“Esto es verdad, y no miento. Como me lo contaron, lo cuento.”
― Donna Barba Higuera, The Last Cuentista
For my first (and a few after this one) entry into this blog, I've decided that I would review books I've read in the near past before exhausting my queue. So let's jump in, shall we!
A story spanning centuries and across worlds, The Last Cuentista follows young Petra Peña, the daughter of scientists and the granddaughter of a storyteller as her entire sense of reality crumbles in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Leaving behind the only place she, or any other person in history, has called home in hopes of starting civilization over on a new planet, Sagan.
Petra has to come to terms that all she ever knew, the landscapes and stories from her abuela are gone as she and the rest of her family enter hypersleep, hoping to wake up once the journey is over. However in the ranks of those whose fate is to watch over their pods for generations never to see Sagan itself, conflict is brewing; change is coming.
Now Petra, the sole person to remember the past and Earth as it was, has to navigate an eerie and dangerous landscape all while grappling with the fact that even the things she thought she’d keep through her journey to Sagan may very well be memories in the wind.
The Last Cuentista felt to me like it nailed the central themes and overall narrative about remembering the past and honoring the traditions of our ancestors even in the face of conformity. I remember reading it on a plane ride, squished against a total stranger in the dimly lit cabin and never taking my eyes off the pages. I felt the loss and the anger, the tension, fear, grief and solace as I walked through this interstellar journey with Petra and the other kids of Zeta Group.
The book felt simultaneously easily digestible due to its middle-grade rank and still complex enough to ponder what it was conveying. I came away feeling at peace, there isn’t technically a happy ending I would argue, not after all that went on right before. But it was a start after the end, left open ended not in hair pulling agony; rather slumping in exhaustion and taking a moment before gathering up the pieces left.
The Good, The Bad, and the Fuzzy
Now here’s where we get to the Nitty Gritty of book reviewing. I’ve already outlined the Good in my First Impressions but I will place more of the Good I saw in the book smiles. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions, especially tied into the uncanniness of the augmented Collective. It kept me wondering why they would want to radically change their own genetic makeup if the memory of Earth had been (supposedly) all erased. The trauma Petra experiences and her reaction to it is realistic, and I felt for her as someone who also recently lost a loved one dear to me. It’s hard, and the moments where you feel like letting go are visceral. Plus less about the story but the cover illustration is absolutely gorgeous, shout out to the illustrator for such an amazing design!
The Bad…as a preface I will never be too harsh on a book since again, this is for my own entertainment and overall my reading list is catered to what I like. But still, no book is ever perfect. One of the problems I had was my suspension of belief in the fact that the ark ships had the technology for suspended animation and the ability to upload any topic of the world’s collective knowledge in the modern day. Not to mention how the Collective simply “purged” the adults because they were too finicky to brainwash. Even still, those were valuable resources they could have used instead of relying on the limited amount of children on board. It reduces risk of course, but surely having maybe one or two adult scientists around per generation, even if confined, would have sped up their technological advances. Plus for the book’s title to be the Last Cuentista, The Last Storyteller, the stories Petra herself tells Zeta crew feel almost rushed and unsubstantial.
The Fuzzy, where things feel lost in the fluff. I had so many questions throughout the book, mainly about Voxy and what will happen to him on Sagan since the Collective seem to be deathly allergic to something in the environment. Why Chancellor Nyla kept the personal effects of the ship's inhabitants instead of purging them like the rest of the risks. How Ben managed to upload an ai/computer program into Petra and the fact that she was only able to access it in hypersleep and not normal sleep. I understand that this book is middle-grade rated and that may provide some restrictions and boundaries, but I still felt that there were so many what-ifs?
The Last Cuentista is one of the few Sci-Fi books featuring a Latina protagonist I’ve seen, with an interesting narrative weaving tradition with promises of the future together while arguing against conformity as a solution to previous misdeeds. It’s a good read that I feel definitely would have completely captivated Middle School me hard, and even now as an adult I still enjoyed it despite its moderate use of what I can only describe as ‘trust me’ poetic faith. Overall this book is one I would recommend as an easy sci-fi read that also provides good emotion to keep you invested and feeling.
Be On the Lookout for the next book being reviewed, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae!
