November 23, 2020
Debut author Narváez Varela’s inventive novel in verse plays with poetic form and time travel to detail a Mexican teen’s struggles with self-love and depression. In 1999 Cuidad Juárez, where “girls disappear like water/ down the drain,” 13-year-old Anamaria Aragón Sosa’s aspirations contain the same undercurrent of fear that permeates her hometown: one of future uncertainty. While Anamaria has a talent for poetry, she expends most of her energy striving for the top spot on the school honor roll rather than giving voice to her worries and the “clawed sadness” that haunts her. That all changes, however, when she begins receiving a series of unexpected visits from a woman claiming to be her future self, who brings with her advice, cryptic warnings, and a glimpse at what Anamaria may become. Using a mixture of structures and styles (including free verse, prose, erasure, and concrete poems) that both keep the narrative fresh and express Anamaria’s innermost thoughts, Narváez Varela fashions a thoughtful and candid portrait of a girl battling depression in a “red cruel beautiful mother beast” of a city. Much like plumbing the contents of a poet’s composition notebook, this layered story rewards multiple reads. Ages 12–up.
Starred review from January 1, 2021
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Narv�ez Varela's poignant debut, a novel in verse, tells of Anamaria Arag�n Sosa, a 13-year-old girl living in Ciudad Ju�rez, Mexico, in 1999, whose life is forever altered by the appearance of her 30-year-old self during one of the darkest periods of her existence. Young Anamaria's life is full of worry, fear, and doubt. News of the terrifying femicides in Ciudad Ju�rez surrounds her, determining her liberties (or lack thereof), and the pressure of performing at the academy she attends threatens to crush her in every waking moment, even as she suffers from bullying classmates and works at her family's taqueria in any spare moments outside of school. Telling her story through a series of alternately cheeky, macabre, and serious vignettes about her family members, the city, and her classmates, Anamaria experiments with poetry structures and formats as she explores young womanhood and self-love, composing sentimental letters to her current and older selves and salvaging friendships gone sour. As readers meet her parents, friends, and other allies, she opens up about serious mental-health concerns and personal trauma, all conveyed through her relatable persona. Fans of The House on Mango Street or The House of the Spirits will be riveted by the question of whether Anamaria can protect the girls of Ciudad Ju�rez--and herself--from horrifying fates.
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December 15, 2020
Thirteen-year-old Anamaria grapples with conflicting demands and desires in this novel in verse. In the '90s, Anamaria's hometown of Ciudad Ju�rez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, is rampant with missing girls and women. A cloud of fear looms over Anamaria's daily movements and is reflected in the worried eyes of the adults who love her. Amid all this she is an honor roll student at Instituto Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz, one of the top private schools in the city. Into all this drops Thirty, a 17-years-older Anamaria who arrives as a mentor-cum-fairy godmother to help young Anamaria avoid some of the mistakes she feels she made in her youth. Writing predominantly in short lines of free verse, Narv�ez Varela weaves a story of a girl on the edge: on the edge of womanhood, on the edge due to fear, on the edge with her friends, and on the edge of deciding what she wants from life. With shape poems and blackout poetry adding variety, the author tackles classism and colorism in Mexican culture, the community's collective anxiety around the missing girls, and internal fears brought about by social and academic stress. From the loss of a dear friend to suicidality, many heavy issues are addressed through Anamaria's humanizing teenage eyes in this novel loosely inspired by Narv�ez Varela's own experiences growing up in Ciudad Ju�rez. A gritty and absorbing tale of learning to love oneself and one's roots, warts and all. (Verse novel. 12-18)
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Starred review from March 1, 2021
Gr 7 Up-This novel uses magical realism and multiple poetic forms in telling 13-year-old Anamaria Arag�n Sosa's story. Set in Cuidad Ju�rez, Mexico in 1999, the work focuses on a time of fear as girls and women disappear daily, particularly those who are poor with dark skin. The sudden appearance of a woman claiming to be Anamaria's own 30-year-old self lends mystery to the plot. Thirty speaks cryptically to Anamaria, offering advice, encouragement, and a composition notebook for writing poetry. Mostly, she urges her to "just love you," a phrase the girl considers as her parents work long hours at their restaurant to afford her private school. Yet Anamaria's self-loathing increases as she experiences constant humiliation from a girl in her class, and the cold ambivalence of teachers and administrators. Her parents think she was born with an old soul, a seriousness that grows into severe anxiety with vivid nightmares, sleeplessness, academic obsession, and uncontrollable scratching. Thirty repeatedly urges Anamaria to speak to her parents and to tell them she is depressed. This is a moving story of a girl on the cusp of womanhood who learns to empathize with others' sadness and finally to care for herself. VERDICT A must for every library given its timely themes, international setting, and authentic protagonist voice.-Ruth Quiroa, National Louis Univ., Lisle, IL
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