"[Narrator Frankie] Corzo fluidly shifts from English to Spanish and back in this atmospheric audiobook, adopting a leisurely pace that allows listeners to savor the setting, poetic language, and slow-burn romance. Corzo creates distinct voices for a variety of casually queer Latinx characters. This meditative listen shouldn't be missed." — AudioFile Magazine
From award-winning author Mark Oshiro comes a powerful coming-of-age fantasy novel about finding home and falling in love amidst the dangers of a desert where stories come to life
Xochitl is destined to wander the desert alone, speaking her troubled village's stories into its arid winds. Her only companions are the blessed stars above and enigmatic lines of poetry magically strewn across dusty dunes.
Her one desire: to share her heart with a kindred spirit.
One night, Xo's wish is granted—in the form of Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the town's murderous conqueror. But when the two set out on a magical journey across the desert, they find their hearts could be a match... if only they can survive the nightmare-like terrors that arise when the sun goes down.
Fresh off of Anger Is a Gift's smashing success, Oshiro branches out into a fantastical direction with their new YA novel, Each of Us a Desert.
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Teen
"The almost lyrical narration by Frankie Corzo matches perfectly with the epic feeling of this story." — School Library Journal
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 15, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250223265
- File size: 360362 KB
- Duration: 12:30:45
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from July 20, 2020
Honesty, the weight of caregiving, and the space between absolution and compassion span deserts in this tender, postapocalyptic Latinx fantasy. As cuentista, restless Xochitl, 16, takes the village of Empalme’s confessions and spills them to the desert and Solís, the departed sun god who scorched the earth in punishment generations ago. When a roaming warlord plots massacre in Empalme, she breaks a cuentista’s strictest law—to magically forget confessions—and runs. But the warlord’s daughter enlists Xochitl’s help to return her home, where another cuentista can dispatch Xochitl’s powers—a journey through shining and ruined desert cities, shape-shifting beasts, hidden poetry, and an ever-unfolding, uncomfortable truth. In a storyteller’s cadences, #OwnVoices author Oshiro (Anger Is a Gift) maps a sincere journey through nuanced struggles: the weight of pain, how hope and complicity feed immigrant exploitation, and breaking flawed social cycles. While not always deft in handling complex moral territory, this ambitious, organically Spanish-studded examination of trauma stays adventurous and accessible, resulting in a grace-filled, loving declaration of human value and worth. Ages 13–up. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary. -
Frankie Corzo narrates the story of Xochital, the cuentista of her remote village. She has the magical ability to accept people's stories of guilt and wrongdoing and purge them into the desert, effectively cleansing them. An unexpected and jolting confession leaves Xochital questioning her role, and Corzo's gentle narration fits Xo's introspection as she plans to journey across the desert for answers. Corzo fluidly shifts from English to Spanish and back in this atmospheric audiobook, adopting a leisurely pace that allows listeners to savor the setting, poetic language, and slow-burn romance. Corzo creates distinct voices for a variety of casually queer Latinx characters. This meditative listen shouldn't be missed. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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