Most Anticipated November 2024 Releases

November is the month stuck between the spooky and the jolly. It is the perfect transition to ease our way into the colder months, filling us with gratitude, hearty meals, and—of course—exciting book releases! Take a look at our most anticipated books for this month as you get ready for the most wonderful time of the year! Can you already feel the holiday spirit lurking around us?

Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez

The long-awaited sequel of What the River Knows (2023) is finally here!

After leaving readers with an unexpected cliffhanger, Ibañez gives us the answers to our questions in Where the Library Hides. Set in 19th-century Egypt, the story follows Inez Olivera who is still recovering from her cousin Elvira’s murder and her mom’s betrayal. Although Tío Ricardo wants to send her back to Argentina to keep her safe, Inez won’t leave until she gets justice; however, the time and place she lives in will prove challenging. The law won’t let her access her inheritance unless she gets married, which gives Whitford Hayes—a secretive British former soldier—the idea to propose. But what is he planning?

The novel is a delicious mix of magic, adventure, mystery, humor, and romance. Ibañez lures the reader with her page-turning storytelling and compelling characters, making us question how far we are willing to go for our loyalty.

The Final Orchard by CJ Rivera

Staying on the parallel reality trope, CJ Rivera’s debut novel gives us a thrilling dystopian world where hope feels bleak.

In The Final Orchard, bionic enhancements drive the world. The novel tells the intertwined stories of geneticist Rosio Arata and 16-year-old Ever, but the two live very different lives. Rosio has a thriving career but is devastated after losing her daughter to an accident until she receives a call from someone who claims they can bring her back to life. It is then that she gets tangled in the secrets of her profession. On the other hand, Ever lives in a colony underground and is training to go to the Surface and fight the creatures harming the planet. What do the two have in common?

A terrifying tale about the consequences of greed, Rivera’s novel plays with reality and warns readers that not everything is what it seems.

Brown Girl, Brown Girl by Leslé Honoré. Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Painting sparkles of hope are Leslé Honoré’s words next to Cozbi A. Cabrera’s illustrations, the perfect combination for an inspiring work.

A poem becomes a picture book in the heartwarming Brown Girl, Brown Girl, presenting a world where brown girls of all skin tones can shine brightly—a world that can easily be ours. The book follows verses that ask and answer questions addressed to those whose skin color shapes their lives. The repetition creates a rhythm that grasps readers and delivers the message effectively. The accompanying images by Cabrera are masterfully painted and provide scenes of brown girls playing and being happy despite their struggles.

Brown Girl, Brown Girl teaches readers the power of representation in media and how this can inspire young girls.

Women Surrounded by Water: A Memoir by Patricia Coral

To complete this list of powerful women characters, we must mention Patricia Coral’s heart-wrenching memoir.

The Puerto Rican author tells her story poetically, haunting readers with images of her and the island’s past and present. Coral’s narrative is as intimate as it is introspective, and it shows not only her reality but those of the women who survived the cultural restrictions that surrounded them. Readers follow her life as she marries and then separates from who was her first love, leaving Puerto Rico right before Hurricane Maria hits. The grief caused by exile, the longing for more in life, and the patriarchal expectations set upon women are among the many themes explored in this memoir.

Women Surrounded by Water is sure to make your heart hurt and flutter simultaneously. It honors women and Puerto Rico, and you might ask yourself if they could ever be truly free.

---

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

November 2024 Latinx Releases

On Sale November 1

Pedro the Pirate: Learning to Trust a New Crew by

Ciara O'Neal | Illustrated by Antonella Fant | PICTURE BOOK

Hoist a sail? Do it solo! Explore the high seas? Who needs a crew? Not Pedro. This foster kid (and don't ye be forgettin' pirate captain) can do everything all by himself. He doesn't need his new foster family. But what's a captain to do when the seas get rough and the treasures are trapped? Perhaps Pedro will discover trusting a new crew might just not be that bad after all.

Women Surrounded by Water: A Memoir by Patricia Coral | ADULT NONFICTION

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Patricia Coral was surrounded by women who fought for their needs amid the demands of domesticity and who were dismissed and judged when they rejected any predetermined paths on an island that itself has never been free. At age twenty-five, she married her first love, a green-eyed musician whose internal storms drove Coral to slowly realize that the marriage must end. Faced with disillusionment-with her husband, with the patriarchal expectations that surrounded her like the Caribbean Sea, and with the limited options available to her-she leaves, only for Hurricane Maria to wrench her heart homeward.

Coral evokes the beauty, love, and language of her family and of Puerto Rico as well as the pain of yearning for more. Tastes, colors, and the dreamlike lushness of childhood memories infuse this mournful and propulsive memoir of personal and natural disasters-and the self-discovery made possible only when we choose what to leave behind.

On Sale November 5

Lady Without Land: Señorita Sin Tierra by Krystal Anali Vazquez | ADULT FICTION

Lady without Land is a story told in fragments about señorita who feels lost in and lost without Los Angeles. She uses classic literature and cocktail recipes to organize and populate bits and pieces of a life: growing up as a Mexican middle-class girl in a predominantly white suburb where neighbors labeled her family the "dirty" Mexicans; being bullied by an older sister on car rides from Los Angeles to Mexico, grappling with a father's gambling addiction, and, later, his death; journeying on the continuous carousel of lovers the Pacific and Atlantic coasts have to offer. A shaken and stirred abecedarian, a sloppy yet put-together künstlerroman, about charting one's life path amid cultural pressures and the grip of the ever-present past, the book can be read forwards or backwards and, with any hope, completely out of sequence so that no reader can read this novel the same way twice.

Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez |YOUNG ADULT

Where the Library Hides is Isabel Ibañez's stunning conclusion to the story that started in What the River Knows. A lush immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, and a rivals-to-lovers romance like no other!

Inez Olivera traveled across the world to Egypt, seeking answers into her parents' recent and mysterious deaths. But all her searching led her down a perilous road, filled with heartache, betrayal, and a dangerous magic that pulled her deep into the past.

When Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she's left with only one option to consider.

Marriage to Whitford Hayes.

Former British soldier, her uncle's aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her.

La Otra Julia / The Other Julia by Mayra Santos-Febres | ADULT FICTION

The author has published a biography of the famous and controversial Julia de Burgos. She embarks on a book tour of different cities, attends presentations and gives talks, all while trying to keep her family afloat.

What begins as a simple assignment, to write about Julia, becomes an entry point to better understand the poet and her work, but also a framework for exploring the lives of other female Latin American writers, including the author's own. Parallel interests and shared values as two Afro-Caribbean authors breaking into elite literary circles bridge the dialogue between the two voices.

This is the story of two women who find resistance and freedom in literature.

A Guide to Medical Cannabis: Your Roadmap to Understanding and Using Cannabis and CBD for Health by Javier Hasse and Nicolás Rodriguez | ADULT NONFICTION

Lately, everybody is talking about medicinal cannabis. Once a forbidden plant, it has become hard to distinguish between good and bad information about medicinal and therapeutic cannabis.

This is a reading guide for folks interested in empowering themselves with evidence-based information on the natural benefits of medicinal cannabis for health and wellness. This book will provide you with evidence and comprehensive arguments to build your own perspective on cannabis and potentially, tap into natural health and wellness solutions studied by researchers around the world.

Beyond facts and figures, this guide encompasses medicinal cannabis as a socioeconomic, philosophical, and cultural phenomenon, crafted for the avid reader interested in expanding the borders of conscience. Learn, share, and transform your personal care and that of others by uncovering the benefits of a millenary plant.

Teen Titans: Starfire by Kami Garcia| Illustrated by Gabriel Picolo | YOUNG ADULT

Kori Anders' summer job at a ritzy Santa Monica beach club is fun, but she doesn't feel like she belongs there. She never breaks the rules, she doesn't care about keeping up with the current trends, and she can't be bothered rushing around to make an appearance at all the parties--in fact, Kori avoids rushing at all costs because of her Ehlers Danlos Syndrome diagnosis. What she does feel is an inexplicable draw to the stars.

Her older sister, Kira, on the other hand, is the most popular girl around. With the hottest clothes, an even hotter boyfriend (the Tate Fairweather), and a take-no-prisoners attitude, she's Kori's opposite in every way. Sadly, Kori doesn't think Tate is a good fit for her sister, and nothing she says will convince Kira to break up with him.

