WITCHES

Narrator Kyla Garcia offers an engrossing performance of this thoughtful audiobook in translation, which examines gender expectations. Feliciana, voiced lyrically, with a slight Mexican accent, is a world-famous traditional healer whose transfem cousin and teacher, Paloma, has been brutally murdered. Zoe, a young journalist from Mexico City sent to cover Paloma's death, is portrayed with an American accent and sharper inflections. The juxtaposition of narration styles enhances the contrast between Zoe's modern childhood and Feliciana's traditional Indigenous upbringing. As Zoe's interview progresses, she finds several of her own life experiences reflected in surprising ways in Feliciana's memories, ultimately revealing the shared difficulties of women who are navigating lives that men would forbid access to. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]