BLANCA & ROJA

Sisters Blanca and Roja know their family's curse will someday trap one of them in the body of a swan while the other remains a girl. When local boys Page and Barclay become involved with the sisters, their firsthand experience with the magical transformative powers of the woods will either save or destroy all four of them. Narrator Thérèse Plummer is the star of the audiobook as she skillfully evokes the emotions of Page in a gravelly alto. Kyla Garcia and Almarie Guerra pepper the sisters' speech with smoothly accented Spanish, but the similar timbre of the narrators makes the sisters slightly difficult to differentiate. Overall, the narration has a dreamlike quality that fits the story's magical realism, but some listeners may find their attention drifting. H.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2018]