By Etana N., North County High School
The Last Cuentista is a sci-fi for young readers, following the twelve-year old Petra Peña as she tries to navigate being one of the few to escape Earth before it is destroyed by Halley's Comet. When she awakes hundreds of years after being put into the pod, she discovers that the future so carefully planned out had been warped by the Collective, the generation of humans left to take care of those secured in the pods.
The story’s better half was the latter, as that is when things started to pick up pace and became more engaging. More characters become prevalent near the end also, and this definitely makes the story better. The emotional tones of this story did make me feel a little sad at times, as it is a sad book, but didn’t bring me to tears (just a lot of thinking). However, more so in the first half of the book, I feel that the main character is not very emotionally realistic, along with some of the dialogue.
The writing sometimes gets too “pretty” for a twelve-year old’s dialogue and thoughts, but this can be considered a plus depending on the personal whims of the reader, if they like poetic language. This book is meant for the younger side of young adults, and for those readers it would be very enjoyable.
Click here to check out The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera