The Last Cuentista

I knew I was going to love this book as soon as I saw the breathtaking cover. (Yes, sometimes I do judge a book by its cover!) This story takes place on a spaceship in the future that feels a bit too close to home in some ways, but I was completely drawn in by the mixing of science fiction, Mexican folklore, and storytelling.

Petra is a storyteller, like her abuelita, who was left on Earth when a comet destroyed it. I couldn’t get enough of the fast-paced stakes, heartbreaking realities, twists and turns, and beautiful storytelling. This is my… show more.

I love pondering how stories shape our understanding of the world around us. This book has so much to say about stories and storytelling and is written so cleverly and heartbreakingly that I couldn’t put it down. I love how the child protagonist tells us her story while there’s another story in the background. I love how it made me feel about my role as an author. 

I found this story surprisingly dark to be a children’s book. But it’s dark in a way that reminds me of being scared of the monster under the bed as a child, knowing… show more.

Twelve-year-old Petra Peña tenderly recounts family stories about Earth in a dystopian, sci-fi context far from our home planet.

Her memories and stories evoke a beauty that clashes spectacularly with the aseptic spaceship and the repressive government that takes control of it. What kept me turning pages were Petra’s strong relationships with her family—including her grandmother, Lita, who tells her old Mexican legends, and her little brother, Javier—and the way Petra’s stories reflect these strong, human relationships.

When she tells stories to younger kids on the spaceship, it is a subversive act that brings the characters closer. I resonated with… show more.

If I had to choose my favorite odd behavior that makes humans, human, I’d choose story-telling. Not only is it entertaining, all of civilization has grown up upon it.

The spirited protagonist of The Last Cuentista is a fourteen-year-old girl who wishes to become a storyteller like her grandmother, but looming overhead is a comet that will destroy the earth. As Petra boards the spaceship with her parents along with a small colony of other scientists, she fears that storytelling will be of little value in the hard work ahead. But awakened 350 years later, she is horrified to discover… show more.