Donna Barba Higuera

Leandro and Gabi are of the Cascabeles people now forced to live in The Pox, a scrappy and poor area of Pocatel. Pocatel is governed by an oppressive leadership. People who live in the Pox work in the Papa Fields picking potatoes and earning meager shares of potatoes to eat. People who are exiled by the Regime rarely make it past the trench and are left to be eaten by the wyrms. Leo and Gabi live with Tia Lulawho doesn’t show much care for the kids, partaking mainly of hongo to ease the pain she is in. The Patrol shows up at Lula’s pock and on discovering a knife and stags (currency) under her bed, take her away. With Lula gone, now is the chance for Leo and Gabi to run away from Pocatel. But Gabi is caught stealing a strawberry from a Monger’s fruit cart. Leo takes the fall and the Imperator exiles him from Pocatel. Leo’s banishment takes an unexpected turn, thanks to the Physician Director. This ultimately leads to Leo helping lead the downfall of Pocatel’s oppressive government. World building is effective, we get a strong sense of the dystopian society. We learn about the directors’ deception later and that adds a layer to what’s going on.… (more)

Representation: Latino/a, Asian and implied Brown, Black, multiracial and First Australian/Canadian characters
Trigger warnings: Implied murder and death of parents in the past and mass death mentioned, near-death experience
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

I wanted to read The Last Cuentista for a while but never got around till now. I saw it a few months back at a library before someone transferred it to another. Months later, I transferred it back for me to read it. The blurb made The Last Cuentista seem intriguing. It appeared that the book was a dystopian targeted at a younger audience. I've read novels like that, with mixed results. Fortunately, this one was enjoyable.

Spoilers ahead. I've warned you.

It starts with the first character I see, Petra Peña, leaving Earth in 2061 before a comet destroyed it and most of humanity. Only a select few get to board spaceships whose destination is Sagan, a new home planet for humanity to restart themselves. The only catch is that during the journey, an organisation formed: The Collective, whose sole mission is to erase all traces of Earth so no one remembers their history when they arrive on the new celestial body, all in the guise of removing all struggles, wars and pain. Only a few pages in, Petra discovers the organisation has purged her parents, much to her dismay, but conveniently, she survives, alongside a handful of other minor characters. The Last Cuentista shines in its intriguing worldbuilding and how realistic the science fiction elements are, like when I saw how humans have built spaceships, but none of them can go faster than the speed of light--they haven't discovered wormholes yet so it takes a while for them to get anywhere. The middle was enjoyable, but the conclusion was less so. All the characters were likable, but I couldn't connect or relate to them. They didn't have much depth beyond their protagonistic nature. At least it was heartwarming as Petra escapes The Collective and hears another community (the first settlers,) but it unsatisfyingly peters out.… (more)