The Other Half of Happy
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Narrated by:
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Ariana Cordero
About this listen
Quijana is a girl in pieces. One-half Guatemalan, one-half American: When Quijana's Guatemalan cousins move to town, her dad seems ashamed that she doesn't know more about her family's heritage. One-half crush, one-half buddy: When Quijana meets Zuri and Jayden, she knows she's found true friends. But she can't help the growing feelings she has for Jayden. One-half kid, one-half grown-up: Quijana spends her nights Skyping with her ailing grandma and trying to figure out what's going on with her increasingly hard-to-reach brother. In the course of this immersive and beautifully written novel, Quijana must figure out which parts of herself are most important, and which pieces come together to make her whole. This lyrical debut from Rebecca Balcárcel is a heartfelt poetic portrayal of a girl growing up, fitting in, and learning what it means to belong.
©2019 Rebecca Balcárcel (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Rebecca Balcárcel has written a powerful story that seeps into the spaces where language and heritage meet family and new discoveries. The Other Half Of Happy strikes all the right chords, bridging a gap and stretching open arms to readers looking for home in both familiar and unfamiliar places. Bravely told, with notes of vulnerability, brevity, and hope, this is a story that invites quiet courage to speak love, regardless of your native language." (Beth Hautala, author of The Ostrich and Other Lost Things)
"Rebecca Balcárcel has penned a touching and oh-so-satisfying story featuring a fierce and tender new Latinx super star, Quijana Carrillo! Quijana will capture your heart with her defiant spirit and unwavering love for friends and family." (Angela Cervantes, author of Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring)
"Quijana's journey to understand herself better and how she fits between two cultures is authentic and relatable to readers of all backgrounds, and her language struggles will particularly hit home for some. With Rebecca Balcárcel's lyrical language, Quijana's voice feels both fresh and familiar. A beautiful coming of age story." (Hena Khan, author of Amina's Voice)
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Story
While spacing out in Chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk, and added a message to her. Intrigue! Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters - sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she's kind of falling for this letter writer. Only who is he?
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Perfect!
- By Mary JME on 09-24-16
By: Kasie West
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11 Before 12
- Friendship List Series, Book 1
- By: Lisa Greenwald
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The first day of middle school means trading in freeze tag at the pool for new schedules, fabulous outfits, and a fresh start. But for 11-year-old Kaylan, the chaos of new locker combinations, cafeteria cliques, and potential first kisses is more than she can handle. She dreads the start of sixth grade and feels like she wants - no, needs - a winning game plan. Luckily, Kaylan and her effortlessly chill BFF, Arianna, have a fool-proof plan for tackling transitions: a list of 11 things they need to do to totally transform themselves before they both turn 12 in November.
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BEST BOOK EVER!!!
- By Ronald Phillip on 08-22-18
By: Lisa Greenwald
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Starworld
- By: Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Emma Galvin
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility.
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lovely story
- By Chess on 11-05-19
By: Audrey Coulthurst, and others
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The Secret Side of Empty
- By: Maria E. Andreu
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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What's it like to be undocumented? High school senior M.T. knows all too well. With graduation and an uncertain future looming, she must figure out how to grow up in the only country she's ever called home... a country in which she's "illegal". M.T. was born in Argentina and brought to America as a baby without any official papers. And as questions of college, work, and the future arise, M.T. will have to decide what exactly she wants for herself, knowing someone she loves will unavoidably pay the price for it.
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Heavy topics handled well but just fell short 4 me
- By AudioBookHoe on 07-30-17
By: Maria E. Andreu
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Summer Promise
- Christy Miller Series, Book 1
- By: Robin Jones Gunn
- Narrated by: Manasseh Nichols
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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As 14-year-old Christy leaves her family's Wisconsin farm to spend the summer at her wealthy aunt and uncle's home in Newport Beach, she hopes this will be the best summer of her life. When she meets surfer Todd with his screaming silver blue eyes, she's certain it will be. But when the summer doesn't unfold as Christy had hoped, she wonders if she'll keep her promise to her parents not to do anything she'll regret. Will she do anything to get Todd's attention, to be accepted, to force her summer to give her everything it promised?
