I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

memoir, focuses on the ways in which the traumas and scars of
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION immigration threaten to split apart a young woman’s family.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ERIKA L. SÁNCHEZ
KEY FACTS
Born and raised in Cicero, Illinois, a working-class suburb of
Chicago, after her parents immigrated from Mexico to America, • Full Title: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Erika L. Sánchez was feisty and bookish as a child. After • When Written: 2010s
graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from the • When Published: 2017
University of Illinois at Chicago, Sánchez received a Fulbright
• Literary Period: Contemporary
Scholarship to study and write poetry in Madrid, Spain.
Following her time there, Sánchez earned an MFA in creative • Genre: Young adult literature; coming-of-age tale
writing from the University of New Mexico, and went on to • Setting: Chicago, IL
publish her first book of poetry, Lessons on Expulsion, in 2017. • Climax: Overwhelmed by grief in the wake of her sister
Later that same year her young adult debut, I Am Not Your Olga’s death, consumed by poverty, and entrapped by her
Perfect Mexican Daughter, premiered to great critical acclaim, strict parents’ impossible rules, Julia Reyes—the novel’s
and became a finalist for the National Book Award for young narrator and protagonist—attempts suicide by slitting her
people’s literature. wrist, but fails.
• Antagonist: In many ways, Julia’s deceased, saintlike sister
HISTORICAL CONTEXT Olga—whose example Julia is failing to live up to every
day—is the antagonist. Though it’s also possible to argue that
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is set in modern-day societal factors around the treatment of immigrants.
Chicago, and through Julia’s biting and adroit point of view, it • Point of View: First-person
explores many issues facing not just the city of Chicago, but
those experienced by immigrant families as well. The unfair
EXTRA CREDIT
conditions undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are forced to
experience—poverty, labor exploitation, and living in constant Set for the Screen. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has
fear of discovery and deportation—are a part of Julia and her been optioned for the screen by Anonymous Content, the same
family’s daily lives. Julia’s parents crossed the border illegally, at company that produced teen megahit 13 Reasons Why.
the mercy of predatory coyotes who, Julia learns, raped her
mother while holding a gun to her father’s head. Julia’s friend Feisty Idols. While Julia looks up to heroes of fiction like the
Lorena, too, daily feels the impact of the violence and cruelty at adventurous Huck Finn and the irreverent Holden Caufield,
the border: her father did not make it across after getting lost Erika L. Sánchez herself looked up to Lisa Simpson as a young
in the desert with his coyote and their group. When Julia girl.
travels to Mexico to visit her family, she witnesses the violence
of the narcos, or bosses and dealers with tied to the drug trade,
and understands for the first time how much her parents have PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
sacrificed in order to give her a better life.
The novel opens as fifteen-year-old Julia Reyes and her
parents, whom she calls Amá and Apá, are looking into the
RELATED LITERARY WORKS casket of Julia’s recently-deceased older sister, Olga. Olga, who
Julia, an avid and discerning reader, would rather get lost in the was always the prim and proper “perfect Mexican daughter”
worlds of The Catcher in the Ry
Ryee or Adv
Adventur
entures
es of Huckleberry and Amá and Apá’s favorite, was recently run over by a semi on
Finn than experience her own painful and impoverished life on the streets of Chicago while crossing the road to transfer
the south side of Chicago. Books are a major symbol buses. Amá was supposed to pick Olga up from her job at a
throughout the novel, and Julia devours novels, plays, and medical office on the day of the accident, but when the
philosophical texts with wild abandon as a way of seeing the hotheaded Julia got in trouble at school, Amá was forced to get
world beyond her small neighborhood. Julia’s own story bears Julia instead, and so Olga was left to take the bus home.
echoes of other great contemporary titles—Ned Vizzini’s It’s Though Julia is saddened by her sister’s death, she’s put off by
Kind of a Funny Story also features a depressed and suicidal her mother’s crazed emotional display, and by the attention-
protagonist, while Reyna Grande’s The Distance Between Us Us, a seeking grieving she sees her nosy aunts engaging in. Julia’s
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best friend Lorena shows up to comfort her, and as Julia hugs The holidays pass in a blur, and Julia’s erratic behavior and fiery
her friend, she sees over Lorena’s shoulder a strange man who diatribes continues to confuse her friends and family members.
she assumes is a very distant uncle. She alienates Lorena and Juanga when she attacks them for
After Olga’s funeral, Amá takes to bed and doesn’t get up for criticizing her aloofness one day during a field trip, and
several weeks. There’s no food in the house, there are roaches continues to refuse help from Mr. Ingman. Julia visits the
everywhere, and Julia’s father will barely look at her. Julia tells community college where Olga took classes in hopes of
Amá that she needs to get up and get on with her life, and securing her sister’s transcripts, but the registrar is unhelpful
though she initially balks at Julia’s telling her what to do, she and refuses to share any of Olga’s information. Julia and Lorena
does indeed get out of bed, shower, and make some tea. She reconcile, but Lorena, who’s worried about Julia, urges her to
sits Julia down at the kitchen table and tells her that she’s give her search for more information about Olga a
planning on throwing Julia a quinceañera—a festive rest—maybe, Lorena says, Olga really was “perfect.” Julia tries
celebration which marks fifteen-year-old Latina girls’ transition one last time to get some intel by asking Juanga to help her get
into womanhood. Julia says she doesn’t want the party—the Jazmyn’s number, but when Julia calls her sister’s friend up,
family doesn’t have the money, and she’s going to be sixteen Jazmyn can’t remember anything about Olga’s secret boyfriend
soon, anyways. But Amá is firm. She never had the chance to other than the fact he had a “good job.”
give Olga a quince, and she is not going to make the same Julia’s quinceañera arrives. The event is a disaster. Julia is
mistake twice. That night, unable to sleep, Julia gets out of bed uncomfortable in her frilly, ridiculous party dress, and wishes
and wanders into Olga’s room. She begins looking through her that she could spend the night reading a book alone in the
sister’s things and finds a few mysterious items: a note that corner rather than dancing. When her Tía Milagros mentions
reads “I love you,” a box of sexy lingerie, and a key card to a something about Olga while talking to Julia in the bathroom,
hotel downtown called The Continental. Julia finds Olga’s Julia flies off the handle and begins excoriating Milagros for her
laptop under her bed and tries to enter the password, but can’t nosy, passive-aggressive ways, and at the end of the night Amá
guess it. She stashes the laptop back under the bed and falls and Apá confront Julia about her hateful ways. Amá suggests
asleep in Olga’s room. In the morning, knowing Amá will be that if Julia could just have learned to keep her mouth shut,
angry to find her in her sister’s room, Julia tries to sneak back Olga might still be alive—referencing the incident at school
to her own bed, but she is caught and grounded. which pulled Amá away from Olga and forced her to take the
Julia hates being grounded, and yet finds herself in trouble all bus home on the fateful day of her death.
the time for even small infractions. She daydreams about Julia spends the summer cleaning houses with her mother. In
getting away from her strict mother and living a freewheeling, the fall, she allows Mr. Ingman to help her prepare for
independent life as a writer in New York, but every new standardized tests and college admissions essays, determined
punishment just demoralizes her further. On the day her to get out of Chicago. One afternoon, when school gets out
punishment is lifted, Julia heads downtown after school to visit early, Julia heads to downtown Chicago to visit a bookstore.
The Continental in hopes of getting some answers about Olga. There, she meets a cute boy named Connor who flirts with her
The concierge, though, refuses to release any information about literature and takes her out for coffee. When Julia tells
about hotel guests, and Julia leaves feeling defeated. She visits Connor about Olga, and her fruitless search to find out more
the art museum on her way out of the city, and gazing upon her about the secret life her sister might have had, she mentions
favorite painting—the brutal Judith Slaying Holofernes—reignites Olga’s locked laptop, and Connor offers to help her hack into it.
her determination to find answers about Olga. Julia searches As the weeks go by and fall turns to winter, Julia spends more
for answers from Olga’s best friend Angie and even uses the and more time with Lorena and Juanga, and meets up with
internet at Lorena’s house to try and Google information about Connor whenever she has the chance. She is genuinely happy,
Olga, but everything is a dead end. However, when Julia meets even though a year after Olga’s death, memories of her sister
one of Olga’s high school friends Jazmyn at a masquerade party still haunt her. Connor invites Julia to his parents’ fancy house
she’s attending downtown with Lorena and her new in the affluent suburb of Evanston and they have sex for the
flamboyant friend Juanga, Jazmyn mentions that Olga was “in first time, even though Julia feels embarrassed and
love” the last time she saw her a few years ago. Julia becomes apprehensive about the cultural and class divides between
determined to follow this new lead. Julia becomes obsessed them. After returning home from Connor’s, Julia goes into the
with tracking down old high school classmates of Olga’s. But as freezer to heat up some waffles—the only food in the
Julia’s mental state visibly deteriorates, her kindly English house—and finds the key to Olga’s room—which is kept
teacher Mr. Ingman begins to worry about her. Julia insists locked—stashed inside. That night, she goes into Olga’s room
she’s fine—even as the holidays approach and her nonstop and removes her laptop, the lingerie, and the hotel key card.
detective work causes her to stay out later and later and get She stashes the laptop in her backpack but puts the lingerie in a
grounded by Amá more and more often. box in her closet. The next day, when she arrives home from

school, she finds that Amá has gone through her things and Andrés into their service. In Mexico Julia feels both comforted
found the underwear—she believes it is Julia’s, and Julia doesn’t by her family’s presence and hyperaware of the violence lurking
try to convince her otherwise. She is placed under the most just beneath the surface. One day, on a trip into town, Fermina
intense grounding of her life, and resorts to contacting Connor asks her how things are going at home. When Julia reveals that
using a pay phone near school. Each day she complains to she and Amá have a difficult, contentious relationship, Fermina
Connor about how bad things are at home and how hopeless tells Julia a secret: when Amá and Apá left Mexico and crossed
she feels, and one day he admits that he doesn’t know how to the border illegally into America, Amá was raped by the coyote
help her. Feeling lost and alienated, Julia wanders around leading them through the desert while Apá was forced, at
downtown Chicago in the snow, hungry but out of money, and gunpoint, to watch. The stunned Julia realizes that not only has
considers how hopeless her life is. her mother been hiding this secret from her all these years, but
Julia attempts suicide by slitting her wrists and wakes up in a that Olga is not truly Apá’s daughter—the timing of her birth
hospital bed the next morning with her concerned parents nearly a year after their arrival in the US means she was the
standing over her. A psychiatrist, Dr. Cooke, meets with Julia product of Amá’s rape. As the violence in Los Ojos worsens,
privately and asks her to speak about all the things that have Mamá Jacinta tells Julia she must return to Chicago—before
led her to the brink. Julia describes her unhappy home life, her Julia leaves, Mamá Jacinta begs her to take good care of Amá.
contentious relationship with her mother, her feelings of The day before she leaves, Julia discovers a cache of beautiful
hopelessness that she’ll ever be able to achieve her dreams and drawings done by Apá when he still lived in Los Ojos, and
escape poverty, and her grief over Olga’s death. Dr. Cooke stashes a couple in her bag to bring back to her father.
admits that Julia has a lot on her plate—but says that if she Back in Chicago, things are slightly easier. Amá is happy to have
agrees to a weeklong outpatient intensive and weekly therapy Julia back, and apologizes for how tough things have been
thereafter, she can go home the next day. Julia agrees, and between them. Julia can barely look at her mother, pained by
starts the outpatient program a few days later. Each day, Julia the secret knowledge she now has but doesn’t want her mother
meets several teens her age who are struggling with serious to know she’s learned. Julia gets her cell phone back, and is able
problems, too. Each night, she goes home to have dinner with to contact Connor, who reveals he has been worried sick about
Amá and Apá. One night, they tell her that they’re sending her her for over a month. They make a plan to meet up downtown
to Mexico the following week to get some time away and later in the week. Julia sneaks back into Olga’s room on her first
reconnect with family. When complaining about the trip to night back in town and resumes reading the email chain she
another girl in her outpatient program, Tasha, Tasha remarks never got to finish—the final email, sent just a day before Olga’s
how lucky Julia is to be able to get out of Chicago for a while, death, reveals that Olga was pregnant with her lover’s child.
and Julia begins looking forward to the trip. The night before Enraged and confused, Julia goes to hunt down Angie at the
she leaves, Julia sneaks into Olga’s room one more time. She hotel where she works, and confronts her about Olga’s secret.
goes through papers in Olga’s desk, hoping to find Olga’s laptop Angie takes Julia out for coffee and reveals that though she
password written down somewhere. After a few minutes of knew the truth about Olga all along, she didn’t feel it was her
looking, she does. She enters the code and is able to get into place to tell anyone, especially after Olga’s death—the truth,
Julia’s laptop and email—where she finds hundreds of emails she says, would only hurt everyone. Later, Julia meets up with
sent back and forth over the course of several years with an Connor, and the two of them agree to see one another casually
anonymous married man; her lover. Julia keeps the piece of until they both leave for college.
paper with Olga’s information written on it, hoping to be able to One afternoon, Julia takes the bus to Olga’s old office, where
use it at an internet café in Mexico; the bumpy flight there, she sits in the waiting room, unsure of what she’s hoping to find.
however, jostles her water bottle and ruins the paper. She has deduced that Olga’s boyfriend must have been one of
In Mexico, Julia reunites with her family: Amá’s mother, Mamá the doctors in the practice. When the mysterious man from the
Jacinta, a warm and gregarious woman; her aunts Fermina and funeral walks in and is greeted by the receptionist as “Dr.
Estela, who tenderly dote upon her; her good-humored Tío Castillo,” Julia slips out and waits for him in the parking lot. She
Chucho; and her cousins Belén, a beautiful girl about Julia’s confronts him when he emerges at the end of the night, and he
age, and Andrés, a kind young man in his early twenties. Julia offers to take Julia to a diner and explain everything. At the
feasts on delicious food, spends warm summer nights outside diner, while Julia orders a huge dinner, Castillo explains that he
with her aunts and cousins, and attends local football matches did truly love Olga and wanted to leave his wife for her. Julia
with Belén, who introduces her to a handsome young man berates him for his inaction, but Castillo insists that one day
named Esteban. There is trouble in her family’s small village of Julia will understand just how complicated relationships can be.
Los Ojos, though; the local narcos, or drug lords, have begun He gives Julia Olga’s ultrasound photo, and the disgusted Julia
inciting violence in the neighborhood, and Chucho must bribe leaves.
them regularly to prevent them from recruiting the innocent Julia is doing well in therapy and feeling better than ever thanks

