I read this because I recently watched the 1940 movie and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to read the source material, and I was surprise how different the two were.

This book wasn't bad it just wasn't great. Overall I liked the story, it was fun and fast paced but there was a lot of little this that really annoyed me. I didn't really like that the story was told from everyone perceptive except Diego's and Zorro's, and I mean everyone else's perceptive. Lolita, her parents, the bar keeper, Captain Ramon, Sergeant Gonzales, Diego's father and even the Governor. Also found it extremely annoying how "manliness" was described and constantly brought up. I get this is an older book but the sexism and hetero-normative gender roles were extreme even for an older book. I also didn't really get what the deal with Diego, the other characters made it seem like he "unmanly" while only every describing him as bored and tired. Like even though he hated talking about violence, it wasn't because it made him sick, it was because it was an exhausting topic. And than there was Sergeant Gonzales catchphrase "Meal mush and goat milk" that had no meaning but was repeated constantly. Also the confrontation with the governor and the reveal were both anticlimactic.

Overall I preferred the movie. I liked the story told from Diego's pov, him outsmarted everyone and I prefer him coming back to Los Angeles instead of the story starting in the middle of his days as Zorro. But despite it's flaws it was still a fun read.