How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Narrator: Kyla Garcia
Length: 11 Hours, 51 Minutes
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio on August 10, 2021
Age Group & Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Representation: Mexian American protagonist
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library

The Hating Game meets I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter in this irresistible romance starring a Mexican American teen who discovers love and profound truths about the universe when she spends her summer on a road trip across the country.

When her twin sister reaches social media stardom, Moon Fuentez accepts her fate as the ugly, unwanted sister hidden in the background, destined to be nothing more than her sister’s camerawoman. But this summer, Moon also takes a job as the “merch girl” on a tour bus full of beautiful influencers and her fate begins to shift in the best way possible.

Most notable is her bunkmate and new nemesis, Santiago Phillips, who is grumpy, combative, and also the hottest guy Moon has ever seen.

Moon is certain she hates Santiago and that he hates her back. But as chance and destiny (and maybe, probably, close proximity) bring the two of them in each other’s perpetual paths, Moon starts to wonder if that’s really true. She even starts to question her destiny as the unnoticed, unloved wallflower she always thought she was.

Could this summer change Moon’s life as she knows it?

Trigger & Content Warnings: suicide, death of parent, verbal abuse, physical abuse (domestic violence), sexism, slut-shaming, fatphobia, sexual harassment

I adored How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe so much that I think I might be in love with this book? It’s definitely one of my favorites of 2022 for sure — manifesting this reading energy for the rest of the year.

Racquel Vasquez Gilliland’s novel follows Moon Fuentez, a Mexican American teen who feels she’s under her twin sister Star’s shadow all the time, but especially more so when Star reaches social media stardom. She’s beautiful and wanted by everyone while Moon feels like she’s ugly and unwanted without her sister — all she’ll ever be is supporting her sister in the spotlight working the cameras and taking photos for Star’s account.

Moon has a very complicated relationship with her mother and Star, and I really loved how this relationship is explored throughout the book along with her feelings. Family is messy and complex, and Gilliland dives brilliantly into the topic – Moon is constantly compared to her sister throughout her life, but at the same time she also loves her because she feels Star understands her the most regarding their relationship with their mother. As much as anyone can tell you to simply pull away and cut toxic family members off, it’s so much more complicated than that.

I loved Moon’s thought process around applying to colleges — and at the same time, I felt very understood as well because it reminded me much of my own thought process several years ago when I was applying. I also enjoyed the influencer aspect included as well, with her observing behind the scenes and on the sidelines of the others participating in the tour versus what the world sees as she’s forced to join Star along in the tour throughout the summer.

How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe is ultimately about Moon’s journey toward self-love and finding her own path during the summer tour as she works with merchandise with Santiago Phillips. He’s grumpy but soft-hearted, and Moon thinks the two of them hate each other from the moment they meet. I adored him so much — he’s such a soft grump who’s supportive of Moon and helps her realize she needs to give herself much more credit than she does. I enjoyed reading their interactions a lot.

I felt so much for Moon and felt so seen reading this book, but at the end of the day (and throughout multiple points in the book), I just wanted to give her the biggest hug I could (which says a lot because I absolutely hate physical touching). And at the same time, I felt so angry on her behalf because she absolutely deserves so much more.

I just had a lot of feelings while reading — it was just that brilliantly written and I related a lot to Moon, especially with her feelings of self-worth. At times the book does get heavy, especially with physical and verbal abuse, but there was a lot of humor and sass from Moon throughout that helped lighten up the story (this by no means lessens the impact though!). At the end of the day, I was also left feeling satisfied and happy for the characters.

Since I hardly listen to audiobooks (and although this has increased more in recent years), Kyla Garcia is completely new to me as a narrator. But I enjoyed her narration of How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe a lot! Each of the characters had their own distinctive style and voice that were appropriate for them, and I felt Garcia’s performance really enhanced both the story and Gilliland’s writing style. Overall, I enjoyed her performance and found myself looking into her other works to see if there are any on my TBR.

This book was beautiful and amazing and honestly, I highly recommend picking this up regardless of the format.