to her new medication. She is accepted to NYU on a full Olga one fateful September afternoon. Julia’s guilt and grief
scholarship, and excitedly tells her parents she wants to go. over her sister’s death are immense, but she’s unable to really
Though they’re sad she’s leaving, they support her decision. As emote or express her sadness. Julia lived her whole life in
the weeks go by, Julia spends time talking through her issues Olga’s shadow, slipping further and further into rebellion,
with Dr. Cooke and hanging out with Connor in secret on the sarcasm, and introversion as she felt mounting pressure to be
weekends. Soon, it’s time for her to leave for New York. She just as unimpeachable as the lovely Olga, who did all the things
bids tearful goodbyes to Lorena and her parents, and as she a “perfect Mexican daughter” should—stayed close to home
boards the plane that will take her to her future, she embraces and devoted to her parents while ignoring attention from boys
the nervousness and uncertainty she feels about what’s to and focusing instead on community college classes and a job at
come. She reflects on how her journey to understand her sister a medical office. After Olga’s death, Julia is desperate to learn
better has actually taught her more about the “beautiful and more about the sister she always felt so distant from—but as
ugly” pieces and parts of herself. she plunders through Olga’s things, she discovers much more
than she bargained for. The discovery of sexy lingerie and a
hotel key card pique Julia’s interest, and as she begs Olga’s old
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS friends for answers, she discovers that Olga was not the person
everyone thought she was—not by a long shot. Though Olga is
MAJOR CHARACTERS not an active character in the novel, her presence looms over
Reyyes – Julia Reyes is the fiery, ravenous, ambitious,
Julia Re everyone and everything, pushing Julia onwards to uncover her
contrarian narrator and protagonist of the novel. A year ahead family’s deepest secrets and understand her roots more clearly,
in school and in possession of wit and smarts beyond her years, with a more open heart.
Julia’s acute intelligence and love of the world of books marks Amá/Amparo Montenegro Re Reyyes – Julia’s strict, overbearing
her as different from the rest of her large, loud, working-class mother has very firm ideas about who her daughter should
immigrant family—and her black-sheep status, exacerbated by be—ideas that Julia doesn’t understand, respect, or accept at
the untimely death of her “perfect” older sister Olga, pushes all. For Amá, a housecleaner whose years of hard labor have
her further and further into fantasies of moving away and living taken a toll on her once-great physical beauty, a “perfect
in New York as a famous writer. Julia resents her parents’ Mexican daughter” should aspire to marry well, work a job in an
poverty, her mother’s restrictive rules, her working-class office, and spend time with her family—not run away to New
neighborhood’s shabbiness and monotony—and in many ways, York to become a writer. Amá constantly tries to press Julia
her sister Olga, for dying and leaving Julia alone, forever in the into a certain mold—feminine, obliging, and family-
shadow of Olga’s perfection. Determined to dig up some dirt on oriented—but the rebellious, ambitious Julia resists her at
Olga, Julia begins going through her sister’s possessions—and every turn. Because of their constant struggles, Julia and Amá
discovers that Olga was not who her family thought she was. As have an intense, distrustful, and antagonistic relationship.
she learns more and more about her sister, and eventually Nevertheless, it’s clear that Amá loves Julia fiercely—and is
discovers that Olga was pregnant at the time of her death with desperate to do anything she can to protect her from the
a married man’s child, Julia is forced to reconsider the role unpredictable and often cruel world, especially in the tragic
secrets and lies have played in her family—and is pushed to the wake of Olga’s death. It is eventually revealed that Amá’s
brink of sanity by the burden of keeping her sister’s final secret. overprotective nature stems from a trauma she suffered while
Julia, depressed due to inescapable and abject poverty, intense crossing the border—she was raped by the coyote taking her
pressure to fill Olga’s shoes, the fear that she won’t get into and Apá across the desert while Apá was forced to look on at
college, even with the help of her kind English teacher Mr. gunpoint. Olga was not Apá’s child—she was the product of the
Ingman, and the failure of her first relationship with a wealthy rape in the desert—and for this reason Amá has long been
white boy named Connor, attempts suicide and fails, alerting determined to shield both her daughters from additional pain
her parents to just how difficult things are for the sensitive and and trauma. Once Julia learns the truth about Amá, she’s able
intense Julia. After a brief outpatient program and a trip to to extend greater empathy to her occasionally neurotic and
Mexico, where she learns even more of her family’s secrets and old-fashioned mother—but remains determined to go out into
reconnects with her roots, Julia returns to Chicago, the world and face whatever may come her way.
understanding more about her difficult Amá and aloof Apá and
Apá/Rafael ReReyyes – Julia’s quiet, aloof, and hardworking father
yet determined as ever to escape her circumstances and make
came from Los Ojos, Mexico to Chicago to build a better life for
the most of the life they’ve given her.
his family. Apá works long, grueling hours in a candy factory,
Olga Re
Reyyes – Julia’s saint-like older sister Olga is already toiling and missing out on time with his family to secure the
deceased at the start of the book, run over in the street by a shallow pleasures of people who can afford to spend money on
huge truck after she was forced to take the bus home when nonessential foods. The judgmental Julia never thinks about
Julia’s trouble at school required Amá to pick her up instead of

what her father might be going through, or why he’s so keep him at arm’s length—are a large part of her shame over
disconnected—she only resents him for not being more her working-class roots and her cultural background.
present. Once Julia travels to Mexico and learns the truth of Angie – Olga’s best friend. Angie is a complete wreck after
what her parents suffered at the border—and realizes that her Olga’s death, and the level of pain and dishevelment she’s
father gave up his passion for art when he arrived in experiencing doesn’t make sense to the unemotional Julia.
Chicago—she develops more empathy for her father, and After Julia finds lingerie and a hotel key card in Olga’s room, she
understands just how many of his dreams were stolen in the goes to Angie to try to find out more about who Olga really
process of ensuring that his children would be able to realize was—and what she may have been hiding—but though Angie
theirs. clearly knows something, she refuses to let Julia in. Later on in
Lorena – Julia’s best friend Lorena is a saucy, sarcastic, and the novel, after Julia hacks Olga’s emails and discovers that
daring young woman. Though the boy-crazy Lorena and the Olga was pregnant when she died, she confronts Angie once
quiet, aloof Julia couldn’t be more different, they’ve been best again—this time, Angie is more open, and reveals that though
friend since childhood, and have stood with one another she knew about Olga’s years-long affair with an older man (and
through thick and thin as the years have gone by. Lorena is self- her resultant pregnancy,) she believed that telling Olga’s family
centered but fiercely protective of Julia, always looking out for about her less-than-perfect personal life would only hurt them.
her around her nosy, judgmental family—and later in the novel, Angie is important to Julia’s reluctant understanding of the fact
around Connor. Lorena supports Julia in her lowest moments, that sometimes, the secrets people keep and the lies they tell
but also calls her out when she’s being the worst version of help more than they hurt.
herself—something that Julia resents. Lorena is herself Juanga – When Lorena befriends the flamboyant and
struggling with many of the same issues Julia is, though for charismatic Juanga—a gay classmate—Julia begins feeling
different reasons—disconnection from her mother, resentment jealous of their relationship. Juanga is petty and sarcastic from
and anxiety about structural poverty, and feelings of grief and time to time, but good at heart. His sexuality has alienated him
loss, albeit due to the death of her father rather than her sister. from his family, and his parents frequently kick him out of the
Lorena and Julia always have one another’s backs, and when house, forcing him to crash on friends’ couches or stay at one of
they tearfully part ways at the end of the novel as Julia his many lovers’ homes. In spite of his surface frivolity, Juanga
prepares to head off to New York City for college, Lorena is ends up being a real friend to Julia, and shows her empathy and
sure to remind Julia just how much she loves her. compassion after her suicide attempt.
Connor – Julia meets Connor, a white boy from the affluent Mr
Mr.. Ingman – Julia’s senior-year English teacher. Mr. Ingman
suburb of Evanston, at a used bookstore in downtown Chicago. sees real promise in Julia, and becomes dedicated to helping
After bonding over their love of literature, Connor and Julia her apply to colleges and harness her painful experiences into
begin seeing one another regularly, even in the face of Julia’s college essays that demonstrate the heart of who she is. Mr.
mother’s restrictive rules. Though Julia is worried that Connor Ingman is attuned to Julia’s moods, and tries talk to her and
will look down on her or judge her because of the poor, help her to find a counselor when he senses that her mental
working-class neighborhood she comes from, Connor is always health is in decline—but the stubborn Julia at first refuses his
kind to Julia—if slightly insensitive about her background. Julia attempts to get closer to her.
believes she loves Connor, and she loses her virginity to him. As
Jazm
Jazmynyn – One of Olga’s high school friends. When Julia runs
Julia’s home situation worsens, she’s grounded and banned
into her at a party, Jazmyn excitedly asks how Olga’s doing, and
from going into the city or using her cell phone. She calls
remarks that she was “in love” the last time Jazmyn ran into her.
Connor from a pay phone each day, but when her depression
Julia must explain that Olga is dead, much to Jazmyn’s shock
intensifies, Connor admits that he doesn’t know how to help
and chagrin. Julia later gets Jazmyn’s phone number through
Julia. Julia feels abandoned by Connor, and their estrangement
one of Juanga’s friends and calls her to beg her for anything
contributes to her suicide attempt. After the attempt, an
else she can remember about the last time she saw Olga.
outpatient program, and a trip to Mexico, Julia is relieved to
come home and find that Connor has been trying to get in Tía F
Fermina
ermina – Julia’s aunt, and Amá’s sister. Fermina is a kind,
touch with her for weeks—she doesn’t tell him all she’s been sensitive woman who dotes on Julia—and who eventually
through, but they begin casually dating once again. After reveals to her the horrible secret about Amá’s rape and Olga’s
they’re both accepted into schools in New York for college, true parentage in hopes of helping Julia to better understand
Julia takes comfort in the fact that they might see each other who her mother is, where she’s coming from, and why she’s so
even after leaving Chicago, but doesn’t pin all her hopes on overprotective of Julia.
Connor, demonstrating a healthy detachment from him and an Dr
Dr.. Castillo – A wealthy, married doctor, and Olga’s longtime
investment in her own independent growth. Julia’s intense but boss—and lover. Julia discovers Dr. Castillo’s identity when she
conflicting feelings for Connor—combined with her desire to visits the office where Olga used to work and recognizes

