of humanity), an unlikely protagonist (a kid who doesn’t want to be a hero, plus a sassy rubber chicken), in a larger-than-life world (hello Aztec pantheon!). So yes, the “go big” energy was entirely intentional and I’m so glad to hear that it resonated!   

BB: I already sort of know the answer to this one, but how does this final book differ from your earlier drafts? What changed and what did you have to lose along the way?

Karla: This is where I get to shout out the wonderful Second City Kid Lit Crit Group. One of the best pieces of feedback they gave me was that every character—no matter how small their role—needs their own goals, motives, and challenges. They can’t just orbit the protagonist. In my early drafts, Violeta mattered to the plot, but she didn’t feel like the protagonist of her own life. A huge part of revision was giving her a full arc that could stand alongside Diego’s. I also had to reckon with my antagonist. I’d treated him like a problem instead of a person with real motives. Once I built out his purpose and trajectory, the whole story sharpened. The protagonist’s success is only as strong as the antagonist’s drive, so giving the antagonist a real arc was essential.

BB: Well, nice shout out to the group! Finally, what else are you working on these days? What’s next for you?

Karla: This question is so timely because I just sold my next middle grade novel to Katherine Harrison at Knopf! The Weight or Ordinary Things will deviate from the fantasy-building I’ve been doing and sit squarely in magical realism. Set in Tepoztlan, Mexico, it features fourteen-year old Anaya Reyes who must confront a memory-stealing bruja that is consuming Anaya’s family’s ancestral memories, forcing Anaya to reclaim her cultural inheritance and discover that belonging is not a birthright, but a choice.

Dang. Every interview should end with a bruja, wouldn’t you say? Every good interview, that is.

Huge thanks to Karla for taking such time and care in answering my questions today. As mentioned before, on September 1st you’ll be at last able to check out Quetzal’s Labyrinth. Pre-order or reserve it now and, in time, hand it to those kids who are willing to expand their gods-lore. It’ll be worth it.

Filed under: Interviews