Latinx Lit: My most expected 2021 reads

Last year I read more books by Latinx authors. As a slow reader, all I managed to do was to add many grand titles to my TBR list. I’m not sure I’ll be able to tackle all of last year’s books soon, but that doesn’t prevent me from getting excited about what Latinx authors have in store for us this 2021.

Let’s dig in.

1. Isabel Allende: Mujeres del alma mía (The Soul of a Woman)

If you’re reading this list, you probably already know that Isabel Allende is a queen — I dare say, THE Queen — of Magical Realism. Allende has paved the road for Latinx authors worldwide with her unique voice and often focusing on the experiences of women. An advocate for inclusive language and a rider of the first feminist wave, Allende has looked at her life, her relationship with feminism, and produced a passionate and inspiring memoir about what it means to be a woman.

The Soul of a Woman will take us through Allende’s journey “among a tribe of like-minded female journalists, [where] she for the first time felt comfortable in her own skin, as they wrote ‘with a knife between their teeth’ about women’s issues.” Allende’s memoir will open the conversation on modern feminism and, she hopes, will “light the torch of our daughters and granddaughters with mine. They will have to live for us, as we lived for our mothers, and carry on with the work still left to be finished.”

Find more about this book here.

2. Silvia Moreno García: The Return of the Sorceress & Velvet was the Night

Silvia Moreno García exploded last year with her magnificent book Mexican Gothic. Moreno García has confirmed this book will be adapted for a TV series that is most likely going to be a Hulu original. While we anxiously wait for more deets about this series, Moreno García is releasing five books this year, well… technically. Some of these books are reissues of her classic stories like Certain Dark Things and The Beautiful Ones, but two exciting new books might come our way too!

Late last year, Moreno García teased The Return of the Sorceress and Velvet was the Night in her blog. There isn’t a lot of information on these two books yet, but the Mexican-Canadian author gave us a couple of one-liners about them. One of them will be a “sorcery and sword novella” while the other one sounds like an intriguing historical fiction novel where “a thug and a secretary find themselves on the trail of a missing woman in the midst of political upheaval and protests.”

Knowing that Moreno-García brings to the table beautiful settings and a unique take on Magical Realism, I’m beyond excited to know what she will deliver through these new books.

You can stay tuned for updates about her work by signing to her newsletter here.

3. Aiden Thomas: Lost in the Never Woods

I’m not usually a fan of retellings, but author Aiden Thomas brought us Cemetery Boys! I cannot pass the opportunity to get this book this year. The blurb says it all:

“When children go missing, people want answers. When children go missing in the small coastal town of Astoria, people look to Wendy for answers. Five years ago, Wendy and her brothers got lost in the woods. When children in the town of Astoria disappear, Wendy’s past and the mysterious circumstances of her brothers catch up with her. While attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road. Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don’t do something, the missing children will meet the same fate as her brothers. In order to find them and rescue the missing kids, Wendy must confront what’s waiting for her in the woods.”

With this retelling, Thomas is promising to not shy away from difficult themes and deliver a tale that will have all the fantasy, mystery, and Queer love to enchant us this year just as they did in 2020.

You can find more details about this book here.

4. Jonny Garza Villa: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun

Latinx author Jonny Garza Villa will drop an exciting Contemporary YA Romance novel this June.

In Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, author Jonny Garza Villa tells us the story of Julián Jules Luna, a senior ready to graduate High School and move away from his home in Corpus Christi, Texas. Mat is Jules’ Twitter crush from Los Angeles who makes the world seem conquerable. Jules can tell him anything. But when Jules’ plans are thrown literally out of the closet thanks to an impulsive tweet, the person he needs most is fifteen hundred miles away. Jules has to face his worse fears about coming out alone.

If you too have been craving a story about love, coming out, and staying true to yourself, then you’ll want to snag a copy of Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun this June. You can check out more details about this book here.

5. Daniel Aleman: Indivisible

Mexican author Daniel Aleman will bring an exciting addition to Latinx Contemporary Literature this May. His debut novel, Indivisible, will take readers through the timely journey of a teen who tries to keep his family together while his parents face deportation from the United States.

Here’s a little bit about this book:

Mateo Garcia and his sister Sophie have been taught to fear one word: deportation. After years of building a life in the United States, the Garcia family’s fear of deportation has moved to the back of their minds. But Mateo’s worst fears become a reality when he comes home from school one day to find his parents have been taken by ICE agents. With his parent’s fate and his own future in jeopardy, Mateo must face life as an American teenager in a country that rejects his family.

This sounds like the timely, Own Voices story about immigration I’ve been needing in my life! Aleman’s book won’t shy away from the exploration of the difficult topic of immigration, and I for one can’t wait to find out where Mateo’s story will take us.

You can find out more about this book and the author here.

6. Gabriela Garcia: Of Women and Salt

Another debut novel that is sure to sweep us off our feet! Gabriela Garcia will drop her historical fiction novel Of Women and Salt this March. I know it will be a beautiful book that will hit all the right emotional beats my expatriate heart needs.

Of Women and Salt promises a masterful story about “a daughter’s fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born.” This novel will follow the parallel stories of Cuban immigrant Carmen and her daughter Jeanette. While battling with addiction, Jeanette tries to connect with her roots. While processing the trauma of displacement, Carmen tries to raise a wayward Jeannette and process her difficult relationship with her own mother.

This debut novel promises raw and difficult emotions that will take us inside the lives of five generations of incredible and resilient women through Garcia’s poetic prose.

You can check out more details about this novel here.