Castillo as a mysterious man who showed up at Olga’s funeral keenly aware of her beauty. Belén is cool and aloof, and brings
without introducing himself to anyone. Dr. Castillo seems to be Julia with her on shopping trips and outings to football games
in real turmoil over Olga’s death, and though Julia lambasts him in order to make her feel more at home in Los Ojos.
for stringing Olga along for years, he insists that adult Andrés – One of Julia’s older cousins. It is eventually revealed
relationships are complicated and that one day Julia will that the entire family is working together to come up with
understand what he and Olga went through together. bribes for the local narcos to keep them from recruiting Andrés
to their service.
MINOR CHARACTERS Tía Estela – Julia’s aunt, and one of Amá’s sisters. A sweet,
José Luis – Lorena’s mother’s boyfriend. José Luis is only ten tender woman.
years older than Julia and Lorena, and exhibits predatory Esteban – A handsome young man who lives in Los Ojos. He
behavior towards them whenever they’re alone in Lorena’s and Julia have a brief flirtation while she is visiting Mexico.
apartment.
Dr
Dr.. Scheinberg – A disgusting and lewd man whose home Julia
Carlos – Lorena’s boyfriend. and Amá clean together one winter day.
Ramiro – One of Carlos’s cousins. Lorena and Carlos set Julia Dr
Dr.. Cook
Cooke e – Julia’s therapist. A sensitive and inquisitive woman
and Ramiro up on a blind date, and Ramiro ends up being Julia’s who is the first person in Julia’s life to express true empathy for
first kiss. all that she’s going through.
Doña Ramona – Angie’s mother. Tomás – A translator who works at the hospital where Julia is
Pasqual – One of Julia’s classmates at school. admitted after her suicide attempt.
Tío Bigotes – Tío Bigotes—whose name means “Uncle Ashle
Ashleyy – The group therapy instructor in Julia’s outpatient
Moustache”—is one of Julia’s uncles. He is a kind man, but given program.
to drinking too much and making a fool of himself during family Erin – A girl in Julia’s outpatient program.
celebrations.
Tasha – A beautiful and emaciated anorexic girl, and Julia’s
Tía P
Paloma
aloma – Tío Bigotes’s wife. closest friend in her outpatient program.
Tío Ca
Cayyetano – One of Julia’s uncles. A predatory man who Luis – A young man in Julia’s outpatient program who cuts
used to stick his finger in Julia’s mouth when no one was himself.
looking until once, when she was twelve, she bit him.
Josh – A suicidal, acne-scarred member of Julia’s outpatient
Tía Milagros – One of Julia’s aunts. Milagros is a gossip whose program.
passive-aggressive, tongue-in-cheek remarks get on Julia’s
nerves. Antwon – A flirtatious tween in Julia’s outpatient program.
Victor – One of Julia’s young cousins.

Vanessa – One of Julia’s cousin. Though Vanessa is only a year THEMES
older than Julia, she already has a young daughter.
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
Freddy – One of Julia’s distant cousins, and the only member of coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
her family to have graduated from college. Freddy is kind to occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
Julia, and encourages her to reach out to him with questions a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
and updates about her college application progress. black and white.
Alicia – Freddy’s girlfriend. Alicia works at a prestigious theater
company in Chicago. SECRETS AND LIES
Mamá Jacinta – Julia’s grandmother. A benevolent and doting The most potent theme throughout Erika L.
woman whose family is her whole world. Mamá Jacinta takes Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is
good care of Julia when she visits Los Ojos, making sure she’s that of secrets and lies. As the novel unfolds and
always stuffed with food and surrounded by family members Julia digs deeper into the secrets her recently-deceased older
who love her. sister Olga left behind, she comes face-to-face with more and
Tío Chucho – One of Julia’s uncles. Chucho is a kind and fun- more unsettling truths about her family’s past. In the end,
loving man who does his best to stay positive, even in the face Sánchez ultimately suggests that some secrets are too painful
of droughts, violence, and poverty threatening his beloved to share—and that some lies are actually a mercy, meant to
hometown of Los Ojos. protect people from hurtful, devastating truths.
Belén – One of Julia’s cousins. A gorgeous young woman who’s When Julia’s sister Olga dies in a tragic freak accident, Julia is

left with many pressing questions about her quiet, saint-like the “perfect Mexican daughter” by telling them about her affair
sister’s life. She wonders whether Olga could really have been and resulting pregnancy would be to cause them pain they
the “perfect Mexican daughter”—and, if she wasn’t, how she might not be able to endure or recover from. As Julia considers
was able to hide the truth from so many people. As Julia digs the weight of these two secrets—and whether she will ever be
into Olga’s past for clues, she discovers secrets more confusing able to have an open discussion with her parents about either
and painful than she bargained for—and then, as she continues of them—she comes to realize that sometimes truth and lies are
down the rabbit hole, she winds up encountering secrets about not black and white. Not all lies are cruel, and not all truths are
other members of her family that threaten to tear them all freeing.
apart. Olga’s secret unfolds slowly as Julia pieces together the Though Julia enters some dark places discovering the many
strange objects she finds in her sister’s room—a box of sexy hidden truths which define her family’s past history and
lingerie and a key card to a fancy Chicago hotel called The present struggles, she ultimately learns a very important lesson
Continental. Julia learns due to slips-of-the-tongue from Olga’s about the moral ambiguity of what it means to keep a secret or
best friend Angie and another one of her acquaintances, a tell a lie. It’s difficult to understand when keeping someone’s
school friend named Jazmyn, that Olga had a secret lover. secret is actually the right thing to do—especially in a family like
When Julia, desperate to learn more about what Olga was Julia’s, in which, perhaps due to the dark secrets stitching them
hiding, hacks her way into Olga’s laptop, she discovers that her together, privacy and secrecy have always been villainized.
sister was sleeping with a married man for years—and later Over the course of the novel, though, Julia comes to see that
learns that Olga was even pregnant with his child at the time of sometimes a lie is a mercy, and keeping someone’s secret is the
her death. As Julia slowly uncovers the truth about the life Olga greatest gift one can give.
was living—surely a lonely, strained, and even dangerous
one—she feels almost vindicated in learning that her sister
RESTLESSNESS AND AMBITION
wasn’t the “perfect” girl everyone knew her to be. There’s a part
of Julia that wants to tell her family the truth about Julia Reyes is desperate to get out of the working-
Olga—partly to take the constant scrutiny and spotlight off class Chicago suburb she and her family call
herself and her own mistakes—but something inside of Julia home—she dreams of being a famous writer, of
holds her back from telling her parents the truth. Julia’s conflict seeing the world, and of living all alone in a big, beautiful
over keeping Olga’s secret, combined with the pressures of Manhattan apartment. Julia’s fierce restlessness and boundless
school, home life, and her faltering first relationship with ambition, however, are threatened by several factors beyond
Connor, leads her toward self-harm—Olga’s secret threatens her control: her overbearing mother’s strict rules, the poverty
to buckle Julia’s entire life, and yet she remains committed to that boxes her and her family into a shabby apartment and a
maintaining the lie, for reasons she can’t yet understand. dilapidated neighborhood, and the overwhelming grief Julia
feels over her sister’s death, a grief that seems ready to swell
The second huge secret Julia uncovers is one she learns while
up and crush her at any moment. As the novel progresses and
visiting Mexico shortly after her suicide attempt—an attempt
Julia weathers hardship after hardship, Erika L. Sánchez argues
she made because she became too overwhelmed by the weight
that one must deal with the issues, traumas, and circumstantial
of Olga’s secret compounded with all the other struggles in her
difficulties facing them before moving on—otherwise, no
life. While in Mexico, Julia’s relatives all urge her to be less
amount of grit or drive will be enough to sustain someone
combative with her parents and more understanding of her
through new, unfamiliar challenges.
mother Amá especially—and then Tía Fermina, Amá’s sister,
reveals that during the border crossing Julia’s mother and Julia is fiery, fierce, intelligent, and opinionated—she feels too
father made many years ago, Amá was raped by a “coyote” while big for her small, gritty Chicago suburb, and too good for her
her father Apá was held at gunpoint. The secret is terrible stifling public school and her shallow classmates. Julia believes
enough in and of itself, but as Julia considers the timeline of her she’s destined for bigger things: a glamorous life in New York
parents’ arrival in the US and Olga’s birth about nine months City, a career as a writer, an existence unimpeded by her
later, she realizes that Olga was not Apá’s biological daughter overbearing parents and untethered to what she sees as her
but rather the product of the rape Amá suffered. This secret embarrassing, working-class roots. Her ambition and drive
comes to dwarf Olga’s in scope and terror. Julia had allowed often make her come off as snobby or judgmental—but more
her life to become ruled by the need to discover the truth about importantly, she clings to her goals and aspirations as a way of
Olga, but once she learns her mother and father’s secret, she is ignoring the pressing problems in her present life at home and
forced to confront the utility, or even value, of such large, at school. When Julia’s best friend Lorena confronts her at a
painful lies. She begins to understand that perhaps the secrets pivotal point in the novel about her inability to engage
people keep are kept for a reason. Just as Amá and Apá knew it meaningfully with her friendships or her community—an
would hurt Olga and Julia to burden them with such a terrible inability which stems from her judgmental attitude and her
truth, Olga knew that to shatter her parents’ image of her as belief that she’s better than everyone around her—Julia admits

that she does believe she’s better than everyone, and deserves do certain things to be seen as the “perfect Mexican daughter.”
to move on already. She states, point-blank, that she feels “too As the novel progresses and Julia learns more about her family
good for everything” about her life in Chicago. This frank during a long trip to visit her mother’s relatives in Mexico, Erika
admission reveals that Julia would rather ignore her current L. Sánchez argues that taking the time to learn more about
feelings and problems and focus only on getting out of her one’s family, roots, and cultural identity helps one to better
present situation rather than deal with the reasons why she understand themselves in the end.
feels stuck, out of place, or desperate for escape. She is From the beginning of the novel, Julia is self-conscious about
disdainful of everything in her life, and raring for a chance to her failure to be the “perfect Mexican daughter” her parents
get away from her parents’ grief, her own descent into Olga’s always wanted. Her older sister Olga stayed at home and cared
harrowing secrets, and her uncertainty about her academic for their parents while working a part-time office job and taking
future. Julia wants the idealized life she’s been dreaming of, but classes at a community college, while the rebellious Julia always
doesn’t understand that the things she wants won’t come easily nursed dreams of moving far away, making a career in the arts,
to her—and that if she refuses to confront her worst impulses and shirking the burdens of marriage and motherhood. Julia
and darkest prejudices, she won’t ever be able to have the life won’t even let her mother teach her to make tortillas—that’s
she wants. Julia’s suicide attempt is a culmination of her how afraid she is of falling into the trap of familial and cultural
restlessness and ambition taken to the extreme. With nowhere duty. Julia has issues with judgement and superiority in her life
to go, and nothing to do with her misplaced forward-moving at school and with her friends—issues that stem from her
energy, Julia becomes overwhelmed by the gulf between the desire to escape her present life. The root of those issues is a
life she wants and the life she has. Julia’s suicide feeling of not belonging in her family. Julia has always been the
attempt—which she realizes, immediately upon waking up black sheep, overshadowed by the unimpeachably good Olga,
afterwards, was a “dumb” thing that she never wants to do and when Olga dies, her memory is canonized even more. In
again—represents the moment in which she understands that if death, Olga is truly perfect—she can never make a mistake. In
she doesn’t fix the problems in her present life, she won’t even living and, inevitably, making mistakes, Julia becomes more and
make it to the next stage. Julia’s ambition rockets her into a more flawed. Her self-consciousness about the mistakes she’s
brick wall, and that collision ultimately forces her to slow down, making, the outspokenness she’s unable (or unwilling) to tamp
take stock of who she is, what painful truths she’s been down, and the ways in which her beliefs about the goals of life
ignoring, and how she’s let down those around her, then reckon increasingly diverge from those of her parents, all cause Julia to
fully with all those things. want to distance herself from her family. Little does she know
Ultimately, Julia’s unshakeable ambition does end up serving that in distancing herself from her family—her roots, her
her well. She works hard on her standardized test prep and culture, and her only sources of unconditional love in the entire
college admission essays, and wrangles her frustration with her world—she’s actually only growing farther and farther from the
family, her fear of wasting her potential, and the painful loss truth of herself.
she’s suffered into an essay which gains her admission to NYU. As the novel continues and Julia wrestles with depression,
As Julia boards a plane to New York at the end of the novel to anxiety, and an attempt at suicide, those around her realize that
at last pursue her dreams, though, she is finally able to live in her grief, insecurity, and self-hatred are not merely growing
the present. She’s unsure of what the future holds, but she’s pains: Julia is truly at sea, disconnected from her family, herself,
okay with that—she’s at last learned to slow things down, take her past, and her future alike. When Amá and Apá send Julia to
stock of her feelings and actions, and understand that blindly Mexico to get some air, some space, and some distance, they’re
trying to escape from pain, discomfort, and uncertainty will actually hoping she’ll be able to reconnect with her roots—Julia
only end badly. always loved summer vacations to Mexico, and in spite of her
ambivalence about her culture and her family in Chicago, they
FAMILY, IMMIGRANT CULTURAL believe a break from the everyday will help Julia recover and
IDENTITY, AND THE SELF reconnect with who she really is. Indeed, in the warm and small
Julia Reyes has a large, overbearing, and desert town of Los Ojos, Julia is able to reconnect not just with
occasionally abusive family. From her judgmental her family but with herself. She learns things about her parents
and gossipy Tía Milagros to the predatory Tío Cayetano to she’d never known—terrible secrets, but also beautiful hidden
Julia’s impossibly strict mother and aloof, silent father, the parts of their personalities, such as Apá’s past success as a
extended Reyes clan often brings Julia more confusion than painter—and by understanding more about who her parents
comfort. Julia is embarrassed not just of her family, but in many are and the things both good and bad that have made them that
ways, of her cultural identity as well, and of her status as the way, Julia understands more about her own journey. She sees
daughter of immigrants—she feels disconnected from her at last that in spite of whatever conflicts or grievances she has
family’s traditions, and disdainful of the idea that she needs to with her parents, she has as much of a responsibility to them as

