Fifteen-year-old Julia Reyes lives in a cramped Chicago apartment, navigating the high expectations of her immigrant parents while mourning her older sister, Olga. After Olga dies in a traffic accident, Julia’s mother focuses her grief and surveillance on Julia, constantly comparing her to the "perfect" daughter Olga appeared to be. Driven by suspicion and a need for autonomy, Julia investigates her sister’s private life, discovering hidden secrets that challenge her family’s sanitized image of the deceased. As Julia grapples with severe depression and her own ambitions to become a writer, she confronts the realities of poverty, border violence, and the weight of ancestral trauma.
This book serves young adults navigating the pressure of inherited cultural standards and those seeking a realistic depiction of mental illness in a minority household. Readers interested in the complexities of the second-generation immigrant experience find a narrative that rejects stereotypes in favor of messy, difficult truths. The audience walks away with a better understanding of how systemic barriers and familial secrets shape individual identity, alongside a stark look at the friction between personal desire and traditional duty.
- Published
- 2017
- Language
- EN