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Wonderful Story
- By kerri dawn debty on 11-13-20
By: Robin Jones Gunn
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Eliza and Her Monsters
- By: Francesca Zappia
- Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble. In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community.
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Just...... Breathtaking
- By Amazon Customer on 06-15-19
By: Francesca Zappia
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post
- By: Emily M. Danforth
- Narrated by: Beth Laufer
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Cameron Post feels a mix of guilt and relief when her parents die in a car accident. Their deaths mean they will never learn the truth she eventually comes to - that she's gay. Orphaned, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt Ruth. When she’s eventually outed, her aunt sends her to God’s Promise, a religious conversion camp that is supposed to “cure” her homosexuality. At the camp, Cameron comes face to face with the cost of denying her true identity.
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A very worthwhile Read!
- By TENA on 11-02-14
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Anything but Typical
- By: Nora Raleigh Baskin
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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By acclaimed writer Nora Raleigh Baskin, this is the eye-opening depiction of an autistic boy's daily and lifelong struggles to exist in a "neurotypical" world. The only place sixth grader Jason Blake can be himself is online, where he posts the short stories he writes. It's there that Jason finds Rebecca. Though the two have common ground, Jason can't face the consequences that meeting Rebecca might bring - but if he doesn't meet her, there's no chance to have a real relationship.
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Anything but Typical
- By Katelyn Ward on 03-29-16
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Just Fly Away
- By: Andrew McCarthy
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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A debut novel about one girl's discovery of family secrets, first love, the limits of forgiveness, and finding one's way in the world, written with wisdom and sympathy by the best-selling memoirist, actor, and director. When 15-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a child from a brief affair, an eight-year-old boy named Thomas who lives in her own suburban New Jersey town, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her family and her life.
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none
- By Rick on 04-06-17
By: Andrew McCarthy
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A Constellation of Roses
- By: Miranda Asebedo
- Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since her troubled mother abandoned her, Trix McCabe has preferred to stay on the move. But when she lands with her long-lost relatives, she finds out that the McCabe women have talents like her own that defy explanation: pies that cure all ills, palm-reading that never misses the mark, knowledge of secrets that have never been told. Before long, Trix feels like she might finally have found somewhere she belongs. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she’ll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life...or keep running from the one she’s always known.
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A Constellation of Scars
- By Dana Al-Basha on 04-22-20
By: Miranda Asebedo
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Happily Ever Afters
- By: Elise Bryant
- Narrated by: Jordan Cobb
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend. When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just...gone. Caroline has a solution: Tessa needs to find some inspiration in a real-life love story of her own.
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The longest disappointment
- By Abookwithreview on 01-22-21
By: Elise Bryant
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Instructions for Dancing
- By: Nicola Yoon
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began...and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.
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Cute.. but that ending :(
- By Doha on 06-06-21
By: Nicola Yoon
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The People We Keep
- By: Allison Larkin
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at a local diner, she’s left fending for herself in a town where she’s never quite felt at home. When she “borrows” her neighbor’s car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers.
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Absolutely loved this book!
- By chatteycathi on 08-09-21
By: Allison Larkin
What listeners say about The Other Half of Happy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Lenore
- 02-17-22
Lovely story of coming to terms with being biraci
I deeply related as Guatemalan-American. I also appreciate the gay and autistic representation. Narration in English and Spanish was spot-on.
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Overall
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- Gabriel Reich
- 05-03-22
Moving
Enjoying the book &
all the emotions involved around family.
The stories within the story are lovely
with flavor and insight around growing up
learning about our heritage.
We are all in here together to work as
a family.
Disfrutas el libro y más
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- Allyson J Pitts
- 02-20-22
Best narration ever!
She took the reading to a whole new level! Exceptional! I’ve listened to dozens of books, but this is the first one that had me leaving a review because it was so lovely and the narration was exquisite!
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- Linda Defreitas
- 04-27-23
Life of love and family
This is a story of life and family. It is a great book for teenagers of all stages of life.
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