Seventeen-year-old Luke escapes his sorrows over his mother’s death and his father’s descent into alcoholism by fleeing to Moab, Utah, where he works at the Moonflower Hostel. Nineteen-year-old Ava uses alcohol to avoid feelings about her grandmother's death and the way her parents have deserted her to open the Moonflower Hostel. The parallel lives of the two characters become linked in this story of serendipity and strange connections. Their alternating viewpoints benefit from a dual reading by Cynthia Holloway and Ryan Gesell. Gesell’s portrayal of Luke is breathy and dreamy as befits a boy who is moved by magical landscapes and mystical experiences. Holloway's depiction of Ava is more forceful as she depicts the young woman's search for sobriety and family love.
Young AdultPub Date: Dec. 14, 2010
Duration: 4 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780307746887
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Muñoz’s narration allows glints of humor and family love to balance the horrors of trauma.
Narrator Javier Muñoz’s voice is light, almost giddy, as he describes the loving, joyful, book-filled family life of 17-year-old Mexican American twins Emma and CheChe. The story is told from the perspective of CheChe, who relishes his good life. After CheChe’s El Paso high school is attacked and he is shot and loses a leg, Muñoz’s narration changes dramatically. Sounding slower, subdued, and saddened, CheChe tries to comprehend the shattering of his idyllic life. Listeners will be struck by the sweetness of CheChe’s developing relationship with Placido, his first boyfriend, and the evolution of his path to healing.
Muñoz’s narration allows glints of humor and family love to balance the horrors of trauma. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: yesterday
Duration: 10 hrs, 56 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668185834
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Themes of inheritance, identity, sacrifice, and belonging resonate through three voices.
This multigenerational family story comes to life through an ensemble performance. After high schooler Dawn receives an assignment to interview her grandmother, she begins uncovering a family history that stretches from 19th-century China to Taiwan and then New York. Eunice Wong, Katharine Chin, and Kenneth Lee shift among generations with careful attention to rhythm, pitch, and emotional texture, making the transitions easy to follow. Their performances capture the family's guardedness over its old secretsas well as Dawn's curiosity as a young woman seeking answers. As the layers of the Chin family history emerge, the narrators maintain a strong sense of continuity across time.
Themes of inheritance, identity, sacrifice, and belonging resonate through three voices. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 42 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063238039
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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