Narrator Ramón de Ocampo expresses the many emotional shifts of Jay Reguero. The audiobook begins with Jay’s early memory of connection with his compassionate cousin, Jun, while visiting the Philippines, where he is originally from. Now 17, Jay finds himself unmotivated by college acceptance and dulled by video games. De Ocampo juxtaposes this fog with a rush of feelings when Jay learns of his cousin’s murder by the Filipino police for supposed drug use. Jay’s determination to discover the truth ends in a return to the Philippines and a change that affects him and his Filipino and American family members. De Ocampo enacts the gripping tension of President Duterte’s power, Jun’s father’s support of the regime, and family schisms. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
When it comes to things no one really wants to talk about, death and grieving are often at the top of the list. Very few people want to sit in the uncomfortable realization of our own mortality, especially with kids who are supposed to have a long life ahead of them and shouldn’t have to […]
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’ve compiled a list of books by some amazing authors that you should definitely have on your TBR. The AAPI Community isn’t a monolith, and the community’s voices always have a lot to say so we encourage you to discover beyond what we listed here. […]
Contemporary is my favorite genre in part for all its possibilities. In any given list of contemporary greats, including this one, there can be romantic comedies, thrillers, stories of perseverance in the face of an adverse world, explorations of real-life issues, and settings that can be wildly true to where you grew up or a […]
As the conversation about diversifying our shelves (and the publishing industry as a whole) continues, it’s three steps forward, and two steps back. (See the still startling and disappointing numbers from the annual Lee & Low diversity in publishing survey, which reads quite bleak for 2018.) But more and more (and more, please!), publishers, editors […]