The summer heats up when Tate's uncle, Lynch Fairweather, CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, asks Kori and Kira to participate in a clinical trial designed to advance treatments for EDS. During treatment, Kori begins to discover some strange powers that she has never had before...and she might not be the only one.

Can Kori uncover the truth about her powers and find a way to persuade her sister to trust her before it's too late?

The Complete Aliens Collection: Living Nightmares (Phalanx, Infiltrator, Vasquez ) by

Scott Sigler, Weston Ochse, and V. Castro |ADULT FICTION

Collected together for the first time, this omnibus brings new authors to the Alien universe. Across three epic novels, discover the origins of fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez and her family, fight extinction at the hands of Xenomorphs, and find the researchers of Pala Station courting disaster of... the Xenomorph kind.

Across three epic novels discover the origins of fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez and her family, fight extinction at the hands of Xenomorphs, and find the researchers of Pala Station courting disaster... of the Xenomorph kind.

The Modern Mystic's Guide to Tarot: A Beginner's Guide to Reading and Understanding the Cards of the Tarot by Mara Parra

Are you ready to transform your life? This beautiful guide to tarot tells you everything you need to know to help you understand the deck and decode the symbolism of the cards.

Whether you want spiritual guidance, answers to life's biggest questions, or a deeper connection to your unconscious self, this book will help you tap into the power of the tarot deck to gain insight into your mind, your soul and the world around you.

The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez |ADULT FICTION

Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez's ninth novel. The Vulnerables offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past.

Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. The Vulnerables reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another's distress. A search for understanding about some of the most critical matters of our time, Nunez's new novel is also an inquiry into the nature and purpose of writing itself.

Immigration Realities: Challenging Common Misperceptions by Ernesto Castañeda and Carina Cione | ADULT NONFICTION

Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. They are eager to learn local languages. Immigration is not a burden on social services. Border walls do not work. There is no unmanageable refugee crisis. Yet many such misinformed assumptions and harmful misconceptions pervade conversations about immigration.

This timely book is a practical, evidence-based primer on immigrants and immigration. Each chapter debunks a frequently encountered claim and answers common questions. Presenting the latest findings and decades of interdisciplinary research in an accessible way, Ernesto Castañeda and Carina Cione emphasize the expert consensus that immigration is vital to the United States and many other countries around the world.

On Sale November 12

Pan Y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book (Pastries, Desserts, Rustic Breads, Savory Baking, and More) by Bryan Ford | COOKBOOK

Bryan Ford, the acclaimed author of New World Sourdough and judge on Netflix's Blue Ribbon Baking Championship, is changing how the world bakes with recipes that are "full of deep expertise" yet "unusually warm [and] friendly" (New York Times). In Pan y Dulce he helps home bakers embrace the extraordinary world of Latin American baking and break free of Eurocentric approaches to the craft.

Enter medialunas: full of tender layers, glazed with sugar. Alfajores sandwiched with dulce de leche. Fluffy conchas and pan de coco--and so much more:

• Golfeados, sweet-salty soft rolls twirled with queso de mano and drenched in syrup

• Flaky pastelitos stuffed with guava

• Crisp empanadas filled with juicy chicken

• The fugazzeta, an addictive flatbread stuffed with cheese and topped with charred onions

• And all sorts of rustic loaves, from pan Cubano baked with a palm leaf to blue masa sourdough to gluten-free chocolate quinoa bread

The Helping Sweater by Rachel Más Davidson | PICTURE BOOK

Follow along as Maya spreads joy through random acts of kindness in this vibrant and heartwarming book celebrating empathy and community.

It's finally cold enough for Maya to wear her favorite sweater! But when her cat pulls a thread loose, her beloved sweater quickly begins to unravel. Maya is heartbroken, but she doesn't have time to fix it before school. She starts to realize that maybe her sweater can help other people--and that's when the magic begins! Maya uses her sweater to help folks in her community throughout the day. But of course, what goes around, comes around and when Maya needs help, someone comes to her rescue. The Helping Sweater is an accessible, uplifting picture book with an engaging heroine and an empathetic message.

A Warning about Swans by R. M. Romero | YOUNG ADULT

Bavaria. 1880. Hilde was dreamed into existence by the god Odin and, along with her five sisters, granted cloaks that transform them into swans. Each sister's cloak is imbued with a unique gift, but Hilde rejects her gift which allows her to lead the souls of dying creatures to the afterlife.

While guiding the soul of a hawk, Hilde meets the handsome Baron Maximilian von Richter, whose father left him no inheritance. Hilde is intrigued by Richter's longing for a greater life and strikes a deal with him: She will manifest his dreams of riches, and in return, he will take her to the human world, where the song of souls can't reach her.

But at the court of King Ludwig II in Munich, Hilde struggles to fit in. After learning that fashionable ladies are sitting for portraits, she hires non-binary Jewish artist Franz Mendelson, and is stunned when Franz renders her with swan wings. The more time she spends with Franz, the more she feels drawn to the artist's warm, understanding nature, and the more controlling Richter becomes. When Hilde's swan cloak suddenly goes missing, only Franz's ability to paint the true nature of souls can help Hilde escape her newfound prison.

Las Cosas Que Perdimos En El Fuego / Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez Lucas Nine | GRAPHIC NOVEL

Electric, disturbing, and exhilarating, the stories of Things We Lost in the Fire explore multiple dimensions of life and death in contemporary Argentina. Each haunting tale simmers with the nation's troubled history, but among the abandoned houses, black magic, superstitions, lost loves, and regrets, there is also friendship, compassion, and humor.

In these stories, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Julio Cortázar, three young friends distract themselves with drugs and pain in the midst a government-enforced blackout; a girl with nothing to lose steps into an abandoned house and never comes back out; to protest a viral form of domestic violence, a group of women set themselves on fire.

The Final Orchard by CJ Rivera| ADULT FICTION

In a society where bionic enhancements are the epitome of wealth and power, scientific researcher Dr Rosio Arata threatens to topple the status quo with her pioneering organic enhancements. Yet when a horrific accident kills her daughter, Ro's quest for answers leads her to becoming trapped in a twisted version of her life's work.

In a bleak underground colony, sixteen year-old Ever is primed to rise through the ranks, gain selection and become a Saviour. It's her dream to journey to the Surface and fight the army of Forms overwhelming the globe, catching up with the boy she loves in the process. Yet nothing in this world is what it seems and soon the secrets buried in her bunker begin to unravel, threatening the future of everything.

I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchú |Translated by Ann Wright | ADULT NONFICTION

Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military.

She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.

Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement | YOUNG ADULT

For the first time in a decade, the legendary gambling den, Fortune's Kiss, has returned to Ciudad Milagro. The game is Lotería.

As starry-eyed children, best friends Mayté and Lorena made a pact to enter the den together, but much has changed: strong, proud Mayté, sole daughter of the disgraced Robles family, dreams of becoming a famous painter, while beautiful Lo suffers at the hands of her powerful--and abusive--father.

With its return, the pair enter the mystical den. Once inside, they realize that beneath the enchanting glamour, the salon hides treacherous secrets--like the old, predatory magic beating in its heart. And it is ravenous.

Round after round, the girls scheme, lie, flirt, do what's necessary to win. But when bodies begin piling up, all bets--and friendships--are off as each girl learns exactly how far she's willing to go to ensure she leaves the table on top.

See, this Lotería is no children's diversion. It is a deadly game of chance that may just eat them alive.

Every ARC Bends Its Radian by Sergio de la Pava | ADULT FICTION

Riv--poet, philosopher, private eye--arrives in Cali, Colombia, hoping to find reprieve. Running away from an unspeakable event surrounding his ex Jane, Riv accidentally connects with his cousin Mauro and family friend Carlotta, who asks him to find her daughter Angelica Alfa-Ochoa. No sooner is Riv on the trail when it becomes clear that not only are the cops not looking for Angelica, but they are actively preventing him from finding her. This could be a good thing because the police are clearly in the pocket of one Exeter Mondragon, a name best never uttered in public if one wants to stay alive. But Riv is not one to leave things incomplete. When his investigation leads him straight into the heart of Mondragon's criminal empire, he is forced not only to face unimaginable horrors, but also to plunge into the deepest and most perplexing conundrums of the human condition.

