Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista was published in October 2021 to great fanfare. A work of science fiction, The Last Cuentista follows a twelve-year-old girl named Petra Peña, who lives on an Earth beset by terrible, tragic conditions caused by a stray comet that struck that planet. As a result, the planet is dying; it is growing increasingly more difficult for humanity to live on the planet, causing leaders to come up with plans to colonize another planet and start anew. To that end, they start to build spaceships and select colonists to travel to a planet called Sagan, where they will build a new Earth. Petra and her family are quickly selected to be colonists.
Their journey will take many years, forcing them into stasis for the duration of the journey. However, while they are sleeping, a mysterious force takes control of Petra's ship and erases many of their memories. Petra, the person responsible for keeping everyone's memories alive, starts to wage war against the demonic force for the future of a unique humanity.
When it was published, The Last Cuentista was well-reviewed. In their review of the novel, Tae Keller of The New York Times called Higuera's novel "a beautiful cuento" and praised Higuera's writing and characterization. Kirkus Reviews called it "well-crafted and suspenseful" and called it "An exquisite tonic for storytellers far and wide, young and old."
