The sobs I let out while reading this 😩 as a daughter of an immigrant who crossed the border with two toddlers, this was felt sooo deeply in my bones.

RIP to El Chino. an amazingly selfless person who deserved a longer life.

To be queer is to be longing. This was longing. And it was written so well!! I longed with Lily. But I also squealed with delight as her crush grew and as they both acknowledged it. She was so brave especially considering her more culturally strict upbringing.

I enjoyed learning her parents history but I wish that part was wrapped up a bit more. Like why am I getting their pov if it ends there? It helped understand why they acted the way they did but I still wanted it to tie up with the rest of the story.

I didn’t know who the author was before reading this but this is such a great written memoir that even without knowing much about them, I was intrigued to find out more. Desert life is definitely not for the weak and it was so interesting to hear about how different people live in the desert, especially since I lived in the Mojave desert for some of my childhood years. All in all an interesting memoir on the exploration of gender identity.

10/10! Read this.

Still not a very good detective but still a cozy book. I did get very annoyed when she started questioning the teenager who she was interviewing for a job at her cafe. The way she went about it was so emotional and irrational, ‘how did you know your mom didn’t do it?!’ Like ma’am get it under control she’s just a child. SMH. That along with her drunken altercation with another suspect in a grocery store just gets me so annoyed with her.

She’s lucky I love her group of friends and enjoy the coziness and cultural information. Haha

This was such a good read. When she touches on white fragility SHEESH. As a WOC in a white city and often in white working spaces, this was so spot on. You're seen as the aggressor for calling out white peoples racism or ignorance. and then her example of the white queer person using their queerness as a crutch against the bipoc folk. Because to them their queerness trumps their whiteness WOW talk about relevant in Portland.

I also love how most of us come to the same conclusion of our moms, strong hard working immigrant pillars. We originally saw them as weak housewives and grow up to learn that without them we couldn't have RAN the way we did towards "modern" lifestyles.