On Sale November 19

Brown Girl, Brown Girl by Leslé Honoré | Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera | PICTURE BOOK

Brown girl, brown girl, what did you see?
A world that sees my skin before it sees me.

Based on a viral poem by Blaxican poet and activist Leslé Honoré, and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Cozbi A. Cabrera, this moving journey through the past, present, and future of brown and Black girls is a celebration of community, creativity, and joy--and offers a reminder of the history that inspires hope, and the hope that inspires activism.

Gathering Stardust by Victor Villaseñor | Illustrated by Jack Wiens | PICTURE BOOK

"Who are You? Who am I? Who are We?" the book begins as Victor invites the reader, "Come and take my hand, and let us be children once again, and this time be raised up together by my Yaqui Native American grandmother."

In his book, Rain of Gold, bestselling author Villaseñor wrote about his grandmother, Doña Guadalupe. Now, in his new book, Victor imparts the Native Wisdom he learned from his grandmother as he takes you along on their childhood adventures in the Barrio of Carlsbad, California, where he and his family lived.

Through enchanting storytelling and the stunning illustrations of Jack Wiens, Gathering StarDust is a tender true story, destined to become a favorite, inspiring wonder for readers of all ages and timeless imagination for generations to come.

Sundown in San Ojuela M. M. Olivas | ADULT FICTION

When the death of her aunt brings Liz Remolina back to San Ojuela, the prospect fills her with dread. The isolated desert town was the site of a harrowing childhood accident that left her clairvoyant, the companion of wraiths and ghosts. Yet it may also hold the secret to making peace with a dark family history and a complicated personal and cultural identity.

Setting out on the train with her younger sister Mary in tow, she soon finds herself hemmed in by a desolate landscape where monsters and ancient gods stalk the night. She's relieved at first to find that her childhood best friend Julian still lives in San Ojuela, but soon realizes that he too is changed. Haunted.

Yet she'll have no other choice than to seek out his help as the darkness closes in.

Dominoes, Danzón, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes | ADULT FICTION

Latina sleuth and culinary master Miriam Quiñones-Smith is cooking up a storm in the fourth installment of the Caribbean Kitchen mystery series.

It's been three years since food anthropologist and cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith had her last brush with death. Her Spanglish culinary show, Abuela Approved, is topping the charts. Her parents are back in Miami and living with her in Coral Shores. And her kids are great. But when bones start popping up in unexpected places, Miriam's idyllic life is threatened.

Her husband Robert's much-delayed hotel project screeches to a halt when human bones are unearthed. Tribal representatives, forensic archaeologists, and a pompous professor rain down on the possibly ancient site. Then a fake skeleton with the name "Smith" etched into it is found floating in the bay with an ominous note. Is it a threat to Miriam's husband or her inlaws? And when Miriam's boss Delvis is seen going off on a tour guide who marched through the crew-only area on set and is later found dead, Delvis is declared the main suspect.

To protect her family and friends, Miriam must dig up the truth that has been hiding in plain sight.

In Inheritance of Drowning by Dorsía Smith Silva | POETRY

A memorable debut collection that explores colonial and generational trauma.

In this striking debut, Dorsía Smith Silva explores the devastating effects of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, highlighting the natural world, the lasting impact of hurricanes, and the marginalization of Puerto Ricans. These poems also focus on the multiple sites of oppression in the United States, especially the racial, social, and political injustices that occur every day. Smith Silva writes with a powerful, gripping voice, confronting the "drowning" of disenfranchised communities as they are displaced, exploited, and robbed of their identities, but remain resilient. Written with unflinching language and vivid imagery, In Inheritance of Drowning reveals the many facets of the lives of marginalized people.

Jill and the Killers by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs | Illustrated by Roberta Ingranata |GRAPHIC NOVEL

Returning to school after the unsolved disappearance of her mother, teenager Jill Estrada can't wait for things to return to normal . . . even as her friends become obsessed with Box Killers, a true-crime subscription game where each month's "unsolved case" is custom-tailored to the life of its player. There's only one catch: Jill's game seems to be all too real--and when her clues begin to connect the dots to a very real series of disappearances in her hometown, Jill and her friends must conquer their fears and own personal struggles to solve the case.

But can they find the killer before one of their own becomes the next victim?

Author Interview: ‘Abuelita’s Gift: A Día de Muertos Story’ by Mariana Ríos Ramírez

In the opening of Abuelita’s Gift: A Día de Muertos Story, a young girl named Julieta peeks inside a box containing skeletons and the traditional Mexican decorative craft known as papel picado.

She asks her family if Abuelita is really coming home. “Yes!” her mother replies. “Our ancestors’ souls will visit us on Día de Muertos.”

Excited by the plan to honor her late grandmother, Julieta sets out on a personal quest to find a special gift to offer on the traditional Mexican holiday. It’s important for her to find a gift that would make Abuelita smile, and demonstrate how much she is missed.

In Mariana Ríos Ramírez’s new picture book (out now from Knopf Books for Young Readers), the Mexican author brings readers a beautiful and open-hearted story about the deep and never-ending love between a child and her grandmother. As Julieta struggles to find the best gift, she recalls memories she shared with Abuelita: of her grandmother’s hands lacing flowers into crowns, for example. Illustrations by Mexican award-winning illustrator Sara Palacios add tremendous warmth to a book that is mostly joyful because it’s about love and connection between generations.

And when Julieta finds the special gift, she learns that it’s much deeper than a tangible object. It’s what’s embedded within.

Ríos Ramírez recently spoke with Latinx in Publishing about the inspiration behind Abuelita’s Gift (also out in Spanish as El regalo de abuelita), her personal ties to Día de Muertos, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo (AC): Congratulations on Abuelita’s Gift: A Día de Muertos Story. I know you’re from Mexico and now live in the U.S. Growing up in Mexico, what was your relationship to Día de Muertos?

Mariana Ríos Ramírez (MRR): I grew up in Mexico, and Día de Muertos was always in my life, but not in my home. My parents are from Chihuahua, in the north of Mexico, and they didn’t grow up with the tradition because it is not as strong in the north as it is in the center or the south. We moved to Toluca when I was six, so in school we would set up ofrendas and exchange calaveritas with our classmates. There are also these poems called calaveritas that I remember we had to write as assignments. So it was in my life like that, but at home we didn’t set up ofrendas. I remember my parents would take me to this Día de Muertos market in Toluca called Feria del Alfeñique. It’s really famous during the month of October. I went there several times; you can buy skeletons, calaveritas, and candies. It’s very traditional and something to do about Día de Muertos.

When I came to live in the US, I wanted my kids to have a connection to Mexico and to our family. Right now we are the only ones here. (At the time) my son was five and my daughter was two – and suddenly there was this language barrier for them. They were missing home, missing family, so Día de Muertos allowed us to have an activity to do together. It was a celebration to set up the ofrenda, to talk about our ancestors, and to talk about our grandparents that my kids didn’t get to know. It became something that we started doing every year, that we all loved. Sharing about family is something that I really liked. I thought that the tradition was beautiful, and I wanted to share it with other children. So that’s why I ended up writing the book. It’s been an honor, truly, to be able to share that part of my culture through the book.

AC: Your story follows a young girl named Julieta as she struggles to find the best way to honor her late abuelita on the holiday. How did you create this character?

MRR: When I started drafting this story, at first it was nonfiction because it was more about explaining the elements of an ofrenda. My critique partners were like, ‘Well, it’s interesting, but there’s not a story.’ There was no character arc or anything. It was more like a description of the tradition. That made me think, so I changed it, which took me a while because I was learning how to write picture books at the time. This was one of my first drafts. So for a time, I couldn’t make it work. I put it aside. I wrote other things. And I came back to it because I really liked it. 

My grandma was still alive when I was working on this story. And as I said, living here (in the US) and far away from my kids’ grandparents also had to do with it. Because those are the feelings of longing – of missing. And even though my grandmother was alive back then, the feelings of my children missing their grandparents in Mexico were there. Since I was writing a book for kids, I put those feelings in Julieta. And given that the book is about Día de Muertos, it made sense to come up with an Abuelita who was going to be the relative that Julieta missed, because I think that it’s the closest relative sometimes for children that are older.

Julieta has the name of my grandma. And a lot of parts of the story have to do with my own memories. Many characters have the names of my uncles or my grandfather. So there are a lot of things that are very personal in the book.

