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From the author of the award-winning debut novel INDIVISIBLE comes an affecting, timely, and thought-provoking story about going after your dreams, making tough choices, and learning that change gives as much as it takes. Every morning, sixteen-year-old Sol wakes up at the break of dawn in her hometown of Tijuana, Mexico, and makes the trip across the border to go to school in the United States. Though the commute is exhausting, this is the best way to achieve her dream of becoming the first person in her family to go to college. When her family’s restaurant starts struggling, Sol must find a part-time job in San Diego to help her dad put food on the table and pay the bills. But her complicated school and work schedules on the US side of the border mean moving in with her best friend and leaving her family behind. With her life divided by an international border, Sol must come to terms with the loneliness she hides, the pressure she feels to succeed for her family, and the fact that the future she once dreamt of is starting to seem unattainable. Mostly, she’ll have to grapple with a secret she’s kept even from herself: that maybe she’s relieved to have escaped her difficult home life, and a part of her may never want to return.
Publication Year: 2023
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2.5/5 stars.
I dunno, I think I was expecting something else when I went into this.
I thought this would be about the pressure and stress about being the eldest daughter, that Sol would come to come to terms with that. But she didn't really change by the end; the only thing she did differently was testify for a friend when she should have over a 100 pages ago. I just wish Sol was allowed to be more selfish and bitter about her situation, get angry at her dad for making her work and her brother for making her another mother figure. Maybe it's a cultural thing, considering she's Mexican-American and I'm a mutt of European descent. But still, I feel like Aleman really missed the mark when it came to Sol's character.
There are some emotional beats. I mean, I was definitely feeling for Sol and her family's situation, but it just got repetitive and slow, of Sol having glimpses of growth before reverting. I decided to play through the story while playing a game because I didn't want to waste more gym time reading this.
All in all, I wasn't much of a fan of this one. I still have Aleman's adult debut on my ARC list, so I hope I'll be able to enjoy that, at last.