Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

Welcome Back, Booklovers! My latest read releases just in time for Hispanic Heritage Month and features dual POV from two Afro-Latinx teens. I actually didn't read the synopsis before I dove into this story. I just knew it was an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling featuring Black Latinx teens. I've been trying to read all the YA novels I see with Black couples that release this year. 

This book is a well done magical realism story about Pheus a gifted young musician at heart spending his summer in the Bronx with his father, and Eury a girl born and raised in Puerto Rico who is spending the summer with her aunt and cousin while she works past some trauma.

Eury is dealing with a spirit who has been present in her life since she was younger and her parents split up. This spirit followed her from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria displaced her family to Tampa and now New York. Pheus is a believer in what is tangible but Eury has him wanting to help her find her demons.

I liked Pheus's group of friends and how authentic and real they felt. I live on the East Coast in a Latinx neighborhood and these felt like teens from my neighborhood. Liliam Rivera did a great job capturing their voice in a way that will be effortless to teen readers. The Spanish language is regularly included and I liked that not everything they said was translated. 

At first this story feels like your typical summer love contemporary but then things switch in the second half as it dives further into spiritual beliefs. So you might believe at first that Ato is all in Eury's mind. The incorporation of life after Hurricane Maria was very well done as our author didn't shy away from painting a vivid picture of the reality of the story. How Eury and her mother thought it would be a hurricane that would just pass like many others and instead this one literally ripped the roof off their heads.

Another thing this story did that stood out was give very present and involved parents. Oftentimes in YA the parents are not as involved as they should be. With Eury's mother we explore how in some cultures people would rather cling to their faith then admit that a family member is struggling with their mental health. Pheus' dad is always around to give his son helpful relationship advice and remind him of who his people are. 

I received an arc from Bloomsbury YA in exchange for an honest review.