e-Audio, 01:46:00
Narrated by: Andre Bellido & Aida Reluzco
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: May 1, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Imprisonment, Oppression
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Environmental Activism, Set in another country, YA, Novels in Verse, Realistic FictionThis romantic contemporary novel-in-verse tells the love story of two teens fighting for climate action and human rights.
Winged beings are meant to be free. And so are artists, but the Cuban government has criminalized any art that doesn’t meet their approval. Soleida and her parents protest this injustice with their secret sculpture garden of chained birds. Then a hurricane exposes the illegal art, and her parents are arrested.
Soleida escapes to Central America alone, joining the thousands of Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica while seeking asylum elsewhere. There she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy whose enigmatic music enchants birds and animals—and Soleida.
Together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba. Soon they discover that love isn’t about falling—it’s about soaring together to new heights. But wings can be fragile, and Soleida and Dariel come from different worlds. They are fighting for a better future—and the chance to be together.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I always get a little iffy when I read novels in verse. I’m not a huge fan of them, but for some authors all it takes is me to see their name on the book and I’ll at least try it. It was this, paired with the bright beautiful cover that made me grab this as soon as it was available.
This was different from other novels in verse for me because it was fighting two different issues. I thought it would be too much for a novel in verse to handle. Like it was going to have to do a lot of explaining to accurately explain what was going on both sides or to show how they needed to help each other. But Engle made it to where they aren’t REALLY fighting the two issues simultaneously, but they still find ways to help each other do just that. It really is a powerful story.
The reason I’m not sure of most novels in verse is the way the story is told. Since it’s a novel in verse it always feels like we’re missing important details in the story or that too much of it isn’t being told. I actually did feel this way when I first started reading it, so I ended up having to read along to the e-copy as I read it. That could just be a me thing because I didn’t know that in Cuba art was deemed something illegal unless it was approved, so I wanted to know more about that. I ended up doing some more research on it later. I just know in a regular novel the author could have expanded on that more. It did help me to brush up on some things I didn’t know about Cuba tho, so that was good.
Their romance was cute, but it did take a back seat to the other things that are happening in the story. And that was ok with me. The thigns they were fighting for and against were more important. I think it just made it easier that they could do the things together. And in the chapters where they spoke together? I loved. They may have been talking about two different things, but they still came together and made an impact on each other.
This book was a wonderful way of showing the effects of how we’re treating this planet as well as seeing what happens to refugees and those forced to flee their countries. The writing style, the romance, the narrators, were all wonderful. Definitely a joy to read this book, whether with your eyes or your ears.
Overall, I give this