AC: One thing I loved about your story is how you teach readers about the holiday. For example, readers learn about the setting up of an ofrenda. As you wrote this story, what did you envision showing readers about the holiday?

MRR: As you mentioned, the readers can see how this family specifically is celebrating Día de Muertos. I also felt that it was going to be in the background, because the main plot is Julieta looking for the gift. But as we follow her, she is remembering. And that’s so crucial of Día de Muertos: remembering those moments that you had together with your loved ones. That’s actually how Julieta is trying to find the inspiration for the right gift, by going back to those moments of connection and love with Abuelita. I think Sara Palacios did a great job of showing that, because that’s what built their relationship. That’s how we get to understand that pain and that love that Julieta is feeling because of Abuelita’s death. 

I wanted to show, but I didn’t explain, Why the ofrenda? What does it mean? How do we celebrate in Mexico? So I am showing it through the illustrations and as the story progresses, and that’s why it was very important for me to have an author’s note. It was crucial to have an opportunity to talk more in depth about the holiday, and how there’s not just one way to celebrate it. In different regions of Mexico, families do different things. Ofrendas look different from one state to another. 

For me it was important to clarify that, and also to say that not everybody that lives in Mexico celebrates Día de Muertos. Not everybody celebrates in the same way. Not everybody believes that our loved ones come to visit for the night. So there are many things that are very specific, and I am so grateful that I was able to go into more detail in the author’s note. And also in the last spread, with the ofrenda diagram that tells the readers what the meaning is of everything that we put in the ofrenda. I think that’s just beautiful, knowing that everything has a meaning and a symbolism because this is a pre-Hispanic tradition that has lasted for generations to our times. I feel so grateful that I was able to do that without being too didactic as I told the story.

“....And that’s so crucial of Día de Muertos: remembering those moments that you had together with your loved ones”

AC: The heart of this story, to me, is about the deep connection we have with our loved ones, especially those who have passed on. And how it’s possible and a great thing to still honor them. What is the heart of the story to you, as the author?

MRR: For me, the heart is Julieta realizing that the love with Abuelita never ends. That she can be connected with her. And for readers, too. It’s important to me that we can all still feel that love and connection with our loved ones – even if they are not physically around us – if we hold onto the memories and if we hold onto sharing their stories. For that, we need to know them first. But if we can do that, then that’s the way that people really live on. 

That’s why, for me, it was important to start celebrating Día de Muertos with my children, so that the people I love will live on through them in their stories.That they can talk about my mom or my grandma later with their kids, even if they didn’t get to know my grandma. I think that’s what’s beautiful about this celebration; to honor family and love and those connections, knowing that they never end. So I think it’s very hopeful.

AC: The book was illustrated by Sara Palacios, who is also Mexican and has illustrated many children’s books. What do you think her illustrations add to Julieta’s story?

MRR: Sara is super talented, and I am very grateful and I feel so lucky that she was part of the team. The fact that she’s Mexican made it easier. I remember at the beginning, I had a lot of illustration notes. When she came to the project, they were no longer needed because she understands the tradition. 

I remember my editor told me that she considered Sara to be really good at showing sadness and at showing joy. And that’s exactly what this book is about. It’s about finding the joy in honoring those that have passed away and that left a hole in our hearts. And she does a great job. I don’t know about you, but I tear up looking at the illustrations. She is just great. I think that she added a lot of warmth, a lot of emotion, and even more heart to the story than what the text had already.

AC: There’s a scene in the book where you write that Julieta’s eyes teared up as another memory came to mind. And the image is of Julieta placing flowers on her abuelita’s casket. It was perhaps the most somber moment in the book, because the story really begins with a child's excitement to honor her abuela. Why was it important for you to include that scene?

MRR: Día de Muertos Muertos is a holiday that celebrates the lives of our ancestors, but of course we’re celebrating them because they are no longer here and have passed away. And when someone we love passes away, that hurts. For me, it was important for children to understand that Abuelita had died, because I am sure that many of them have gone through something like that. It is important that they know that death is part of life, and that it hurts and changes our lives. In this case, Julieta stopped dancing for a while when she lost Abuelita. But (I hoped) that children also understand that with time, if you hold on to those memories and those good times, then you’re going to be fine. You’re going to find a way to still feel that love around you. 

So for me, it was important that they also know that death exists, that it’s real, that it’s part of life, and that it hurts. And that they can see the character go through that. I am sure that children that are going through hard moments like that can relate. But as you say, it’s something that is shown in the illustration. I think that the way in which the book presents it is somber, but you also didn’t need more words. The illustration is enough, and then showing on the other side how Julieta is feeling and how that impacted her life.

AC: What are you hoping readers take away from Abuelita’s Gift?

MRR: I hope that they get curious about their own family and ancestors. That they ask questions to their parents and grandparents about the past, so that they can better understand where they come from and can later tell their stories. What we discussed about how the love of family never ends, that’s something that I hope they can hold onto. For when the time comes, they might need it. 

And finally, just like Julieta, I hope they learn that the best gifts truly come from the heart. When that happens, it is a gift not only for the person that is receiving it, in the case of Abuelita, but also for the giver, like Julieta – who found the gift that is for Abuelita and herself. 

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Mariana Ríos Ramírez is a Mexican author living in Anderson, South Carolina. She worked as a high school teacher and co-owned an online business before discovering her passion for writing. Mariana is a member of SCBWI, Storyteller Academy, Rate your Story, and Las Musas.

Sara Palacios was the recipient of the 2012 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award for her work on Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match. A native of Mexico, Sara graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City and went on to earn BFA and MFA degrees in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She illustrates for companies in both the United States and Mexico.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family.

Book Review: 'Sleeping with the Frenemy' by Natalie Caña

What they don’t tell you about reading romance novels is that some steamy scenes might catch you when you are in public—or at least that was my experience with Natalie Caña’s Sleeping with the Frenemy. Every time I rode the train, I would take out the book and read more about Leo and Sofi’s story. Inevitably, when things got hotter between them, my cheeks would blush as the other train passengers ignored the love my eyes were witnessing. It was my little secret: peeking into the two lovers’ journey to overcome what kept them apart.

Although the boiling, undeniable love between the two characters is the heart of this novel, Sleeping with the Frenemy goes beyond the sexual chemistry between Leo and Sofi. The story is also about forgiveness and rediscovering one’s purpose. Each character has healing ahead to do, especially when it comes to their families. Leo’s struggle growing up with a family who didn’t understand him and Sofi’s absent yet controlling father define their personalities and decision-making. Would they be capable of forgiving those who hurt them, including each other? With this, Caña does an excellent job in her narrative to show how important it is to prioritize one’s healing while reminding us that we are worthy of love despite how broken we are. In many ways, the couple mirrors each other: Sofi is stuck in a job she hates while Leo is stuck in his failed attempts to recover the job he loves. She wants out and he wants back in. Both are floating—or rather sinking—without course, yet they find an anchor in each other.

“The story is also about forgiveness and rediscovering one’s purpose.”

Furthermore, the exploration of gender-based stereotypes, the representation of queerness, and the conversation around body positivity are all present in Caña’s work. In many ways, the book shows stereotypical “macho-man” behavior in many male characters, but it doesn’t go unchallenged. The author contrasts it with the inversion of gender roles between the main couple, the representation of strong female characters and feminist men, and Leo’s ever-present vulnerability. Despite being a heterosexual love story, Caña effortlessly includes queer couples in the narrative, which provides a diversity of love to the story—a highly appreciated detail. Similarly, despite Leo and Sofi being described as good-looking, the latter suffers from insecurities around her slim figure yet finds beauty in the plus-size figure of another female character. With this, the author challenges stereotypical beliefs around body image and highlights how any woman could suffer from body dysmorphia no matter their size.

Still, let’s not forget that Leo and Sofi’s love is what makes this story shine. Leo’s complete devotion to the woman he believes is destined for him and Sofi’s refusal to admit her feelings is a dance I could watch all day. Packed with humor, romanticism, erotism, family dynamics, and trauma healing, Sleeping with the Frenemy is a joyful read that will warm your heart—and your cheeks. Read in public at your own risk!

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Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

10 Spooky Books Written by Latinx Authors

The “season of the witch” is flying above us. There is no better time to grab your favorite spooky book while enjoying Halloween sweet treats—or tricks! Choose one or more of these books and see how Latinx authors portray the scary. Come and celebrate the obscure with us!

