VELORIO English Edition

With voices of childlike clarity, youthful intensity, and sheer menace, Diana Pou, Vico Ortiz, and Gabriel S. Rivera Vázquez lead a skilled group of Latin actors in narrating this surreal, dark fantasy. The audiobook speculates on what would become of the children orphaned and abandoned in the aftermath of 2017's Hurricane Maria. As young survivors follow a charismatic madman into the Puerto Rican highlands with promises of a utopia of food and safety, the realities of cultish violence and corruption appear like shadows around them. Although William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES may come to mind, the all-Latin cast's heartfelt deliveries and fluency in Spanish give a personal and authentic sound to this examination of what it is to lose one's world. A chilling and penetrating listen. B.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2022]