September 15th – October 15th is Latinx Heritage month. To celebrate Latinx voices we want to share five of our favorite audiobooks written by Latinx authors!
5 Amazing Audiobooks for Latinx Heritage Month
Latinx
Book Review : Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas
Rating: Unrated | 320 pages | Blink YA | Contemporary | Release Date: 03/03/20
Mayra Cuevas debut is a coming of age novel for fans of decadent food and charming European cities. Seventeen-year-old Isa has a passion for French cooking, which has kept her afloat now that she has left Chicago for the scenic coastal city of Nantes, France with her father and his new wife–the woman he cheated on her mom with.
The situation is a little awkward but it’s all worth it when Isa is accepted into a cutthroat culinary program where failure is not an option. She is determined to keep her focus– even if her family’s new charming young house guest proves to be a bit of a distraction.
…Audiobook Review: The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves
Audiobook length: 7 hours 50 min. | Publisher: Harper Audio | Genre: YA Contemporary| Release Date: 2/11/20
Jess gave a glowing review to Fred Aceves debut, The Closest I’ve Come, making me particularly eager to pick up his sophomore novel.
After a video of 17-year-old David Espinoza getting slapped unconscious goes viral, David is too embarrassed to ever show his face around town. He’s tired of being bullied for how thin he is and spends the summer of his senior year working out to attain a physique like his favorite action movie stars. He joins a bodybuilding gym where he is slowly pulled into the insanely toxic community of professional bodybuilding and steroids.
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We Set The Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
9 hours 54 minutes| Dystopian YA | Harper Audio | Release Date: 2/26/2019
On the island of Medio, young women are trained to take up positions as sister wives to the island’s highest ranking men. 17-year-old Daniella Vargas is paired with her bully Carmen and the two are married to Mateo Garcia–a boy being groomed to become president of their island country.
Dani’s life looks picture perfect but she has a secret. She’s an illegal immigrant and was bought over from the wrong side of Medio’s border as a child. This secret makes her vulnerable to the resistance group La Voz, who begin blackmailing her for information to help their cause. As Dani embarks on this new life full of discovery and danger she begins to understand her own privilege and that there is more to life than what she ever imagined–including her feelings for her sister wife, Carmen.
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Book Review Bundle : The Closest I’ve Come by Fred Aceves
They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera
Release Date: 09/05/17 | Contemporary-ish ? | 8 hours 29 minutes
They Both Die At The End is the Final Destination meets The Sun is Also A Star you didn’t know you needed.
It’s a little after midnight in New York City when 17-year-old foster kid Rufus Emeterio and 18-year-old Mateo Torrez get the phone alert from Death Cast, a mysterious service that somehow knows that within 24 hours you will meet an untimely death. When they both find themselves unable to be with their loved ones on their End Days they connect on the The Last Friend app. With less than 24 hours left to live these two unlikely strangers are going to have to try the best last day and they’re doing it together.
I’m a little conflicted over this book. Silvera is an great storyteller; his characters are interesting and he creates this great alternate universe that is only a few ticks off from our own world but you never feel confused or like you are getting an info dump. He just eases you into his imagination perfectly. But there were times when the story felt slow and stagnant and the over earnestness levels were at an all time high. Like at one point these New Yorkers bury a dead bird on the street and later they sing American Pie at karaoke, which if you aren’t familiar is a song with the chorus “Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die.”
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