The Last Cuentista is a middle-grade dystopian novel by Donna Barba Higuera, published October 12, 2021 by Levine Querido.

The story follows Petra Peña who, along with her family and a few hundred others, leave Earth to continue the human race after a comet strikes the planet.

In 2061, twelve-year old Petra Peña, her seven-year-old brother Javier, and her mother and father prepare to leave a doomed Earth.

Hundreds of years later, Petra is taken out of stasis by the Collective, a totalitarian movement that has seized control of the ship.

Petra, whose malfunctioning cog has failed to erase her memories, tricks the Collective into believing she has been reprogrammed.

Petra, Suma, and a boy and girl whom she names Rubio and Feathers, have been woken to aid the colonization of Sagan.

Petra searches for her family's stasis pods and learns that her mother and father were "purged" hundreds of years ago.

Petra secretly tells Suma, Rubio, and Feathers a cuento, a traditional folk tale.

Simultaneously, Len vomits and breaks out in blisters, apparent side effects of genetic modifications made by the Collective to their members.

Len dies from his exposure to Sagan, so Nyla orders the Collective to prepare to depart for another planet.

As the group approaches the settlement, a swarm of drones from the ship arrive and spray toxin.

"[5] School Library Journal's Mara Alpert called it "[a] keep-you-up-all-night, compulsively readable science fiction novel that offers much food for thought.