they have to her. She must honor their sacrifices, remember her in poverty rather than taking a hard look at the mechanisms
their origins, and embrace the people life has made them which are keeping them down, and extending to them empathy
into—relationships are a two way street, and as Julia returns to and assistance rather than judgement and vitriol. There are
Chicago, she works hard to see her parents, her culture, and several moments in the novel that force Julia to reckon with the
even the more difficult members of her extended family cyclical, systemic poverty which plagues her family, and to see
through a more forgiving and empathetic eye. Julia that while her circumstances are difficult, the very idea that she
understands her family in a new way, and is able to see herself has a chance to escape is more than so many people in her
through a new lens as well: she knows she’ll never be the community have. When Julia goes with her mother to clean
“perfect Mexican daughter” her parents want her to be, but at houses one winter day, she witnesses firsthand the
last has some confidence in her choices and less shame about sacrifices—both physical and moral—her mother has to make
her shortcomings. every day just to make ends meet for Julia. From employers
For Julia’s family, many of whom have left behind loved ones who speak smugly and condescendingly in Spanish to her to
and sacrificed their passions in order to make a life in the those who sexually objectify her and force her to clean
United States, culture is a way to connect to the past. For disgusting, almost purposefully dirty parts of their homes, Amá
Julia—for most of her life, anyway—her family’s hard adherence never knows what kind of house she’s walking into. Julia sees
to tradition and ritual has been impossible to understand, and firsthand the repetitive and difficult nature of her mother’s
she’s always felt like an outsider looking in. By the end of the work life, and begins to understand that her mother is trying
novel, Julia has come to understand why her parents want her her hardest to make the best of a system that’s rigged against
to carry on their family’s culture and traditions, and is able to her.
see that her role in those traditions is special, and even sacred. When Julia visits Mexico and discovers several beautiful
Though Julia remains on track to pursue her dream of drawings that Apá made when he was still living in Los Ojos, she
becoming a New York writer, her ability to talk about her understands even more deeply the sacrifices required of a life
responsibility to her family as the central component as her lived in pursuit of escaping cyclical, systemic poverty. Though
college admissions essay shows that she has come to better Apá was widely regarded as the best painter in Los Ojos, he
understand not just her parents, but herself. gave up his art entirely once he arrived in America. When Julia
herself returns to Chicago and asks her father why he gave up
POVERTY AND ENTRAPMENT drawing and painting, he explains that continuing to make them
would have been “a waste of time,” nothing more than a painful
Julia Reyes and her parents live in a roach-infested
reminder of all the avenues in life that closed to him the
apartment in a working-class neighborhood on the
moment he crossed the border. Apá’s aloof, resigned nature
south side of Chicago. Stomping roaches dead and
makes sense to Julia in a new way all of a sudden—she sees that
mopping up their guts is a regular necessity—and outside of the
within the trap of poverty, there’s barely any opportunity to
apartment, things are sometimes even worse. Julia must
escape, let alone to stop and breathe.
endure threats and harassment from neighborhood men as
well as a chronic lack of money for public transportation and Julia’s most personal reckoning with the nature of poverty
food. Her friends from school, Lorena and Juanga, face similar comes when she begins dating a boy she meets at a used
problems, and often have to resort to theft to get by or endure bookstore in downtown Chicago. The cute and smart Connor
homelessness due to problems at home. Julia’s difficult has grown up in Evanston—a wealthy suburb of Chicago—and
circumstances make her feel trapped, and make her dreams of has lived a life which is almost the opposite of Julia’s. When she
attending a prestigious college and making a life as a writer are goes to visit Connor at his parents’ sprawling house, which is
all but impossible. On a visit to Mexico, Julia encounters the size of the entire apartment building Julia and her family
poverty on a vastly different scale, and is forced to consider the live in, she sees at last the vast gulf between her life and
ways in which poverty forces desperate people to do terrible Connor’s. Though fewer than twenty miles separate their
things. Throughout the novel, Erika L. Sánchez examines the homes, an unspeakable ocean of experience lies between them.
structural problems that threaten to hold Julia and her friends Julia’s parents work hard, subject themselves to humiliation,
back, and ultimately suggests that extreme poverty is a cycle and give up their dreams each and every day just to scrape by
which only a fortunate few are able to escape. within a system which ignores or outright exploits them, while
Connor has never known what it’s like to open the fridge and
The truly abject circumstances Julia has grown up in have
find nothing but condiments or stomp out roaches when they
always just been considered a given. As undocumented
scatter at the flick of a light switch. Julia begins to understand
immigrants, her parents have limited opportunities to bring in
in a more acute way just how difficult it might be for her to
an income: her father is a factory worker and her mother is a
achieve her dreams—and how worth, dedication, and sacrifice
housecleaner. Because Julia is so ambitious and self-centered a
rarely have any relation to success in America.
lot of the time, she begins resenting her parents for entrapping

Julia is still just a teenager at the end of the novel, but wise Julia in tough times, such as when she retreats into reading
beyond her years. As she boards a plane to fly off to NYU on a Albert Camus’s The Str
Stranger
anger after having a big fight with Lorena
full scholarship, she is acutely aware of just how lucky she is to and Juanga. Books allow Julia to feel like she can get away from
be given the opportunity to escape the south side of Chicago. her present circumstances, even just for a little while.
She has seen in action the systems of oppression, debt, and
labor which keep the poor impoverished while the rich get
richer, and understands that her escape from it represents a JULIA’S QUINCEAÑERA
responsibility to honor the sacrifices her parents have made for The large, gaudy, and rather sad quinceañera party
her, and to never forget the combination of hard work and Julia’s Amá and Apá throw for her is a symbol of
dumb luck that have allowed her the chance to be the first in their desire to transform Julia into the “perfect Mexican
her family to break the cycle. daughter” they believe her deceased older sister Olga always
was. Shortly after Olga’s death, when Amá announces that she
plans to use her savings to throw Julia the traditional party
SYMBOLS (which takes place on or around Latina girls’ fifteenth birthdays
and symbolizes their entry into adulthood,) Julia is scandalized
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and and even disgusted. She points out that she’s already almost
Analysis sections of this LitChart. sixteen, and doesn’t want the party to boot; Amá and Apá,
however, insist on throwing it, explaining that they never got
FOOD AND HUNGER the chance to give Olga a party and are not going to make the
same mistake twice. During the party, Julia is dressed up in a
Throughout I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,
frilly and ridiculous peach gown, made to perform ritual dances
the teenage protagonist Julia Reyes struggles with and ceremonies, and has to put up with her entire family: all
an insatiable appetite for food. Because her family is poor—and things she hates. Throughout the party Julia is visibly
because her parents are distracted by their overwhelming grief uncomfortable. She gorges herself on cake and wishes she had
in the wake of their eldest daughter Olga’s death—there’s
a book to read so that she wouldn’t have to greet so many
rarely anything in the house for Julia to eat. Julia’s ravenous
people. The party comes to symbolize, both for the reader and
hunger, and the food she consumes which never seems to sate
for Julia, the ways that her family want to push her into being a
it, become, throughout the novel, a symbol of Julia’s desire to
“perfect Mexican daughter,” the fact that she never will become
escape her circumstances, make her mark on the world beyond
such a thing, and the pain and discomfort that this clash
her hometown, and live the life of plenty she’s been dreaming of
between what her parents blindly want and what she is will
for years. Conversely, just as Julia’s desire for and love of food
always produce.
represents her desire for more than she has, actual food
symbolizes the ways in which Julia is being held back from
happiness and satisfaction by the circumstances of her QUO
QUOTES
TES
unhappy present: her parents’ poverty, the ways in which she
feels strangled by her family’s Mexican culture, and her Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the Knopf
insecurities about her body, her sense of style, and her edition of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter published
femininity more generally. Food doesn’t ever allow Julia an in 2017.
escape—even after eating a large meal she often still feels
hungry, and this constant ache is symbolic of her boundless Chapter 1 Quotes
ambition and deep restlessness, and of the larger ways in which
society has made her feel constantly deprived. Saint Olga, the perfect Mexican daughter. Sometimes I
wanted to scream at her until something switched on in her
brain. But the only time I ever asked her why she didn’t move
BOOKS out or go to a real college, she told me to leave her alone in a
Whereas food represents Julia’s restlessness, voice so weak and brittle, I never wanted to ask her again. Now
ambition, and desire for more than she has in the I’ll never know what Olga would have become. Maybe she
present, books serve as a symbol of escapism throughout the would have surprised us all.
novel. Julia reads books when she wants to zone out of
overwhelming or uncomfortable family gatherings, when her Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Olga Reyes
home and school life become too difficult to navigate on her
own, or when she simply wants to get out of her own head for a Related Themes:
little while. Even reading difficult or existential books comfort

