This is it! The last month of the year! The streets get busier as the crowds go shopping for their loved ones. But more than gifts, love is what drives this month and makes it a favorite time for many people. Along with the holidays, many books we have been expecting are finally here! Check out our most anticipated books for this month which are, by the way, excellent gifts too! (Wink, wink).
When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede
With a beautifully written free verse, this coming-of-age story reveals the power of nature and dignity.
Lucille is a 16-year-old girl living in 1930s Haiti. She and her best friend, Fifina, dream about opening a school for girls. But one day Fifina disappears, and Lucille’s journey to find her will prove long and dangerous. When the Mapou tree sings in her dreams, revealing who took her dear friend, the young girl must face the section chief. He has taken Fifina as his second wife against her will, and he doesn’t like Lucille’s nonconforming demeanor which puts her in danger and makes her flee from her home to Port-au-Prince. In a few years of exile, Lucille transitions into womanhood quickly, learning about the unfairness of the world. During her journey, she will meet the soon-to-be author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, who will teach her about sacrifice and activism.
With her debut, Pinede offers the readers a commentary on colonialism, colorism, corruption, and womanhood through the eyes of a girl who just wanted to dream with her best friend.
Alter Ego by Alex Segura
Segura’s latest thriller, the standalone sequel to Secret Identity (2022), shows the ugly side of film and comic book making.
Annie Bustamante became a filmmaker after a disappointing career as a comic book artist. Still, she can’t resist Bert Carlyle’s offer to reintroduce the Lethal Lynx to the media. After all, this character was created by Annie’s favorite artist Carmen Valdez in the 1970s, who inspired her to enter the comic book world. However, Annie is not so sure about Carlyle’s intentions when he tells her she must work with the stigmatized filmmaker, Arturo Espinoza, on this project. She becomes especially suspicious when she starts getting warning — or threatening — notes from an anonymous source. But nothing can stop Annie from telling Lynx’s story her way, not even the shadows lurking around her favorite superhero.
With a fast-paced narrative and amazing illustrations, Segura captures the reader into a trap of suspense and heroism, revealing the nuances of creative property and the filmmaking industry.
No Place to Bury the Dead by Karina Sainz Borgo | Translated by Elizabeth Bryer
Brilliantly devastating, Sainz Borgo’s novel takes the readers through a journey of grief and desperation.
After an amnesia epidemic has spread in the unnamed Latin American country where Angustias Romero lives, she is forced to flee from the mountains in search of resources to support her family of four. Unfortunately, through their migration, her twin sons die in her arms, leaving her broken and hopeless. The only thing Angustias wants is a place to bury her children. She then hears about the infamous Visitación Salazar, a woman who buries people at no cost in a land she calls The Third Country. However, getting involved with this woman will put Angustias in danger as a feared landowner is trying to take the cemetery away from the people of Mezquite. But the mother won’t let anybody take away her children’s rightful resting place.
Packed with lyrical prose and a hurtful portrayal of migration, No Place to Bury the Dead is a somber yet necessary read.
A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya
As proven in Montoya’s second romantasy novel, there is no better match than a vampire and their hunter, or in this case, huntress.
18-year-old Carolina Fuentes refuses to follow her father’s command to marry a man who will keep her safe and is determined to prove her worth as a vampire huntress. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Lalo Villalobos unexpectedly turns into a vampire when attempting revenge for the death of his parents and searches for a way to become human again. In a fateful encounter, the “sendiento” and his hunter meet, struggling to figure out if they are enemies or allies in their quests. Together, they will uncover secrets about vampiros and the family of hunters while trying to keep their feelings towards each other hidden. Along with its diverse characters, the book follows a non-traditional approach to vampire stories that just works.
With her charming main characters, griping romance, and an unexpected hero’s journey, Montoya seduces the readers just like a vampire would.
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.