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide. 

Esi the Brave (Who Was Not Afraid of Anything) by Bernard Mensah|Illustrated by Raissa Figueroa

Esi is a brave Ghanaian girl who is not afraid of anything. Monsters and ghosts should be scared of her!

When she sets off for the annual Kakamotobi Festival with her parents, she’s confident she’ll be fine. Her mother warns that there’s going to be loud music and scary masks and a very big crowd, but Esi’s unconcerned. She’s not afraid of anything.

But when they get to the festival and her parents suddenly disappear in a crowd of terrifying monster masks, Esi realizes that to save her parents, she’ll have to be the bravest she’s ever been. With detail-packed illustrations and a text begging to be read aloud, this is the perfect story about finding your inner strength to be brave.

Fathomless by Samantha San Miguel

After months away at boarding school, Lulu Davenport was looking forward to summer vacation at her home on the southwest Florida coast, especially since her best friend, Algie Emsworth, will be spending his vacation with the Davenport family. But since his widowed mother has fallen on hard times, he’s gotten a job nearby that keeps him away from the house most of the day. And Frankie, Lulu’s sister and usual companion, is out of commission after injuring herself while sailing. But when Lulu hears about a possible haunting in a nearby abandoned fort and rumors of hidden treasure, she decides it’s time to strike out on her own and solve the mystery herself. In the process, she meets Vic, a blind boy who’s just moved to town, and the two of them embark on a hunt for clues about the ghostly appearances. Soon enough, Frankie and Algie join them, and the four friends uncover all sorts of very real dastardly deeds going on, and the villain is much closer to home than they expected!

The Trial of Anna Thalberg by Eduardo Sangarcía|Translated by Elizabeth Bryer

Anna Thalberg is a peasant woman shunned for her red hair and provocative beauty. When she is dragged from her home and accused of witchcraft, her neighbors do not intervene. Only Klaus, Anna’s husband, and Father Friedrich, a priest experiencing a crisis of faith, set out to the city of Würzburg to prove her innocence. There, Anna faces isolation and torture inside the prison tower, while the populace grows anxious over strange happenings within the city walls. Can Klaus and Friedrich convince the church to release Anna, or will she burn at the stake?

Set in the Holy Roman Empire during the Protestant Reformation, The Trial of Anna Thalberg is a story of religious persecution, superstition, and human suffering. While exploring the medieval fear of witches and demons, it delves into enduring human concerns: the historical oppression of women, the inhumanity of institutions, and the question of God’s existence. Frantic in pace and experimental in form, this novel is an unforgettable debut from Mexican author Eduardo Sangarcía.

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez|Translated by Megan McDowell

On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed—all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women—these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez’s stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave us shaken. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez’s unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”

The No-Brainer's Guide to Decomposition by Adrianna Cuevas

No one has ever called Frani Gonzalez squeamish. Seriously, whether it’s guts (no big deal), bugs (move aside, she’s got this), or anything else that you might find at the Central Texas Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, to her and her dad, the university’s body farm is just home.

Having bodies buried in her backyard doesn’t exactly make Frani the most popular kid in school, and the imaginary spider that lives in a web in her brain isn’t helping either. Arañita’s always to blame for the distracted thoughts weaving through Frani’s mind. But when a hand reaches out of the ground and grabs her ankle, Frani realizes that she’s got bigger problems.

Not everything is as it seems at the body farm, and now Frani must help the teenage zombie that crawled out of the dirt…before he gets too hungry. But as more and more zombies begin to appear—and they seem to get less and less friendly—can Frani embrace the true nature of her brain and count on new friendships to solve the body farm's mystery before it's overrun with the undead?

Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera

Fashion-obsessed Samara finally has the life she’s always dreamed of: A high-powered job with legendary designer Antonio Mota. A new home in sunny California, far away from those drab Jersey winters. And an intriguing love interest, Brandon, a wealthy investor in Mota’s fashion line.
 
But it’s not long before Samara’s dream life begins to turn into a living nightmare as Mota’s big fashion show approaches and the pressure on her turns crushing. Perhaps that’s why she begins hearing voices in her room at night—and seeing strange things that can’t be explained away by stress or anxiety or the number of drinks she’s been consuming.
 
And it may not be just Samara imagining things as her psyche unravels, because she soon discovers hints that her new city—and the House of Mota—may be built on a foundation of secrets and lies. Now Samara must uncover what hideous truths lurk in the shadows of this illusory world of glamour and beauty before those shadows claim her.

Jasmine Is Haunted by Mark Oshiro

Jasmine Garza has a problem: a ghost has been following her for years, ever since her Papi died. Not that Mami will admit anything supernatural is going on. But even the ghost she won’t acknowledge makes real trouble, so Jasmine and her mami are moving (again) to a new apartment in East Hollywood. This time Jasmine is committed to living a normal life with normal friends.

Enter: Bea Veracruz and Jorge Barrera. They’re the only two members of Jasmine's middle school's Gay Straight Alliance and they’re already obsessed with all things supernatural. Bea wants to prove herself to her paranormal investigator parents and Jorge is determined to overcome his fear of the beyond. And when Jasmine confesses she’s been tormented by a ghost for years, they not only believe her, they’re thrilled!

Together they set out to prove that Jasmine’s not just acting out after her father’s death–ghosts are real and Jasmine is haunted. But not everyone agrees how to deal with the departed. As Jasmine’s hauntings increase in intensity, her resentment builds. Why is her Mami so secretive about her past? Why is she the center of such a terrible vortex of supernatural activity? And why hasn’t her Papi ever reached out to her since he passed?

In order to face her ghosts—both internal and external—Jasmine must come to terms with her own history.

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán|Translated by Sophie Hughes

A young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death.

Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid: “smart appearance, full time,” their ad said. She wanted to make enough money to support her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaned their laundry, wiped their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks the señor gave the señora; she knew about the poison in the cabinet, the gun, the daughter’s rebellion as she grew up, the mother’s coldness, the father’s distance. She saw it all.

After a series of shocking betrayals and revelations, Estela stops speaking, breaking her silence only now, to tell the story of how it all fell apart. Is this a story of revenge or a confession? Class warfare or a cautionary tale? Building tension with every page, Clean is a gripping, incisive exploration of power, domesticity, and betrayal from an international star at the height of her powers.

¡Celebremos el Día de las Brujas y el Día de los Muertos! / Let’s Celebrate Halloween and the Day of the Dead! by Gustavo Ruffino|Illustrated by Olga Barinova

Two best friends enjoy dressing up for their Halloween party at school; Mía is a monarch butterfly and Camila is a leaping frog!  The girls live in the same building so Camila goes home with Mía after school and eats dinner with her family. But when they invite Camila to help set up their Day of the Dead altar, she is afraid of the skulls.

Mía teaches her friend that the altar is a way to remember and honor loved ones who have passed. “It’s like a party,” she says. Decorated with flowers, photos and the departed person’s favorite things, it’s full of beautiful memories. Camila wonders if she can prepare one for her mother­—whom she misses terribly—even though she is Colombian and not Mexican. Camila’s father likes the idea and helps his daughter make her mom’s favorite food, arepas with lots of cheese, to put on the altar and share with Mía’s family at dinner the next night.

This bilingual picture book for children ages 5-9 illustrated in festive fall colors warmly depicts the love of lost family members—even four-legged ones—and the Mexican indigenous tradition of the Day of the Dead / El Día de los Muertos. Immigrant kids in particular will relate to celebrating holidays from both their home and mainstream cultures.

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

Author Q&A: ‘Libertad’ by Bessie Flores Zaldívar

Bessie Flores Zaldívar immediately places the readers in Libertad’s setting with the opening lines: “This fucking city,” and traps us in an overcrowded car along with the characters. The night is hot and loud, and Libertad and her friends have a party to go to. However, they are stopped by a cop and must bribe him if they don’t want to end up in jail. Libi, as her loved ones call her, is stuck under the pressure of her best friend Camila’s weight and vanilla smell as they wait for the driver to deal with the corrupted officer. 