Page Number: 3 of her greatest challenges in the pages to come, and her
inability to put on a brave or polite front in a moment when
Explanation and Analysis it’s what’s needed of her shows just how unprepared she is
In this passage, Julia and her family are at the funeral of her to do so on a normal daily basis.
recently-deceased older sister Olga, who died tragically
when struck by a semi while she was crossing a busy street
in downtown Chicago. As Julia peers into her sister’s casket, Chapter 4 Quotes
she feels a strange mix of emotions—profound, debilitating “You know, Julia, you’re always causing trouble, creating
grief, frustration, and also resentment. Olga has always problems for your family. Now that she’s dead, all of a sudden
been the “perfect Mexican daughter,” while the fiery, you want to know everything about her? You hardly even spoke
opinionated, loudmouthed Julia is called a to her. Why didn’t you ask her anything when she was alive?
“malcriada”—spoiled creature—and feels that all her flaws Maybe you wouldn’t have to be here, asking me questions
are exacerbated in the face of her sister’s perfection. Julia about her love life.”
never knew her sister very well, and now, as she considers
the permanent, devastating loss of Olga, she must come to
Related Characters: Angie (speaker), Olga Reyes, Julia
terms with the idea that she’s missed out on that chance
Reyes
forever. She regrets the resentment she felt for her sister,
and the distance that arose between them as a result—but
Related Themes:
can’t help feeling a twinge of those same emotions now. In
Olga, she had a potential ally in hopelessness over the Page Number: 53
poverty facing their family, over the question of how to
make the right choices in life, and in the struggle to be a Explanation and Analysis
good daughter—now, Julia must face all these things alone. In this passage, Julia has come to Angie’s house after finding
Further, this passage foreshadows the fact that over the a love note, sexy lingerie, and a hotel key card in Olga’s
course of the book Olga already had secrets that were not in bedroom. Julia is full of questions about who her sister
keeping with being a “perfect Mexican daughter,” and, more really was, and whether her “perfect” personality was just a
broadly, the way that people’s surface perceptions of each façade hiding a deeper and darker true self. When she
other affect their ability to connect. confronts Angie with these questions, however, Angie
lashes out, accusing Julia of “creating problems’ for her
family out of spite or boredom and also of failing to really
Olga’s friend Angie comes running in, looking like she was get to know Olga when she was still alive. Angie is taking
the one hit by a semi. She’s beautiful, but, damn, is she an Olga’s death particularly hard, and seems not to have left
ugly crier. Her skin is like a bright pink rag someone has wrung the house in weeks—Julia knows that Angie has something
out. As soon as she sees Olga, she starts howling almost worse she’s not sharing, and is determined to get to the truth no
than Amá. I wish I knew the right thing to say, but I don’t. I never matter the cost, even if she fulfills Angie’s prophecy that
do. doing so will only create more problems for the Reyes
family.
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Amá/Amparo More broadly, Angie’s comments attest to two ideas that
Montenegro Reyes, Angie, Olga Reyes will become important in the book. The first is that secrets
and the truth are complicated, and are not always best
Related Themes: shared. The second is that you only have the chance to
connect with someone, to know them, in all their
Page Number: 10 complication, when they are alive, and that such connection
is vital.
Explanation and Analysis
Throughout the novel, one of Julia’s most profound
struggles will be her seemingly pathological inability to say
“the right thing.” The fiery Julia can’t keep her mouth shut
for very long, and when she does fall quiet, it’s only because
she doesn’t know how to relate to other people. Julia’s
social troubles—and her superiority complex—will be some

Chapter 7 Quotes
new friend Juanga. Julia and Lorena have been close as
The sky is still dark, but it’s beginning to brighten. There sisters since elementary school—and Julia feels threatened
are beautiful, faint streaks of orange over the lake. It looks like by Lorena’s new friendship, and hurt by Lorena’s accusation
it’s been cracked open. that Julia feels she’s too good for “everything” and everyone.
I think of Jazmyn’s face when I told her about Olga. Everywhere The brutally honest Julia chooses not to reject Lorena’s
I go, my sister’s ghost is hovering. characterization of her, but rather to admit that she does
feel “too good” for the lot she’s been dealt in life. She hates
her present circumstances—the poverty her family faces,
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Lorena, Juanga,
the lack of intellectual stimulation she feels in school, and
Olga Reyes, Jazmyn
the inescapable shadow of her “perfect” older sister—and
Related Themes: isn’t afraid to say so. Julia’s ravenous, insatiable nature—and
her restless ambition—are in many ways her biggest
Page Number: 97 obstacles, and yet in this scene she wears these flaws
almost like a badge of honor. While that may feel good in the
Explanation and Analysis moment to Julia, however, the novel makes clear the way
In this short passage, Julia is in the back seat of her friend that such behavior isolates her from others, including those
Juanga’s car on the way home from a party the two of them she loves.
and Julia’s best friend Lorena have attended. At the party,
Julia ran into Jazmyn—an old high school friend of
Olga’s—and was forced to deliver the news that Olga had Chapter 13 Quotes
died. Doing so plunged Jazmyn—and Julia, too—into a Amá just shakes her head. “You know, Julia, maybe if you
profound sadness, and profoundly impacted the way both knew how to behave yourself, to keep your mouth shut, your
girls experienced the party. Now, slightly buzzed and sister would still be alive. Have you ever thought about that?”
heading home, Julia fears that she’ll never be able to get She finally says it. She says what her big, sad eyes were telling
away from Olga’s “ghost”—she doesn’t fear that Olga is me all along.
literally haunting her, but instead laments that even in
death, Olga overshadows her, beloved and missed by all
while Julia remains obscure, unspecial, and unloved. Related Characters: Julia Reyes, Amá/Amparo
Montenegro Reyes (speaker), Olga Reyes
Related Themes:
Chapter 10 Quotes
“Sometimes it’s like you think you’re too good for every- Related Symbols:
thing. You’re too hard on people.” Lorena doesn’t make eye
contact. Page Number: 162
“That’s because I am too good for everything! You think this is
what I want? This sucks. This sucks so hard, I can’t take it
sometimes.” I swing my arms, gesturing toward I don’t know After her disastrous quinceanera—a traditional fifteenth-
what. I’m so angry my ears feel as if they’re on fire. birthday celebration, one that Julia never wanted and that
Amá and Apá only threw her because they never got the
chance to give one to Olga—Julia and her parents return
Related Characters: Julia Reyes, Lorena (speaker), Juanga
home to their bleak, roach-infested apartment. As they
argue about Julia’s appalling behavior at the
Related Themes:
affair—behavior which included Julia yelling at her aunt
Milagros in the bathroom—Amá offers a particularly
Related Symbols:
devastating indictment of Julia’s loud mouth and short
temper. Amá suggests that if Julia had learned to keep her
Page Number: 129
mouth shut long ago, Olga would still be alive. On the day of
Explanation and Analysis Olga’s death, Amá was supposed to pick her up from
work—but was called away to pick up Julia after Julia got
During lunch on a field trip to a state park on the lake, Julia
into a verbal altercation with a teacher at school. Julia has
finds herself in a confrontation with Lorena and Lorena’s
never articulated the fear that the unfortunate coincidence

led to Olga’s death—but as Amá articulates it now, Julia

Related Themes:
fears that it is true.
Ironically, in speaking to Julia vindictively and out of anger, Related Symbols:
Amá is adopting the very behavior she most resents in her
youngest daughter. Page Number: 210

Chapter 15 Quotes This passage represents one of the lowest points
Connor’s house has a giant wraparound porch and emotionally in the novel—Julia, grounded after her mother
enormous windows. It’s as big as our entire apartment building. found Olga’s lingerie in her bedroom, deprived of her
Part of me wonders if I should go back home. I feel nervous and phone, and having had Amá ransack and destroy her
start tugging at my hair. beloved journal, wanders around downtown Chicago in
defiance of her curfew, wishing she could buy herself a
snack—she’s always hungry, but almost never has enough
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Connor
money for food. Julia is at the end of her rope—the grief,
clashes with her parents, secrets she’s keeping on her dead
Related Themes:
sister’s behalf, and crippling poverty her whole family is
Page Number: 196 subjected to are all beginning to be too much for her. Julia
has no idea what to do, or how she’ll ever manage to achieve
Explanation and Analysis her dreams when things seem so bleak. What Julia does
As Julia visits the home of her wealthy white boyfriend next—attempt suicide—will change the course of her year,
Connor in the affluent Chicago suburb of Evanston for the and indeed her life.
first time, she is overwhelmed by the manicured lawns and
sprawling facades of the homes in the neighborhood. Julia
really likes Connor, but throughout their relationship, she’s Chapter 18 Quotes
been feeling a deep insecurity that he’ll learn the truth of What if I’m wrong about my sister? What if she was the
her poverty-stricken background or see her parents’ roach- sweet, boring Olga I always knew her to be? What if I just want
infested apartment. Julia is going over to Connor’s house to think there was something below the surface? What if, in my
presumably to have sex with him—his parents, he’s told her, own messed-up way, I want her to be less than perfect, so I
are out of town for the weekend—but it’s not losing her didn’t feel like such a fuck-up?
virginity that Julia’s most nervous about. She’s made
uncomfortable by the displays of wealth all around
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Olga Reyes
her—reminders that she and Connor, however much they
care for one another, are from completely different
Related Themes:
backgrounds. Julia has been keeping the truth of how poor
her family is a secret from him, but she’s afraid that now that Page Number: 237
their relationship is moving into a new stage, he’ll soon
discover how she really lives. Explanation and Analysis
As Julia searches for information about her sister Olga, she
keeps coming up against dead end after dead end.
I walk toward the ice-skating rink as the sky begins to Conversations with Olga’s friends, internet searches, and
darken. I wish I had a few dollars for a cup of hot chocolate, trips to a hotel Olga may have frequented as well as her
but I barely have enough to get back on the bus. I’m tired of community college’s registrar office all leave Julia feeling
being broke. I’m tired of feeling like the rest of the world always just as in the dark as she ever has. As Julia stops her rabid,
gets to decide what I can do. I know I should go back home, but ravenous searching for a moment to consider what the
I can’t seem to move. I can’t keep going like this anymore. What goals of her amateur investigation are, she wonders what
is the point of living if I can’t ever get what I want? her true motivation is. She is beginning to second-guess
herself, and it occurs to her that perhaps her search is more
out of spite than out of a desire to truly understand her
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker)
sister better. Julia realizes that perhaps she wants to

Chapter 22 Quotes
dismantle Olga’s “perfect” image so that her own failures
seem less painful or serious in comparison. Julia has always My body feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. I picture
wanted the love and respect Olga had in life—but doesn’t my mother’s face streaked with tears and dirt, my father
want to do the things a “perfect Mexican daughter” does, bowing his head in defeat. “And Olga? What about Olga? She
like stay close to home, learn how to cook, and get married was . . . She was ...” I can’t get the words out.
and make babies. Julia wants to expose Julia so that her Tía Fermina clasps her hands to her chest and nods. “See, mija,
parents can stop holding her to such an impossibly high that’s why I want you to know. So when you and your mother
standard—a standard that Julia believes Olga herself never fight, you can see where she’s come from and understand
even truly met. what’s happened to her. She doesn’t mean to hurt you.”
Related Characters: Tía Fermina, Julia Reyes (speaker),

How could I have been so dumb not to notice anything? Apá/Rafael Reyes, Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes, Olga
But then again, how would anyone have known? Olga kept Reyes
this sealed up and buried like an ancient tomb. My whole life
I’ve been considered the bad daughter, while my sister was Related Themes:
secretly living another life, the kind of life that would shatter
Amá into tiny pieces. I don’t want to be mad at Olga because Page Number: 274-275
she’s dead, but I am.
In this passage, Julia’s Tía Fermina—her mother’s
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Amá/Amparo sister—has just revealed a devastating secret about Amá.
Montenegro Reyes, Olga Reyes After asking about Amá and Julia’s relationship and hearing
that Julia resents her mother for being so overprotective,
Related Themes:
Fermina attempts to explain the truth—and in the process,
divulges that while Amá and Apá were crossing the border
Page Number: 240
years ago, Amá was raped at gunpoint by the coyote leading
Explanation and Analysis them across the desert while Apá was forced to look on.
After Julia does indeed discover incriminating emails on This fact also means that Olga was not Apá’s daughter, but a
Olga’s computer—emails that reveal Olga had been having product of the rape Amá suffered. This secret—known to
an affair with a married man for years and years—she other members of the family, but kept from Olga and Julia
realizes that she was right all along. As the information for years—rocks Julia to her core. It also, however, explains
soaks in, she wonders how Olga was so good at fooling a lot of Amá’s overprotective behavior towards Julia and
everyone around her—and why Julia hasn’t been able to put overt doting on Olga as a way of compensating for the awful
on the same “perfect” façade her sister was able to wear so truth lurking just below the surface. Julia is already keeping
well. Julia is full of renewed anger and resentment at the Olga’s secrets—and is now burdened with yet another huge,
fact that Olga got away with her bad behavior right under terrible secret. She is learning that secrets are
their parents’ noses—while every mistake Julia makes is everywhere—and that keeping them is, sometimes, a
discovered right away and held against her in unfair ways. kindness.
Julia knows it’s wrong to be mad at her dead sister—but she
can’t help but to feel an intense resentment over the
unequal, unfair way the two of them have been measured The sun begins to set as we finally approach the city. The
against one another for years. colors are so beautiful they’re almost violent. I feel a pang
in my chest and remember a line from a poem I read a long time
ago about terror being the beginning of beauty. Or something
like that. I don’t quite remember.
There’s a dead donkey in a field behind a barbwire fence. Its
legs are bent and stiff, and its mouth is open, as if it had been
smiling when it died. Two vultures circle above it.
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker)

ideas—and she is going to have to figure out how to find

Related Themes:
happiness, fulfillment, and peace without telling the secrets
that threaten to tear her family asunder.
Page Number: 281

