The Last Cuentista. Donna Barba Higuera. 2021. 336 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Lita tosses another pinon log onto the fire. Sweet smoke drifts past us into the starry sky. Her knees crack as she sits back down on the blanket next to me. The cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon she's made me sits untouched this time.
Premise/plot: Petra Peña, our heroine, might just be humanity's last chance to stay connected with our troubled past. The Collective has seemingly won the ultimate victory--making nauseating sacrifices all for a 'good cause.' What better way to protect humanity's future than to completely annihilate any memory of our past. (Even wiping away memories of the planet Earth.) But perhaps I'm rushing things a bit?
The novel opens with a few spaceships getting ready to leave Earth behind. Earth's destruction literally being days (perhaps less than one???) away. The deed being done by a comet. It will take hundreds of years to arrive on Sagan, the new planet believed to be capable of supporting life. Petra, her family, and the other families selected will be making the journey in stasis.
But the humans guarding the sleepers, well, they have thoughts, opinions, ideas that are radically dangerous. Dangerous might not be the right word--deadly might suit better. If memories cannot be totally erased and new programming rewritten, well then, OOPS, that's just a necessary sacrifice.
Petra seems to be the only one to retain her memories. Memories packed with stories, stories, and more stories. Being found out--or found out too soon--may be costly. It will take wisdom to know when to make her move, to act against the Collective... And even then resistance may prove futile. And even if dozens of things go right, well, the odds may not be in her favor. An unexplored planet with a million uncertainties. Still, she's humanity's last chance to REMEMBER, to reflect.
My thoughts: Newbery Medal 2022. It's impossible to read Newbery winners with a completely open mind and low expectations. (Which, in my opinion, is how most books should be read for the highest degree of enjoyment.)
On the one hand, it celebrates stories, storytelling, and storytellers. It celebrates the notions that stories not only entertain but they inform as well. Stories help us make sense or process the world around us. Ourselves. Others. Life. Stories matter because even fiction (or in this case folklore) can contain truths that make us better. Maybe better isn't the right word. Stories contain truths that can give us an opportunity to think, engage, learn, grow, reflect, etc. Emotions and feelings can be chaotic, messy, overwhelming...stories help us manage life.
The book is political in that many, many science fiction stories are political. The book is essentially a dystopia set on a spaceship and another planet. Dystopias are almost always political because they show us power gone sour. The Collective is BAD news obviously. But how did the Collective come to be? That we really don't have a lot of answers for. Except that we know that the Collective is built on this one idea that knowledge of the past, our history, is irrevocably dangerous to our survival. Wipe out ALL memories of our mistakes, conflicts, tragedies, abuses, injustices, wars, etc., and humanity has a chance. In the same way that the futuristic society of The Giver celebrates SAMENESS. The Collective fears DIFFERENCES.
It asks the question--what is the value--is there value--in history? The Collective perhaps started out rewriting or revising history before changing tactics to annihilating and destroying.
I would argue that history always matters. Whether it be denial or revision, you can't learn from the past that you disconnect from.
On the other hand, I really HATED the ending. Or non-ending if you will. I don't like endings where you are CLUELESS what happens and what it means. It might as well be written in a foreign language as far as I'm concerned. I've read the last few pages a few times, and still, I'm like what does it mean? what happened? what is about to happen? was it good? was it bad?
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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