They finally arrive at La Esquina, the bar where Libi and her friends usually go despite being underage, and the party begins. They dance and drink for hours, and suddenly Libertad and Camila can’t find the rest of the group in the crowd. When two older men try to dance with them, Camila pulls her friend inside the bathroom. Libertad’s mind is all over the place because she is drunk, but she comes back to the present when Camila’s lips touch hers. As the kiss intensifies, outside is Maynor, Libi’s older brother, looking for her desperately. The cops are in La Esquina looking for minors. When he gets to the bathroom door and interrupts the two best friends, will Libi be relieved that Maynor found them before the cops? Or will she wish he never knocked? 

In the prologue of their novel, Flores Zaldívar lets us know Libertad is about two things that are, as the author says, “inextricable from each other”: queerness and Honduras. They place us right next to Libi and we follow along as she discovers key things about herself and her country. The readers accompany Libertad through a year of growth where she must face hardships no 17-year-old should, but many do—especially queer Latin-American youth. 

Libertad inevitably becomes important to the reader and everything she experiences—Honduras’s hot summers, siblings love, mother-daughter arguments, grief, injustice—feels tangible. Each chapter is a page-turner, and readers eagerly follow Libi’s both painful and healing journey. 

Flores Zaldívar spoke with Latinx in Publishing about the process of writing Libertad.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares (RCC): Congratulations on your debut novel Libertad, Bessie! With your book being about growth and overcoming adversity, can you tell me about yourself in your early twenties writing this story? Did younger Bessie ever imagine this moment you are experiencing now?

Bessie Flores Zaldívar (BFZ): I started writing this novel in my second year of college when I was 20. I wrote a lot of it but only used the first three chapters to apply to the MFA, and this was my thesis at the end of it. When I finished the first full draft, I was 24 years old. Toni Morrison said that she wrote her first novel because she wanted to read a book like that and couldn’t find it anywhere. I think that is very much so why I wrote Libertad because I wanted to read a queer YA novel about a Honduran person, and I wanted it to engage with the political context. I also really wanted to see a family like mine depicted, and the family in this book is almost exactly like mine. So, this was the book I needed to write before anything else. In some ways that made it very easy, but in others, that made it very hard. Still, the book came to me very gracefully, like a gift. 

RCC: As an older sister, one of my favorite things about this book was the relationship between Libertad and her brothers. The bond between her and Maynor is key to this story, and you write it from the perspective of a younger sibling despite you being the oldest one in your family. Why did you choose to write from the point of view of a middle child and how did your own experience as an oldest sibling help you write this dynamic between Libi, Maynor, and Alberto? 

BFZ: Great question! The plot reason Libertad is a middle child is that I needed Maynor to be a student activist, and for that to be true, he needed to be of college age, which means he had to be older than Libi. Beyond that, queer young adults felt to me like a good place to grieve. I was telling my siblings that, as a queer person, when I came out in high school, I was the only person who was out, so a lot of it was that I wanted to reimagine what my youth could’ve been like if I had an older sibling, how that could’ve changed things for me. 

I love being an older sibling. I feel truly so lucky and blessed, but I also have always wondered what that could have been like for me, having someone who I really trusted and looked up to tell me it would be okay. How braver would I have been? I think that was key to my decision. Also, a lot of the grief depicted in the book comes from the things Maynor knows that Libertad doesn’t get to know and that we get to see from the chapters that I wrote from his perspective. 

Writing the dynamic was probably the easiest part. I would say it is a direct replica of the one I have with my siblings. 

RCC: Honduras is another character in this story. The book can’t exist without Honduras in the background. Tell me how it was to recall the quirks and corners of your home country while writing Libertad, especially from outside of it. 

BFZ: It was like being haunted. Especially because I was writing a Honduras I remembered living in but that wasn’t there anymore, and when I got to go home, things were different. La Esquina, the bar in the first three chapters, is the same one I would go to when I was in high school, and now it’s a Puerto Rican restaurant. It felt like I was trying to remember something that had become a ghost because my country is changing and there is nothing I can do about that since I’m the one who left. I’m the one who remembers it differently. In some ways, it was really pleasurable to process that grief of Honduras never being mine in the same way that it was before I left… I love Honduras, and what “Honduras” means to me is the people who live in that land. 

RCC: Your book also depicts the experience of closeted queers and, more specifically, the consequences of being outed. At the same time, the story takes place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, an environment that was especially dangerous to queer youth at the time. How was it for you to write those painful moments Libertad had to face regarding her sexuality? What did you wish to tell young queer people with them, to both those who live in settings like Libi does and those who don’t? 

BFZ: I’ve been thinking about that a little bit because I knew I was queer pretty much as soon as I knew who I was, as soon as I understood myself, and I never really felt shame about it, even though I did grow up in such a homophobic country and society…When people come out, moms tend to say things like: “Your life is going to be hard,” which is what my mom said to me, along with “I don’t want your life to be harder than it needs to be. We already live in this country, you’re already a woman in this country. Why does it have to be any harder?” I never had a good answer for that until maybe two weeks ago. I realized that what I wanted to say in response was that my life would be harder, but I was raised by two very strong women. I saw my mom survive the same stuff Libertad’s mom did, so how could I not be strong enough to face what was coming? And I have been. 

A friend told me that when we ask God–or whatever we believe in–She doesn’t give us a little bottle of “Liquid Bravery;” you are just put in a situation where you can choose to be brave. That is what I wanted to put across to young readers, that being brave is just deciding to be so. I know there are issues to consider, such as safety, and the United States is not immune to this, but I now feel like the novel helped me find an answer to that moment in my life. Yes, my life will be harder, and I’ll have to be strong because it is more important to live my life authentically than to make it easier by shrinking myself. I’m so queer, so out, so happy… It was worth it. How could it not be? 

“I saw my mom survive the same stuff Libertad’s mom did, so how could I not be strong enough to face what was coming?”

RCC: You made interesting choices in your novel like having little sections with a change of the narrator’s point of view that added more details to the story beyond Libertad’s awareness, yet the most notorious one for me was the use of Spanish throughout the novel, more specifically when it comes to Libertad’s poems. Why did you choose to keep her poetry in Spanish and add the translations to the back of the book?

BFZ: You are going to love this. It almost sounds made up, but all the poems in the book were written in Spanish by me and my brother. They were written before the book was. Those are old poems that we wrote when I was 19, which means that [my brother] was 17. We wrote them together as those specific moments in time [mentioned in LIBERTAD] were happening, and I just copied and pasted them into the book–I might have edited them a little bit. Therefore, I made that choice because the poems were written before the book, and it didn’t feel good to translate them… Ultimately, I think I just kept them in Spanish and the way they are because I wanted Emo, my brother, to get to read his work in my book. A lot of it is his and not mine, more rhymes are his than mine, and in many ways this book is a love letter to my brother and sister. 

RCC: In the same topic of choices, you could have chosen to tell a story focusing either on queerness or Honduran politics, but instead, you connected the two. Why was the depiction of this correlation so important? 

BFZ: The best answer for that is that I didn’t get to choose what affected me. I had to be affected by Honduran politics and be queer at the same time. They are also inextricable from each other. When the coup happened in 2009, I was twelve, and power got cut and there was all this military presence in the country, and we couldn’t go to school. I didn’t understand what was going on. Years later, when I was investigating it, I found out that a lot of people were killed that night, especially queer people, and what was found on the scene were military bullets that civilians don’t have access to… It wasn’t reported on the news. We’re talking about queer sex workers who got killed that night. I already knew the state wasn’t interested in protecting my livelihood as a person, but [this discovery] made me feel aware of how my queerness made me especially vulnerable to that truth. 

RCC: One more choice you made that I’m very curious about is your author’s letter at the end of the book. Why did you decide to write it? 

BFZ: I love that you’re asking me about this!... I didn’t want a book that gave a very simplistic answer about Honduran politics, and I don’t think the book does. But in my author’s note, I wanted to acknowledge that my reality is very different from Libertad’s now. I got to grow up, move somewhere else, and I know what being openly queer feels like, which she doesn’t. Also, there has been a change in power in Honduras since the end of that book… We had this historic election with the most participation ever, we elected the first woman president, and she’s from the left, but the next day, people still lived in the same conditions. One year later, people are still living in the same conditions. I really wanted to tell the reader that history did move past this, and it has meant something, but it also has meant nothing in other ways. The things that are true at the end of the book are still true today.

