Author: Erika L. Sánchez
Rating: 2/5
When Julia’s older sister dies in a road accident, her family is grief-stricken and must deal with the repercussions of their grief.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
Julia’s sister Olga (who’s twenty-two) dies when she’s hit by a bus. Her parents are Mexican immigrants. Her father (Apa) works in a candy factory, her mother (Amá) works as a cleaner for rich families. Amá wants to throw Julia a quinceañera even though Julia doesn’t want that. Julia sneaks into Olga’s room and finds a love letter, a hotel key and lingerie. She tries to ask Angie, Olga’s best friend, about it but gets no answers. She’s unable to get answers from the hotel either. Julia struggles with grief. Her favourite class is English with Mr. Ingman who supports her going to college. Julia wants to become a writer and escape Chicago. At her quinceañera, Julia gets into a fight with her aunt and her mother gets mad. Julia helps Amá clean houses over the summer and falls for Connor, a white boy who’s really rich. Julia finds the key to Olga’s room (Amá had locked it) and moves the items to her room. Amá finds them in her room and is horrified because she thinks they belong to Julia. The only thing she doesn’t find is Olga’s laptop. Julia is grounded and her depression is precipitated by this. She attempts to commit suicide and is admitted into hospital. She gets therapy etc. but her parents also send her to Mexico to heal. Before leaving, she breaks into Olga’s laptop and realises Olga had an affair with an old married man (a doctor). In Mexico, Julia learns that Apa used to be an artist and Amá was raped on the border when they fled, and that’s how Olga was born. Julia goes back to Chicago and repairs her relationship with her parents. Julia learns Olga was pregnant. She finds the man Olga had an affair with and confronts him. He insists he was going to marry Olga but Julia doesn’t have any sympathy for him. Julia gets accepted into NYU and goes there in the fall.
Review
I was raving about this book when I first started reading it. Indeed, the first few chapters were excellent. I was totally sucked into what I thought would be the main conflict–Olga’s death. I thought this book was going to be about grief within a tumultuous family. Instead, I felt Sánchez was trying to accomplish far too much resulting in a patchy story that ultimately didn’t impact me in any particular way. I didn’t like how obnoxious Julia was nor did I like her inability to listen to anyone even though she claimed to be super open-minded and feminist. I didn’t necessarily mind this because I think it takes skill to make you dislike a character and as long as they feel real, I can appreciate the way they are written. However, I felt there wasn’t much development on her part. Her depression felt rushed and I don’t think enough time was spent on her healing. Yes, she goes to Mexico for a few weeks but that also felt rushed. And also super random! Perhaps it would have been better if she had a stronger moment with her parents where they revealed their secrets to her rather than having extended family members do so.
It was strange how keen Julia had been to unravel Olga’s secrets. I was so sure that most of the book would be dedicated to this. I was disappointed when only a few chapters at the start and end were spent on this.
There was just so much happening!!! TOO much! And I’d much rather have a few things done really well than have lots and lots of things done badly. For instance, there was a quick mention of rape, racism, homophobia and sexism but nothing that I didn’t already know; nothing that made me feel super affected.
I might have grown out of literary YA. I was stupidly annoyed at how Julia was this bibliophile and kept trying to reference random books every few pages and thought she was sooo clever.
I feel so disillusioned by all the horrible books I’ve been reading this year. So I think I might make this the year of rereading books and sprinkle a few new books now and then. I don’t want to hate reading. 
Earnestly Eccentric 