As Julia’s bus to the airport in Mexico City approaches the Chapter 24 Quotes
city’s boundaries, she looks out in the desert and is shocked “I understand that it hurts, believe me, but this isn’t about
by the competing beauty and violence she takes in. Julia has you. […] Why would you want to cause your family more pain?
just spent several weeks with her family in Mexico—and “Because we shouldn’t be living lies,” I say. […] “I’m tired of
though there have been many beautiful, tranquil nights pretending and letting things blister inside me. Keeping things
spent braiding hair and sipping hibiscus tea, there have also to myself almost killed me. I don’t want to live like that
been the revelation of terrible family secrets and anymore.”
devastating gang violence in the streets just beyond Julia’s
“What are you talking about?”
grandmother’s home. Julia is coming to see that there is
beauty in even terrifying things, and vice versa. This lesson “Forget it.” Part of me wonders if Angie is right—who am I to do
is tied in intimately with the things she’s learning about this to my family?—but I hate this feeling, like the weight of this
secrets and lies—things aren’t always as they seem, and will make my chest collapse.
many gray moral truths can exist at once. Angie wipes the tears from her eyes with her palms. “Some
things should never be said out loud, Julia. Can’t you see that?”
Chapter 23 Quotes
Related Characters: Julia Reyes, Angie (speaker), Apá/
I can’t look at Amá without thinking about the border. I Rafael Reyes, Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes, Olga Reyes
keep picturing her screaming on the ground, Apá with a gun to
his head. I don’t think I can ever tell her that I know. But how do Related Themes:
we live with these secrets locked within us? How do we tie our
shoes, brush our hair, drink coffee, wash the dishes, and go to Page Number: 295-296
sleep, pretending everything is fine? How do we laugh and feel
happiness despite the buried things growing inside? How can
we do that day after day? After finding out the truth about Olga’s affair and
pregnancy, Julia confronts her sisters best friend Angie to
find out what she knew. Angie, it turns out, knew about
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Apá/Rafael
everything all along—and was the keeper of Olga’s darkest
Reyes, Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes
secrets. Now Julia and Angie are bonded together in this
lonely knowledge—and though Julia tells Angie she doesn’t
Related Themes:
want to be any part of keeping Olga’s lies locked up forever,
Page Number: 284-285 Angie insists that “some things should never be said out
loud.” Julia is dealing, too, with the revelation of several of
Explanation and Analysis her parents’ deep dark secrets—and now, as the unhappy
After returning from Mexico with the knowledge of Amá’s keeper of their darkest truths, must admit that perhaps
terrible secret about what she endured at the border Angie is right. Julia is learning a complicated lesson, and for
crossing, Julia finds herself in a strange situation. Part of her sure the book’s most potent message: that things are not
feels closer to her mother—she understands her and her always as they seem, and that sometimes keeping a painful
motivations more intimately now—but another part of her or dangerous secret inside is the largest sacrifice and
feels more estranged from the woman than ever, unsure of deepest kindness one can do for another person.
how to even make eye contact without letting the truth of
what she now knows pour out. The final chapters of the
novel are largely concerned with the theme of what it
means to keep a secret or tell a lie—and whether the secrets
one keeps and the lies one tells can actually be forces of
good. Julia is learning that to be an adult is to have to reckon
“day after day” with these hard truths and complicated

Chapter 26 Quotes
“What do I do with this?” I say to myself aloud. “How do I Related Themes:
bury this, too?”
Page Number: 314
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how am I going to keep this secret? Why do I have to be Explanation and Analysis
the one living with this shit?” As Julia considers all the secrets she’s been tasked with
“Please, don’t tell your parents. Olga never wanted to hurt keeping—the truth about Olga’s affair and pregnancy, about
them.” Amá and Apá’s violent border crossing, about Olga’s true
parentage—she wonders whether they will one day strangle
“Why wouldn’t I? And why should I listen to you?”
her like “vines.” Julia feels boxed in by the truth rather than
“Sometimes it’s best not to tell the truth.” freed by it—but at the same time, knows that to share the
burden with others might be too cruel for her to do. Julia
Related Characters: Dr. Castillo, Julia Reyes (speaker), must consider seriously deep moral gray areas now for the
Apá/Rafael Reyes, Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes, Olga first time in her life—she wonders what the more “selfish”
Reyes thing to do is. There’s no easy answer, but Julia is slowly
coming to understand that this “exhaustion,” too, is part of
Related Themes: adult life. The novel itself ultimately suggests that it is
“kind[er]” to keep painful truths inside—and the loudmouth
Page Number: 312 Julia has had to learn this lesson several times on a smaller
scale through her interactions with Milagros, Lorena,
Explanation and Analysis Juanga, and others in order to become fully prepared to
After discovering that Olga was not only having an affair at keep the bigger secrets which threaten to tear her family
the time of her death, but was pregnant when she died, Julia apart.
tracks down and confronts Dr. Castillo, Olga’s lover. As he
tells her how much he loved her sister, and assures Julia
that he did plan to leave his wife for her, Julia can’t pay Chapter 28 Quotes
attention to his simpering claims—she can only focus on the
"She opened the vault, the box in which she kept
burden that has been laid upon her shoulders, and the
herself—old filmstrips of her life, her truth. Broken
double-bind she finds herself in. To keep the secret to
feathers, crushed mirrors creating a false gleam. She
herself would be to strain herself when she’s already dealing
with so much—but to tell her parents would be to shatter takes it all apart, every moment, every lie, every
their image of their “perfect” daughter and perhaps deception. Everything stops: snapshots of serenity,
estrange herself from them even more. Dr. Castillo urges beauty, bliss, surface. Things she must dig for in her
Julia to keep Olga’s secret—he tries to explain to her how mesh of uncertainty, in her darkness, though it still
complicated adult relationships are, and how sometimes, in lies in the wetness of her mouth, the scent of her hair.
spite of how it may seem, the truth is only a weapon that She digs and digs in that scarlet box on the day of her
wounds. unraveling, the day she comes undone.”
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Dr. Cooke

Chapter 27 Quotes
There are times the secrets feel like strangling vines. Is it Related Themes:
considered lying when you hold something locked up inside
Page Number: 330-331
you? What if the information would only cause people pain?
Who would benefit from knowing about Olga’s affair and Explanation and Analysis
pregnancy? Is it kind or selfish for me to keep this all to myself?
This passage is part of a poem Julia shares with her
Would it be messed up if I said it just so I don’t have to live with
therapist, Dr. Cooke, in their last session together before
it alone? It’s exhausting.
Julia heads off to college. Julia and Dr. Cooke have
discussed everything plaguing Julia—her relationship with
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Olga Reyes Connor, her struggles with her mother, the distance she
feels from her father, the secrets about Olga and her

I still have nightmares about Olga. Sometimes she’s a
parents she’s been forced to keep locked inside. As Julia mermaid again, other times she’s holding her baby, which is
reads this poem out loud, its title—“Pandora,” a reference to often not a baby at all. Usually, it’s a rock, a fish, or even a sack
the girl of Greek myth who opened a mysterious box and of rags. Though it’s slowed, my guilt still grows like branches. I
released evil, sin, greed, and more into the world—and the wonder when it’ll stop, feeling bad for something that’s not my
lines it contains reveal a new side to Julia. Though Julia has fault. Who knows? Maybe never.
struggled with the pressure to keep her family’s secrets, and
has felt regret over the ravenous digging she did to get to
Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Olga Reyes
many of them, she reveals through this poem that she
knows it is only through this incessant digging that she has
Related Themes:
been able to understand the hardest parts of her own
personality. Page Number: 339

Chapter 29 Quotes As Julia boards her flight to New York, she finds herself
How can I leave them like this? How can I just live my life feeling wistful for all she’s leaving behind. She’s made it to
and leave them behind? What kind of person does that? Will I the future she’s always dreamed of—but at the same time,
ever forgive myself? now that she’s here, it doesn’t look the way she thought it
would. She’s burdened by Olga’s secret, and even her
“We love you, Julia. We love you so much,” Amá says, and
subconscious can’t escape the truth only she, Angie, and Dr.
presses some money into my hand. “Para si se te antoja algo,”
Castillo carry each day. It’s unclear whether Julia will ever
she says, in case I crave something when I get to New York.
tell her parents the truth about Olga, or whether doing so
“Remember you can come back whenever you want.”
will even accomplish the goal of putting an end to the “guilt”
she feels about keeping the secret. What is clear is that Julia
Related Characters: Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes, no longer feels like the pressure of the secret is going to
Julia Reyes (speaker), Apá/Rafael Reyes buckle her—she has come to understand that sometimes
lies are merciful, and the truth will only cause deeper
Related Themes: wounds.
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 338 I pull out Olga’s ultrasound picture from my journal before
we land. At times, it looks like an egg. Occasionally, it looks
Explanation and Analysis like an eye. The other day I was convinced I could see it pulsing.
As Julia says goodbye to her parents at the airport on her How can I ever give this to my parents, something else to love,
way to New York to attend NYU, she is overcome with grief, something dead? These last two years I combed and delved
guilt, and regret. All Julia has wanted for so long is to get out through my sister’s life to better understand her, which meant I
of Chicago—away from her mother’s strict, overbearing learned to find pieces of myself—both beautiful and ugly—and
presence and out from under the thumb of the chronic how amazing is it that I hold a piece of her right here in my
poverty their family has endured for years. At the moment hands?
she’s finally “free,” though, Julia realizes that perhaps her
parents have always genuinely loved and wanted to Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Apá/Rafael
understand her—maybe they weren’t her antagonists all Reyes, Amá/Amparo Montenegro Reyes, Olga Reyes
along. This is symbolized by Amá giving Julia money for a
snack when she lands in New York—for much of the novel, Related Themes:
and years before its start, Amá has criticized Julia’s
ravenous appetite and junky eating habits. Now, though, she Page Number: 340
accepts her daughter as she is—and wants her to be the
version of herself she is rather than some false “perfect”
idea of a daughter. As Julia’s plane to New York begins its descent and Julia is
able to peek out at the city’s iconic skyline, she is full of
apprehension and excitement about what her life will soon
hold. In spite of all the hardships and obstacles she’s dealt

with in the last two years, she has made it to New York like over the last two years hasn’t been about Olga after all. In
she always dreamed she would—and yet the achievement of trying to get to know her dead sister, Julia has really come
her goals is shadowed by the weight of the secrets she’s to know herself: what kind of woman she is, what kind of
learned. As Julia wonders how she should approach this choices she makes in desperate times, and how she will
new stage of her life, and how it will be affected by the gracefully, bravely bear the very grown-up burdens she’s
things she’s keeping inside, she realizes that her journey become saddled with.

SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
CHAPTER 1
Julia Reyes and her family are attending the funeral of Julia’s The opening passage of the book shows Julia, the protagonist, in a
older sister, Olga. As Julia peers into her sister’s casket, she is state of mourning—but Julia’s grief doesn’t look or feel the way one
surprised by the “lingering smirk” on Olga’s face, a smirk which might expect it to. Julia both laments her sister’s wasted potential in
stands in contrast to the “meek and fragile” disposition Olga life and demonstrates the jealousy she feels, seeing Olga’s “smirk” as
displayed in life. Olga is dressed in an “unstylish” floral frock a direct commentary on the ways in which Julia doesn’t measure up
representative of her typical matronly look—though Olga died to her sister, and perhaps never will.
at just twenty-two, she was always dressed like she was “either
four or eighty years old.” Julia feels that the pretty Olga wasted
her beauty—and her body—and, pretty much, her whole life.
Olga lived at home, worked part-time in a medical office, and
took just one class each semester at a local community college,
making few friends and dedicating her days to spending time
with her and Julia’s parents instead.
Julia, who dreams of being a famous writer, was both jealous of Julia is surprisingly unemotional about her sister’s death—or at least
and confused by the saint-like Olga while she lived—Olga was unable to properly express what she’s feeling. She seems almost
“the perfect Mexican daughter,” while Julia is far from this ideal. jealous that her sister, even in death, is still the sole focus of their
Julia is snapped from her mean thoughts about her sister by mother’s emotions and attention.
her Amá pushing past her and wailing, screaming “my daughter”
over and over in Spanish as she “practically climbs inside the
casket.” Julia, exhausted, sighs and waits for her mother to “tire
herself out.” She wishes she could comfort her mother, but their
strained relationship doesn’t really allow for that sort of thing.
Olga has always been the favorite daughter, while Julia has
always been the odd one out.
Julia isn’t alone in being unable to express emotion about Julia admits here that she misses Olga and has strong feelings about
Olga’s death—her father, Apá, also hasn’t cried yet. Julia insists her death—but her stoic personality and her desire not to make a
that she feels a deep grief, but her body won’t let her shed tears spectacle of herself overwhelm whatever’s stirring beneath the
for some reason. Julia knows her grief is just going to “build surface.
until [she] explode[s] like a piñata.” As aunts and uncles rush
forward to comfort Amá, Julia can’t help but feel skeptical and
bored—“Once you’re dead,” she thinks, “you’re dead.”
©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 19

Julia thinks back on the day Olga died, wishing she had been Julia is opinionated and a hothead with a fiery tongue. She’s often in
able to keep her sister from leaving the house. The day was trouble, even though her transgressions are relatively minor. Julia
boring and uneventful like any other: Julia went through the feels she should be able to express herself in the ways she wants to,
motions at school, cheekily faking a lie about her period to get and feels intellectually superior to those around her. These aren’t
out of swimming in the disgusting pool during gym class and bad or dangerous traits and behaviors, per se, but the more Julia
getting sent to the principal for replying to her skeptical resists the molds people try to put her in, the more difficult her life
teacher by offering to let the teacher “check” her for proof. gets.
Julia’s frequent trips to the principal’s office always result in
scoldings—and groundings—from Amá, who doesn’t
understand why her once-obedient daughter has become a
troublemaker who enjoys living “la mala vida”—the bad life.
Because Julia got in trouble at school and had to be picked up Julia understands that in a roundabout way, her most recent
by Amá on the day of Olga’s death, Olga had to take the bus transgression impacted her sister’s life in terrible, irrevocable ways.
home from school rather than get picked up—then, while This fact pains her, but she doesn’t seem to let the full emotional
transferring buses, Olga walked across the street looking at her weight of the coincidence hit her.
phone and was hit by a huge semi truck. Olga was killed almost
instantly, and two witnesses said she was smiling down at her
phone when she was run down.
Julia can hear her aunts whispering about her, and is relieved This passage shows how out of place and alone Julia feels within her
when her best friend, Lorena, shows up. Though Amá thinks own family—she thinks everyone is antagonizing her all the time for
Lorena is wild and slutty—which Julia admits she is—Lorena has her differences. She finds comfort in Lorena, whom her mother
been Julia’s best friend since grade school. The two are vastly dislikes—though Lorena and Julia have been best friends for years,
different now, but still inseparable, and as she embraces Julia there’s something about Lorena’s wild ways that allows Julia to
she whispers words of support and solidarity before “shooting embrace her own rebellious side. Even though Julia feels better than
eye-daggers” at Julia’s nosy aunts. As Julia looks at the back of everyone around her, this passage also shows that she does feel a
the room, she sees a man she doesn’t recognize sitting there twinge of regret over the fact that she also feels distant and is never
and crying. Julia assumes the man is a distant uncle or cousin. able to comfort anyone, to fit in, or to use the right words.
Julia briefly wonders who the man could be, but is distracted
when Olga’s best friend Angie enters the room, wailing and
“howling” in grief. Julia wishes she could comfort Angie, but
“never” knows what the right thing to say is.
CHAPTER 2
After Olga’s funeral, Amá doesn’t leave her bed for nearly two Julia’s parents are clearly taking Olga’s death terribly hard. Julia is
weeks. She only gets up to go to the bathroom and eat stale almost jealous, as she wants them to show up for her—but their
pastries from the funeral. Her behavior begins to worry grief overwhelms everything, and leaves Julia feeling more alone
Julia—Amá is usually clean and put-together, no matter the than ever.
circumstances. Apá, meanwhile, continues working all day
every day, and comes home to sit silently on the sofa with a
beer. He never communicates his feelings to Julia, and has
barely even spoken to her since the funeral.

The Reyes’s roach-infested apartment on the south side of Julia is constantly hungry—a symbol of her restlessness and
Chicago has fallen into particularly bad shape over the last ambition—but hasn’t learned to cook as a way of rebelling against
couple of weeks, and there is hardly any food in the house. Julia her mother. Julia is trying to overcome the cycles and gender roles
tries to cook for herself, but can’t even make beans right—she’s which permeate her community and family, but in the end, she’s
never learned how to cook, out of fear of becoming “a really cheating herself out of a lot of experiences and a connection
submissive Mexican wife” who does nothing but clean and to her family and cultural traditions.
prepare meals.
One afternoon, Julia peeks into her mother’s room and asks if Julia is lonely and restless, with no one to talk to or to comfort her.
she’s planning on eating or taking a shower. Amá yells at Julia She’s angry at her parents for emotionally abandoning her, and is
for being “suddenly concerned with cleanliness,” remarking that clearly ready for the grieving period to be over. Her strained
Olga was always “the clean one.” Julia flatly states that Olga is interactions with her family often lead to her voraciously eating—a
gone before taking five dollars from her mother’s wallet and symbol of her thwarted desire for more than she is allowed to have.
leaving the apartment. In addition to a ghost sister, she thinks,
she has a ghost father and a ghost mother. At a nearby taco
shop, Julia orders some food and eats ravenously, wolfing
down three tacos and a large horchata in minutes.
When Julia arrives home, her mother is sitting in the kitchen Though Julia is off-put and even disgusted by the idea of a lavish,
sipping some tea, freshly showered. Julia is shocked when indulgent quince party, Amá insists on making one happen for Julia
Amá—who always demands to know her whereabouts—doesn’t since she never could for Olga. Julia resents not only the wasteful
ask Julia where she’s been. Julia is even more shocked when party, but the fact that it’s not even being thrown out of love for her,
her mother announces that Julia is going to have a and rather Amá’s lingering regrets about Olga. Julia is second-best
quinceañera—a traditional party which marks the entry of to her sister, even after Olga’s death, and the constant reminder of
fifteen-year-old Latina girls into womanhood. Julia is this fact makes her feel hurt, angry, and unloved. This interaction
confused—she’s already nearly sixteen. When she brings this points to the circular struggle between Julia and her parents: they
up as a way of protesting against the party, Amá replies that she want to make her be something she isn’t, which leads her to rebel.
is full of regret that she never got to give Olga a quincé—and
isn’t going to make the same mistake twice. Julia insists she
doesn’t want the party or any of the frivolous celebrations that
come with it, but Amá’s will is solid—she tells Julia not to say a
bad word against the idea, threatening to “break [her] teeth.”
Whenever Julia can’t sleep lately, she gets out of her own bed Julia does miss Olga, and is in the process of grieving: she just shows
and goes to crawl into Olga’s, even though Amá has forbidden it differently. She regrets not having gotten to know Olga better or
her from entering her sister’s room. Julia is comforted by trying to be closer to her while she still had the chance. Julia is left
Olga’s familiar scent, which lingers in the bedclothes. As she lies with a ton of questions about who Olga was and what she
there, her thoughts swirl around in her head: she is afraid of not wanted—they were close, this passage and the picture it describes
getting into college and being stuck in her working-class shows, in their youth, but never really understood each other as
neighborhood forever. Julia tries to distract herself with a young women.
book, but even reading—her favorite activity—doesn’t work.
Julia spies a picture of her and Olga on vacation in Mexico at
their grandmother Mamá Jacinta’s house—they used to go
together every summer. Julia studies the picture, wondering
who her sister really was, and realizing that maybe she didn’t
know her at all.

Olga has always been the favorite, taking their mother’s side in The discovery of the first piece of a larger puzzle about Olga sends
arguments—of which there have always been many, because of Julia down a rabbit hole which will consume her over the course of
Julia’s contrarian views and feisty personality. Stuck in a the novel. She already has regrets about not knowing her sister
thought spiral about all the ways in which she’s failed to better, and about failing to live up to Olga’s example. Finding dirt on
measure up to Olga, Julia turns over and tries to sleep—but as Olga, then, is both a way for Julia to make herself feel better about
she lays her head on the pillow, she feels something poking her. her own failures, and to learn her sister’s private secrets—though
She reaches into the pillow case and pulls out a note scrawled what Julia will learn about herself in the process will be more
on a sticky note bearing the name of a prescription: the note important than the truth about Olga.
says “I love you.” Julia’s mind begins racing. She knows that Olga
hasn’t had a boyfriend since she dated a skinny, wimpy guy back
in high school.
Julia gets out of bed and begins going through Olga’s closet. As Julia finds more and more incriminating things in her sister’s
She finds old pictures and clothes stuffed in boxes—but in one room, she is excited and overwhelmed. There is a whole side to Olga
box, finds a cache of sexy underwear. Julia is scandalized, and she never bothered to see, having assumed her sister was boring
knows that if their mother ever found these things, she would and perfect—and Olga skillfully maintained the façade for years, a
“flip the hell out.” Julia begins searching for Olga’s laptop, and fact that surely makes the trouble-prone Julia even more jealous.
eventually finds it under the mattress. She becomes frustrated
when she can’t guess Olga’s password, and goes back to looking
through Olga’s things. In her sister’s dresser she finds a hotel
key card from a hotel called The Continental. Angie, Julia
knows, works at a hotel—but not The Continental. As she hears
sounds of someone waking up, Julia flicks off the light, stashes
the laptop, and gets into bed.
In the morning, Julia wakes up in Olga’s bed. She panics, Even though Olga is dead, For Amá the preservation of Olga’s
knowing that if she gets caught in the room she’ll be in trouble. things—and the perfect vision of her Amá always had—is more
She hurriedly makes the bed and tiptoes back to her own important than Julia’s grief.
room—but as she twists the knob, she hears her mother come
up behind her. Full of dread, Julia turns to face Amá, who has
her hands on her hips and looks deeply angry.
CHAPTER 3
Julia has been grounded for going into Olga’s room—Amá took Julia is indignant about being punished so severely for the simple
away her phone and has forbidden her from closing her act of going into Olga’s room. She is full of anger towards her
bedroom door. Julia has protested, saying she needs privacy, mother and longs to escape—she wants to get out from under her
but Amá only scoffs at the concept of privacy. Amá has also mother’s thumb, away from the poverty that defines their lives, and
installed a lock on Olga’s bedroom door—a lock to which Julia, escape the perfect image of Olga which lives on in Amá’s mind,
despite looking everywhere, cannot find the key. Julia has taken making it impossible for Julia to ever do anything right. The locked
to daydreaming nonstop about living a life away from her room is another indication of the way that Amá tries to protect her
parents in Paris or New York, but is always snapped back to her idea of what is right by maternal force, and her continued focus on
reality—which feels to her like a “living death.” Julia hates her Olga at the expense of Julia.
mother entirely lately, and wonders if something is wrong with
her for feeling such intense feelings.