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Born in 1997 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Bessie Flores Zaldívar is a writer and professor of fiction. They’re currently based in the New Haven area. Libertad is Bessie’s debut novel.

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

Author Q&A: ‘Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-Emma!’ by Jenny Alvarado

It’s the start of a new school year, and Pencil and Eraser face their first big dilemma. Pencil is dull. As in, her point is the opposite of sharp.

Pencil, who almost always exudes joy, panics. 

“What should I do?” she asks Eraser, a stout white-and-pink curmudgeon. 

“Sharpen up,” Eraser says.

“That is a great idea!” Pencil shouts, picking up Eraser for a hug.

So begins Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-Emma! – the first book in a new early-reader graphic novel series by Jenny Alvarado. Out now from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, this imaginative story is equal parts hilarious and endearing as readers join Pencil and Eraser on an epic adventure to find a sharpener. The author-illustrator threads in joke breaks in between some chapters for additional laughs. A special touch comes at the end, with tutorials from Alvarado on how young readers can draw Pencil and Eraser themselves.

The second book in the series – Pencil & Eraser: Lost and Frown! – is slated to release next year.

Latinx in Publishing spoke with Alvarado about how this series came to be, developing her memorable characters, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo: Congratulations on Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-Emma! What inspired this book?

Jenny Alvarado (JA): It started off as a picture book idea – completely different from what it is now. I had this idea of a very mean eraser that would erase everybody’s writing. And then it slowly transformed into an early reader (book). He’s still not nice, but he’s not as mean as he was in the picture book idea that I had. And he needed a character that would pretty much be the opposite of him, which became Pencil. She’s super joyful and exuberant.

AC: Now that you have the first book out from this series, do you look at your pencils and erasers the same?

JA: Oh no, they’re very different now. [Laughs] I was looking at the initial sketches of when I had the picture book idea, and even their design has changed completely. Their personalities, their design, everything changed from the initial idea.

“I had this idea of a very mean eraser that would erase everybody’s writing. And then it slowly transformed into an early reader (book). He’s still not nice, but he’s not as mean as he was in the picture book idea that I had.”

AC: Your book centers on Pencil, who loves thrills and is super optimistic. And then there’s Eraser, who is a big grump and a curmudgeon. Can you talk about the development of these characters?

JA: I usually start out with a drawing. That’s how I get most of my ideas. I think of the character first, and then I build the world around them. Obviously their world is school, for the most part. I see what I feel they’re like when I draw them.

AC: I love the humor in this book. Your characters are an entertaining pair, and you have these joke breaks in between a few of the chapters, which are punny. As the author and illustrator, what role did you want humor to play in this book – and in the overall series?

JA: I wanted it to be the main component. I love funny. I want most of my books to be funny and humorous. And I’m obsessed with puns. I don’t know if that came across but, yes, I love puns. I love doing drawings of puns, like vegetable puns and all sorts of things.

AC: What are you hoping readers take away from Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-Emma?

JA: I hope they enjoy it. I hope it’s fun. There’s not really a huge message in it, except for sticking with your friend. I just hope they enjoy it – that they laugh and enjoy the jokes. I’ve been getting some parents tell me that their kids have been drawing Pencil and Eraser because there’s a little how-to-draw (exercise) at the end. I love seeing all their drawings.

AC: Why doesn’t Pencil have her own eraser?

JA: [Laughs] Because she needs her Eraser. If she had an eraser, then she won’t need Eraser. 

AC: [Laughs] That’s so funny.

JA: When I think of her, I think of those little lottery pencils that don’t have an eraser at the end.

AC: That is really funny, because I actually just realized she’s not like a regular school pencil, because she would have the eraser on her bottom. Well, you know what? In that case, I’m really glad she has Eraser in her life. [Laughs] I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me about your book.

JA: I really appreciate chatting with you.

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Jenny Alvarado is an author and illustrator of books for kids. She lives in Palm Bay, Florida with her family and little pup. As far as she knows, her real life pencil and eraser don’t go on adventures but she likes to imagine that they do. You can find more of her work at www.JennyAbooks.com or follow her @JennyAbooks on social.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family.

How Cynthia Harmony and Devon Holzwarth Brought Readers ‘A Flicker of Hope’

In the opening of A Flicker of Hope: A Story of Migration, a girl named Lucía sits with her Papá on the steps of their home, surrounded by lush plants. Nearby, monarchs perch on the branches of a tree.

Humming Lucía’s favorite tune, her father tells her that songs soothe weeping hearts. Soon he will journey north. The monarch butterflies will, too.

Lucía asks her father if he will come back.

“Sí, mi amor,” he promises. “When the weather turns cold and the monarcas return, our winged ancestors will guide me home.”

Written by Cynthia Harmony and illustrated by Devon Holzwarth, A Flicker of Hope (out now from Viking Books for Young Readers) is a lovingly crafted story about a girl waiting for her father to return home to Mexico from his seasonal farm work far away. It’s also about the monarch butterflies and their journey, “miles and miles across rivers and mountains,” in search of milkweed blossoms. And at its heart, it’s a story about family, hope, and the bonds that tie us to nature. A Spanish version — Un Aleteo de Esperanza — is also out now.

Harmony masterfully captures a parallel between the story of Lucía’s father and that of the monarcas. Growing up, it was common for the Mexico City native to see monarch butterflies. Harmony remembers visits to the state of Michoacán, where she experienced the wonder of the monarchs. “There’s a common belief that butterflies are the souls of our ancestors visiting for a brief moment,” she shared.

The monarch butterflies were an element of the story when Harmony first began writing A Flicker of Hope. But initially there was no parallel structure tying their journey to that of Lucía’s father. During the revision process, the author and educational psychologist realized there needed to be. She felt the mirroring was critical to the story.

“That’s a really important part of the theme: We’re connected to nature and to each other, and we follow these patterns,” Harmony said. “That was the main theme and thread for me in the story: the connectedness. That’s why while I revised, I realized it was important to bring the monarch butterflies’ story and mirror it to the story of Papá and Lucía. They’re so small and delicate, but they’re strong and resilient – so it’s like a perfect symbol of hope.”

An added layer of meaning to the story is the community Lucía belongs to. She is a member of the Mazahuas, an Indigenous people of Mexico. In her author’s note, Harmony wrote about the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, where millions of monarchs find shelter to hibernate during the winter months. She also mentioned the Mazahuas and how they believe the souls of their ancestors return in the shape of monarchs, “as the migration coincides with the Day of the Dead celebrations that take place on November 1 and 2.”

“There’s a common belief that butterflies are the souls of our ancestors visiting for a brief moment.”

Holzwarth’s illustrations for A Flicker of Hope feature Lucía and other members of this Indigenous community hand making baskets out of ocoxal leaves. Holzwarth said she researched the Mazahuas while determining her artistic approach to the illustrations for this book. Harmony also provided the picture book illustrator with information. The artist said she soon found herself on a rabbit hole search, trying to find photos of the community.

“I wanted to see, what's everyday life like? What do people do in the middle of the day?” Holzwarth recalled. “How do they make the crafts from pine needles? What season do they collect them?” The picture book illustrator grew up in Panama, and so she experienced seeing traditional cultures shifting over time in different ways.

Holzwarth used mixed media for the illustrations in A Flicker of Hope: they are a vivid blend of gouache, watercolor, colored pencil, crayon and digital finishing. She began with sketches on her iPad, the final versions of which were later transferred to paper. Holzwarth then worked out of the paper and introduced water media first.

She knew she wanted to focus on orange, which is a color that is found in different hues throughout the book, especially with respect to the monarch butterflies. “I like harmony, and so I go the left and right of orange: I can have reds and I can have yellows,” she said. “And then the opposite of orange is blue… Because they’re the most exciting things together. And so on the other side of blue, I will have some violet, and then a little bit of green. But I’ll keep it more of a blue-green.”

The result is a gorgeous color palette amid the characters – deep oranges and forest greens and blues. After painting, Holzwarth brought greater detail with colored pencils, or fine brushes with gouache. 

The butterflies themselves were made from gouache, which the artist said is a bit thicker – with colored pencil on top. Throughout most of the book, they’re in motion. “They’re always moving to their place,” Holzwarth said. “They’re not in their nesting spot for that long.”

