Shut up, this is serious

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist. Tings are hella complicated. Weighed by a depression she can’t seem to shake, Belén helps Leti, hangs out with an older guy, and cuts a lot of class. She soon realizes, though, that distractions are only temporary. Leti is becoming a mother. Classmates are getting ready for college. But what about Belén? What future is there for girls like her? -- Amazon.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

349 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Social problem fiction.

Bildungsromans.

Subject Term:

Hispanic Americans -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

High school students -- Fiction.

Dating (Social customs) -- Fiction.

Depression, Mental -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Oakland (Calif.) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

Publication Date:

2024

ISBN:

9780063287860

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2024]

Call Number:

YA IXTA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003702795	New Young Adult	IXTA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

An unforgettable YA debut about two Latina teens growing up in East Oakland as they discover that the world is brimming with messy complexities, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.

Things are hella complicated.

Weighed by a depression she can't seem to shake, Belén helps Leti, hangs out with an older guy, and cuts a lot of class. She soon realizes, though, that distractions are only temporary. Leti is becoming a mother. Classmates are getting ready for college. But what about Belén? What future is there for girls like her?

From debut author Carolina Ixta comes a fierce, intimate examination of friendship, chosen family, and the generational cycles we must break to become our truest selves.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--This novel explores the coming-of-age of two Latina girls during their senior year of high school in East Oakland. Both Leti and Belén navigate a terrain that is saturated in casual racism, belittlement, sexism, and daily toxicity, but for Belén, all of these plus her father's abandonment have sent her into an emotional tailspin. As related by Belén, everyone else's lives and upheavals function as distraction from the heaviness of her own depression. Ixta explores the shortcomings of underfunded public education and a higher education system that wants trauma porn to inform student applications. For Leti's college essay, she must divulge her teen pregnancy. But Ixta upends the notion that teen girls who get pregnant have thrown away their futures. Readers see that Leti, for all of her shrinking self-consciousness, is a fighter. This realistic novel lays bare the ways in which some of the most harmful damage a young girl can experience happens in the home. Belén witnesses the infidelity of her father and that of Leti's father, as well as the abuse visited upon Leti's body. Belén, the observant one, is belittled and treated with contempt for the behavior of the father. Yet she can still love deeply and begin the act of forgiving and healing. This novel explores the effects of family strife, the behaviors children learn from their own parents, and what catalysts spark their evolution and journey away from those damaging situations. VERDICT Readers will be inspired by Belén's path to healing but not before it makes them ugly cry.--Stephanie Creamer

Publisher's Weekly Review

High school seniors and best friends Belén and Leti, the daughters of working-class Mexican immigrants, live in Oakland, Calif. Tenacious and hardworking Leti dreams of attending UC Berkeley, but when she finds out she's pregnant by her secret boyfriend Quentin, things get complicated. Leti fears the reaction of her racist parents, who don't know that she's dating a Black classmate. Belén, meanwhile, must navigate an unstable home life after her father abandons the family, leaving them in a precarious financial situation, while also contending with the fact that she might fail out of high school. As Leti and Belén confront their daunting circumstances, Belén reckons with the knowledge that "I know it isn't even all my fault--but somehow, it's all my responsibility to fix it," in this stirring novel about dysfunctional family dynamics, intergenerational trauma, and toxic parenting. Itxa steadfastly approaches sensitive topics such as abuse, anxiety, depression, teen pregnancy, racism, and sex work via compassionately wrought prose. Belén and Leti's affectionate friendship provides levity to the high-stress situations, and a charismatic supporting cast and sharp dialogue propel this unforgettable debut. Ages 14--up. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Jan.)