Book Review for The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas

This is an award-winning children’s mystery which I enjoyed reading as an adult. It has a strong male protagonist and is filled with action and adventure. This story begins and ends in Florida, but the majority of it takes place on an isolated ranch in New Mexico.

The protagonist, Rafa Alvarez, is an anxious twelve-year-old Cuban American sixth-grade student who lives in Miami, Florida. He has a passion for a fantasy role-playing game called The Forgotten Age. His mother has cancer and becomes weaker and more ill. As she struggles, Rafa prefers to spend more of his time with his friends and his game than with her. When he gets in trouble at school his father sends him to work at Ranch Espanto in New Mexico.

Rafa’s curiosity grows about a man in a green jacket that he repeatedly sees on the ranch. He suspects him of sabotaging his work and the ranch. He sets out to find out who this mysterious man is and what he is doing at the ranch. He wonders if he is the Ghost of Rancho Espanto and sets out to solve the mystery. When the two finally meet, Rafa realizes that this man has a lot of similarities with him. The man in the green sweater repeatedly tells Rafa that he needs to leave the ranch and go home, but he won’t tell him why.

Jennie Kim is a Korean American girl who befriends Rafa on the ranch. She has bright purple hair that she usually wears in braids and likes to wear University of New Mexico hoodies. She has a thing for snacks, especially Korean snacks. She likes to hide her snacks in the library. She makes regular trips into town for ice cream and always goes on an outing—swimming or trail riding—on the fifteenth of the month. She loves graphic novels. She and Rafa share a love of reading and a love of similar snacks. Eventually, she shares with Rafa that she lost her father in a car accident. She introduces Raph to a book about ghosts in New Mexico. She works with Rafa to try to solve the mystery of who is behind the strange things happening at the ranch.

I enjoyed this story. The author does a good job at combining mystery with science fiction. It kept me engaged. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery and science fiction. I give this book my 4-star rating!