The illustrator said she hopes readers enjoy Lucía’s, especially those who miss family members or are waiting for something. “It’s waiting, it’s hoping, and then this joy right upon being rewarded with your patience,” Holzwarth said. “I think that would be probably what I hope that children see in the story.”

That much is clear: A Flicker of Hope also touches on a universal theme, which is a child’s longing for her parent. As she wrote, Harmony’s mind also turned to the Trump-era “zero tolerance” policy that was being enforced in Arizona, where she currently resides. She described that time as heartbreaking. “And I decided in that moment that this story had to be about the experience of children, and longing for their parents,” she said.

Lucía’s longing for her Papá is palpable. And it was an important part of the story for Harmony to demonstrate.

“I wanted what I saw growing up in Mexico to be seen and felt by the reader,” she said. “I think I do this with all my stories. Every time I write, I’m just hoping to contribute a little bit of understanding by sharing this point of view of people that have not been shown in books historically.”

And for children, Harmony hopes the message for them is that maybe they’re not so different from each other.

“All children, and everyone of us, longs to be close to our loved ones. That’s also what I was trying to convey – that maybe deep down in all of our journeys, we’ll always find love and hope.”

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Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family.

Most Anticipated October 2024 Releases

As the leaves start changing into warm colors, the weather gets colder. The chill temperatures make you want to grab a thick blanket to wrap yourself in and a good book to read while enjoying a warm drink. To help you make your Autumn fantasies real, check out our most anticipated releases. They are sure to keep you cozy, warm, or spooked! 

Sleeping with the Frenemy by Natalie Caña

Speaking about staying warm, Caña brings us the third romance of the Vega Family Love Stories with the much-anticipated secret relationship between Leo Vega and Sofi Santana—and what a steamy pair they are!

Leo and Sofi’s relationship has been on and off for a while but after a big fight between Sofi and her best friend, Leo’s sister, they split up for over a year. Despite Leo getting badly injured, Sofi keeps the distance between them as she lives her life on her terms—or so she thinks. When she returns from her stay in Paris, the ice forming around them starts melting immediately, proving their undeniable feelings for each other. However, not everything in this story is about love. Sofi and Leo have a lot of healing ahead of them if they want their relationship to work. The book is about forgiveness and discovering one’s purpose even after years of thinking you had one already. 

The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo

While the title reveals the magical element and setting, Jaramillo’s novel has much more to unpack. 

In 1943, Elena Eduviges Montoya, best known as “Nena,” lives a life that is not her own. She is a teenager taking care of her older sister’s children while haunted by visions of her future. One night, Sister Benedicta de la Cruz appears and takes Nena to 1792 where she joins a convent and learns about her powers. In the present day, after an ironic turn of events, Marta struggles with her career and motherhood while caring for her great aunt, who is ninety-three-year-old Nena. With her great-niece’s powers awakened, Nena can’t keep hiding the secret of her time-traveling and her long-lost daughter. 

Charged with magical realism, The Witches of El Paso explores complex female relationships and the consequences of family secrets. It is a book that you won’t want to put down.

Solis by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher

Mendoza and Sher’s YA novel will surely spook you out—just not as you would expect it. 

The story takes place in a scary, not-so-futuristic America where undocumented people are forced into labor camps. In this horrific scenario, four women meet. They are all different ages and backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: they are tired of their exploitation. Therefore, they join the resistance group SOLIS to stop the government’s cruelty—or die trying. 

The novel is terrifying because it shows a speculative world that is not so unthinkable. The exploitation of immigrants, land, and resources is all too familiar. The narrative is graphic and violent, enhancing how horrifying yet necessary it is to think about the future of our society.

Ghost Brother by Sylvia Sánchez Garza

For the rainy days to come, a cup of chocolate caliente and a book about grief make the perfect medicine. 

Sánchez Garza’s YA novel explores the way families react to loss, especially when facing the death of a young person. After a fatal car accident caused by a pair of bullies, Cris loses his twin brother, Carlos; however, the connection between the siblings won’t break that easily. The story develops from both twins’ perspectives, as Cris navigates his grief while Carlos’s ghost roams without anyone noticing him. Eventually, the brothers’ realities get even more complicated when one falls in love with a girl who knows details about the accident and the other overhears revealing conversations. 

Ghost Brother will warm your heart with its exploration of sorrow as life moves on for Cris, while Carlos remains stuck between realms. 

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Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

Book Review: 'A Cruel Thirst' by Angela Montoya

Angela Montoya’s first novel A Sinner’s Isle was released on October 31, 2023, and now she is back with another book to sink your teeth into. A Cruel Thirst is set to release on December 17, 2024, with Joy Revolution at Penguin Random House.

Carolina Fuentes wants to join her family in hunting the bloodthirsty vampiros that plague her pueblo. Her father, however, wishes to marry her off to a husband of his choosing, someone who’ll take her away from danger. Determined to prove she’d make a better slayer than wife, Carolina vows to take down a monster herself. But when she runs into un vampiro that is somehow extremely attractive and kind, her plan crumbles. Lalo Villalobos was content leading a perfectly dull life until un vampiro turned him. Now forced to flee his city, he heads to the pueblo where he believes the first vampiro was made. Surely its residents must know how to reverse this dreadful curse. Instead of finding salvation, Lalo collides with a beautiful young woman who’d gladly drive a dagger through his heart. Fortunately, Lalo and Carolina share a common enemy. They can wipe out this evil. Together. If his fangs and her fists can stay focused, they might just triumph and discover what it feels like to take a bite out of love.

Montoya’s gift of incorporating her own twists on classic themes and monsters leaves readers with a memorable impression of her writing. The novel has many characteristics of the “classic” bloodsucker; burning up in the sun, needing an invitation inside someone’s home, and super strength. Her vampires also absorb the memories and shorten the lifespan of their victims with every bite. This feat of the vampires added to the intensity of the attacks and for the protagonists to reach victory. An additional attribute of her strong writing style in this novel is the inclusion of newspaper articles, journal entries, and more that amplify the plot. While readers can enjoy the story of Carolina and Lalo, Montoya demonstrates that she can successfully relay a story from all angles.   

“ Montoya’s gift of incorporating her own twists on classic themes and monsters leaves readers with a memorable impression of her writing”

Carolina Fuentes is the daughter of affluent rancheros in Del Oro. The thing to note about her family is that the men are all decorated vampiro hunters. Throughout the novel, Carolina perseveres to show her father that she is capable of being a hunter. Something admirable about her, though, is her character growth. While her iron-will was a great proponent in reaching her goals, it also had its downfalls. Her need to be respected as a hunter came from a place of selfishness, which caused blindness in how she viewed the world. In her journey with Lalo, she saw that he wasn’t the hungry bloodsucker that she viewed all vampiros as. A buried secret exposed that her family wasn’t as righteous as she thought they were. Carolina is incredibly courageous, not just because she is willing to fight supernatural beings but because she is willing to admit when she is wrong and to rectify those wrongs.

Lalo Villalobos was on the hunt for revenge for his parents who were killed by a vampiro. In an unfortunate situation, he was turned by that same vampire. In navigating his new affliction with his sister Fernanda, he researches possible cures while in the city of Del Oro. What he doesn’t know is that it is also a hot spot for vampire attacks and hunters. He partners up with a novice vampiro hunter, Carolina, who is constantly trying to kill him, to get to the bottom of a possible cure. At a glance, Lalo has every reason to succumb to the darkness that has overtaken his life. His parents were murdered, he was turned by the same monster, and is constantly getting attacked by Carolina before uttering a sentence. Not to mention he is also clumsy, awkward, and desperately introverted. However, there’s something to admire about someone so well acquainted with the terrors of the world but never lets their heart darken. This light within Lalo served him well and showed him that life is worth living, and that he should sink his teeth into every moment with vigor.

Overall, A Cruel Thirst has intriguing vampire lore and an intense battle to correct a familial mistake. Lalo goes against the grain of what traditional vamps are viewed as while realizing life is worth living to the fullest and Carolina uses her novice vampiro-hunting skills to absolve her and her family’s mistakes. Montoya shows readers that adventure goes hand-in-hand with uncovering a larger meaning of life. 

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Melissa Gonzalez (she/her) loves boba, horror movies, and reading. You can spot her in the fiction, horror/mystery/thriller, and fantasy sections of bookstores. Though she is short, she feels as tall as her TBR pile. You can find Melissa on her book Instagram: @floralchapters