Fireblooms (by Alexandra Villasante)

This was my Read Harder Choice for a YA book by a Latine author, although for some reason I kept bouncing off the title and the cover. (Turns out I definitely do judge books by their covers.)  But I am so glad I had the little nudge to read it because not only is it a great YA, it's also speculative fiction!

Both characters are Latine and Spanish is interwoven beautifully in the book in a completely organic way. You have enough context clues to understand, and at least a tiny bit of familiarity with Spanish helps, but it is done incredibly well.  It's a dual-perspective novel from two kids who live in a Tech Utopia/Dystopia type of town - one is there to help his mom, who was abusive and has cancer, and wants nothing to do with the surveillance state - the other is nonbinary and appreciates the Big Brother aspects of the Utopia/Dystopia to help save him from harm. 

One of the characters is nonbinary and it's a better example of a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns than the one I actually read for this category; it feels way more organic here for some reason and was very easy to adjust to. I think it's just really, really well written all around, and if you enjoy YA speculative fiction, deserves a read!