Sonido Reyes: To Our Untamed Core

Schedule

Mon Sep 21 2026 at 07:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC-07:00
Location

Changing Hands Bookstore | Tempe, AZ

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Bestselling author, Sonido Reyes, presents their latest YA dystopia, To Our Untamed Core, where a boy must his boyfriend from El Torneo.
About this Event

The Hunger Games meets The Sunbearer Trials in bestselling and award-winning author Sonido Reyes's YA dystopia about a boy who survives by hiding his truth until his boyfriend is sentenced to El Torneo — a brutal, fight-to-the-death game — where he must risk everything to save him. In conversation with Jonny Garza Villa.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Centuries after the conquistadors claimed the Afueras for their own, Temo spends his life obeying the Holy Order's decree, undergoing their sacraments to tame his supposedly violent nature.

The only rule he breaks: hiding that he's trans. If that fact is discovered, Temo will face El Torneo, a brutal, fight-to-the-death game pitting the untamed against one another. No Afuereño who enters El Torneo ever escapes with their life.

But when Temo's boyfriend is unexpectedly arrested and thrown into the deadly tournament, he'll do anything to rescue Ollin from his gruesome fate, even if it means entering El Torneo himself.

Only there's far more to this tournament than meets the eye--survival is just the beginning. When the cost of saving the one he loves the most might be higher than he ever imagined, is Temo willing to pay it?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sonido Reyes is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, The Broposal, and The Golden Boy's Guide to Bipolar. They also have contributed short stories to the anthologies Transmogrify! and For the Rest of Us. Sonido writes fiction celebrating queer and Mexican stories in a variety of genres and age catefories. He serves as the vice-president of My Galvanized Friend, a nonprofit focused on providing access to and amplifying LGBTQ+ writing, art, and creators. Sonido also co-hosts the podcast Bidi Bidi Book Pod, which celebrates queer and trans BIPOC authors and stories.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Jonny Garza Villa is a product of the Great State of Texas, born and raised near and along the Gulf Coast, and currently living in San Antonio. They are a Sagittarius sun, Capricorn everything else, a former very bad baseball player, and a former pretty good drag queen. Jonny is an author of contemporary young adult novels inspired by their own Tejane & Chicane and queer identities including their debut novel and Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, the Stonewall Honor Book Ander & Santi Were Here, and Canto Contigo, publishing in 2024. Futbolista is their first New Adult contemporary romance.

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Where is it happening?

Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock Drive, Tempe, United States

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