As the school year begins, the only class Julia really enjoys or Words are important to Julia, a voracious reader who loves to argue.
succeeds in is English, which is taught by the “dorky” but kind Finding herself in Mr. Ingman’s class gives her hope that at least
Mr. Ingman. Mr. Ingman encourages the students to think some part of her year will be educational and joyful, and allow her
about how they express themselves through language—and to escape even if for just a little while.
understand that language can be a tool that can help them
empower themselves and get ahead in life.
Lately, Julia never knows whether Amá will, on any given day, Julia loves food—but resents being asked to make it. She sees
be in a good mood or a bad one. One Saturday morning, Amá preparing food as a part of femininity she doesn’t want to
shouts for Julia to wake up early and help out in the kitchen, participate in—a duty meant to trap her rather than a skill meant to
where Amá is making tortillas. Julia begrudgingly begins allow her to fend for herself and be even more independent. This
helping, but struggles to form the dough into circles and even complex relationship to food mirrors her complex relationship to her
burns a couple on the stove. Eventually Amá kicks Julia out of own past and community, which is something that helps define her
the kitchen, telling her she can’t be a real woman if she can’t but which she primarily sees as a something she wants and needs to
make a tortilla. escape.
On the day her grounding is lifted, Julia decides to go Julia can’t stop getting in trouble—she’s too restless and snarky for
downtown to The Continental after school to look for some her own good. The same day her last punishment ends, she puts
answers about Olga’s connection to it. Julia dresses herself in danger of earning a new one by talking back in class and
flamboyantly and feistily for the day in fishnets and Chuck then ditching school. Julia feels too good for everything around her,
Taylors. Instead of focusing on the lecture, she drifts off in math and doesn’t know how to cope with the feelings of entrapment she
class, writing poems in the leather journal Olga gave her the has deep inside of her. She escapes; she never engages.
previous Christmas. When her math teacher calls on her to
answer a question, Julia admits she hasn’t been paying
attention. Her teacher commands her to come up to the board
and solve the problem. Feeling trapped and embarrassed, Julia
picks up her backpack and leaves class—and then heads off-
campus altogether and catches a bus into Chicago.
Julia is hungry and stops at a diner. She only has eight dollars in Julia’s hunger crops up at moments where she’s feeling particularly
her pocket, and though she’s ravenous, resigns herself to a fired-up, frustrated, or restless. After the confrontation with her
coffee and a danish. When the waitress asks Julia why she’s not math teacher, she’s all three. The other patron paying her bill shows
in school, she vents about math class—and her sister’s death. how others can recognize Julia’s legitimate pain—but at this point
When it’s time for Julia to pay the check, the waitress tells her those others are strangers, which only highlights the way her own
it’s already been taken care of by a fellow patron who loved ones fail to see it.
overheard their conversation.
Julia heads to The Continental, where she shows the front desk Julia wants to find out the truth about her sister—but this
associate a picture of Olga and asks whether the staff has ever encounter at the hotel is just the first of many dead ends she’ll run
seen her in the hotel before. The concierge says that hotel staff into. How deep and how far she wants to go will be tested in the
aren’t allowed to give out any information about guests, and weeks and months to come as more and more people resist giving
though Julia begs them to tell her, no one will offer her her information about her sister.
anything. When Julia asks if the hotel is connected to the
Skyline—the hotel where Olga’s friend Angie works—the
associate reveals that they’re owned by the same parent
conglomerate.

Julia leaves the hotel, but before going home, decides to stop at Looking at her favorite painting enlivens Julia in a moment of
the art museum to see her favorite painting—Judith Slaying sorrow and reconnects her to her dreams. In spite of her
Holofernes. This is her fourth time this year visiting the painting, rebelliousness and anger, Julia is a sensitive soul, and she dreams of
and Julia loves that every time she’s come to see it, she’s the freedom to run at her desires without being impeded by forces
noticed something new about it. Julia wishes she could stay in beyond her control.
the museum forever, and looks forward to the day when she
can run around Paris looking at art and eating cheese until she
bursts.
As Julia rides home on the crowded train, she delights in Julia wants to get out of Chicago—badly—but at the same time has
looking at all the different people and train performers. She a genuine love for her city and the slice of life it offers her. Giving
gives money to a homeless woman, and feels so happy to be out money to the homeless woman also shows Julia’s empathy—she has
in the real world that she doesn’t even care that she’ll probably so little, but she feels for people who have even less.
be in big trouble with Amá when she gets back home.
CHAPTER 4
On Saturday afternoon, Julia tells Amá that she’s going to the Julia is determined to get to the bottom of Olga’s secrets—after
library to study—but secretly heads for Angie’s house instead. striking out on her own hasn’t proven useful, she decides to go
She’s called Angie several times, but her sister’s best friend directly to someone who knew Olga well. At the same time, the book
won’t return her calls. Julia hopes that Angie can tell her never paints Julia’s search as being a purely good thing. Instead, it’s
something about Olga that she doesn’t know. As she walks complicated: a result of Julia’s simultaneous desire to know her
down the street, she laments the chilly weather—Julia hates sister and make herself feel better by revealing her sister’s secrets; a
the bitter Chicago winters and the depression they bring. She hunt for the truth, but also a kind of way of escaping her own pain.
also thinks about Angie, who is, like Olga was, the perfect Julia is determined in her search, but there is a desperation in the
Mexican daughter. search as well.
At Angie’s house, Julia is welcomed inside by Angie’s mother, Angie is still in the throes of grief. Though Julia—and even her
Doña Ramona, who is cooking some spicy food. Julia’s mouth parents—have managed to pull themselves together, Angie’s still
and eyes water at the smell. Julia sits down in the tackily- deeply disturbed. This signals to readers—and to Julia—that she is
decorated living room and waits for Angie—who emerges from processing Olga’s death in a different way, and perhaps knows
her room after several minutes dressed in a ratty bathrobe and something more that’s contributing to her hopeless state.
looking as if she’s been crying. Angie apologizes for her
appearance, but Julia lies and tells Angie she looks “as pretty as
always.” Julia asks if they can go into Angie’s room so that they
can talk in private. Angie agrees, and leads her down the hall.
Julia sits down on the bed in Angie’s room, the walls of which Though Angie professes not to know anything about what Olga may
are covered with photos of her and Olga. Julia immediately or may not have been up to—and even tries to accuse Julia of
begins peppering Angie with questions about Olga—whether cruelty to throw her off the trail—a slip of the tongue clues Julia into
Olga was texting Angie when she was hit by the bus, and what the fact that perhaps there was a part of Olga’s life that no one but
her connection to The Continental might be. Angie insists she Angie knew about.
doesn’t know what Julia’s talking about, and when Julia brings
up all the lingerie she found in Olga’s room, Angie accuses Julia
of trying to “caus[e] trouble” for everyone. Angie tells Julia that
she never cared about her sister’s life while she was alive, and is
only trying to dredge things about her “love life” up now that
she’s dead.

Julia is intrigued by Angie’s voluntary admission that something Julia is frustrated that there’s clearly something Angie’s hiding from
was up with Olga’s love life, and asks her to say more about her. She wants to know more about her sister—but because Angie
it—but Angie becomes upset, and tells Julia she needs to leave. believes that Julia’s just trying to make trouble like always, Julia’s
Julia tells Angie that though Angie lost her best friend, Julia lost barred from the thing she wants most (and forced to consider
her sister—and her life “fucking sucks” because of it. Julia whether Angie’s right.) Refusing the offer of food is another instance
storms out of the room, and though Doña Ramona offers that of Julia failing to connect to her community.
she can stay and have some food, she ducks her tear-stained
face and heads for the front door.
CHAPTER 5
After school one day, Julia calls Amá and lies to her, telling her Julia is angry that her mother doesn’t respect the things she
she needs to stay late to work on a project—when really she’s values—exploration, freedom, and friendship—but is determined to
planning on going to Lorena’s to do some “internet snooping” get around her mother no matter how much trouble she might get in
about Olga, since there’s no internet at the Reyes home. Julia if caught. The pattern of Amá’s overprotectiveness and Julia’s
knows that even though she and Lorena have been friends for resulting rebellion against it is again evident here.
years, Amá doesn’t see the importance of having friends—to
Amá, family is the only thing that matters.
At Lorena’s, Julia and Lorena devour a bag of nacho chips Julia is ravenous for both food and information as she arrives at
drenched in hot sauce. Even after finishing the whole thing, Lorena’s free to explore the internet and eat however she wants
Julia remains starving. Even though Apá works in a candy outside the confines of her parents’ home.
factory, junk food is forbidden in the Reyes house—Julia can
only eat junk in secret on the way home from school or at a
friend’s house.
Julia tells Lorena about the things she found in Olga’s Lorena is skeptical of Julia’s mission, but because she’s Julia’s friend,
room—the lingerie and the hotel key card. Lorena doesn’t think she volunteers to help her anyway. Lorena’s skepticism serves to
the items are such a big deal, but Julia insists that something is highlight both Julia’s determination in finding the truth, but also
“not right.” On Lorena’s old, hand-me-down laptop, the girls Julia’s desperate desire that there be a secret truth to find.
search the internet for clues about Olga. They can’t find any
social media profiles for her, though, and soon give up.
Julia eyes the altar set up in the corner of Lorena’s living Julia’s home life is sad and often difficult—but Lorena has her own
room—her mother worships Santa Muerte, a skeleton saint set of struggles, some of them worse or just as bad as Julia’s. This
(another reason Amá is so skeptical of Julia hanging out with forces Julia to see that she’s not alone—and also that things in her
her best friend.) Lorena’s mom is glamorous and always life could be even worse.
dressed in skintight clothing—her boyfriend, José Luis, is
several years her junior. Lorena’s father died many years ago in
an attempt to cross the US-Mexico border, but Lorena never
talks about the incident or her dad.

Lorena offers Julia some weed, and Julia accepts. As the weed José Luis’s creepiness is, like the predatory nature of so many other
kicks in, Lorena feels herself growing “light and heavy at the men in the book, something that’s just a given for the women they
same time,” and she realizes she’s higher than she’s ever been. prey upon. Julia is learning that, for many men, her body is a
As the girls laugh and joke together, José Luis walks in the front commodity to be scrutinized and appraised—something that further
door from one of his restaurant jobs. Julia is made contributes to her feelings of entrapment and helplessness even
uncomfortable by his presence—he’s only ten years older than outside of her parents’ home. The behavior of José Luis and other
them, and is always asking them personal questions and trying men toward Julia foreshadows the biggest secret to be revealed
to hang out with them. The girls try to ignore José Luis by later in the book, and also suggests to the reader (if not to Julia) that
watching a reality show set in New York—where Julia hopes Amá’s overprotectiveness is not entirely without justification.
she’ll someday live—and eventually fall asleep. When Julia
wakes up, she sees that José Luis is crouched in front of her,
taking a picture on his phone. She realizes her skirt is up over
her hips, and she quickly pulls it down.
The next night, when Amá goes out to her prayer group at Julia is so desperate to find any new information about Olga that
church, Julia asks Apá if she can go out with Lorena. The she’s grasping at straws—here she runs into yet another dead end.
indifferent Apá shrugs, and Julia hurries out the door to wait Lorena would rather set Julia up on a date and encourage her to
for Lorena and her new boyfriend Carlos to pick her up. have some fun than fan the flames of her Olga obsession. Julia’s
Carlos’s cousin Leo is a cop, and they are going to his house, focus is on her dead sister; Lorena’s focus is on her living friend.
hopeful he’ll be able to help them track down some information
about Olga. When the car pulls up though, Julia sees there is a
young guy in the backseat. Lorena introduces him as another of
Carlos’s cousins, Ramiro, and states that they’re not going to
Leo’s as planned—they’re all going to hang out in the city by the
lake instead.
At the lake, Lorena and Carlos run off to have sex, leaving Julia Wild-child Lorena celebrates Julia’s first kiss, grateful that her friend
alone with Ramiro, who only speaks Spanish. She laments that is stepping out of her box, connecting with someone, and focusing
though she can passably speak the language, she can’t express on something other than her obsessive grief over Olga’s death.
herself as well as she can in English. Nevertheless, as she talks
and flirts with Ramiro she finds herself having a good time. He
asks about her sister and expresses sympathy for Julia’s loss,
and then leans in to kiss her. Julia was not expecting to receive
her first kiss from a relative stranger, but allows Ramiro to kiss
her anyway. Soon, Julia hears hooting and cheering—she turns
around to see Carlos and Lorena coming towards her, smiling
and congratulating the two of them.
CHAPTER 6
Amá, Apá, and Julia are getting ready to go to Julia’s cousin Julia would rather escape into the world of books than deal with her
Victor’s seventh birthday party—a party that Julia believes is boisterous, nosy family. She’s disdainful and contemptuous of them,
just an excuse for Victor’s father, whom she calls Tío Bigotes, and in spite of her parents’ attempts to get her to connect with her
and the other men of the family to get together and get drunk. family, she only wants to retreat further into herself. Often novels
Julia asks if she can stay home and read, but Amá insists she portray such bookishness as purely virtuous, and this novel certainly
come along. sees value in it as well. But the novel also shows the way that such
bookishness is an escape, and how that escape cuts of possibilities
of connection.

Tío Bigotes’s house smells, and Julia is overwhelmed by the There are creepy men everywhere in Julia’s world—even within her
number of children running wildly in and out of the house. Amá own family. Surprisingly, though, Cayetano’s predatory nature
forces Julia to greet and kiss every one of her relatives rankles Julia less than her gossipy aunt does, showing just how used
hello—even Tío Cayetano, who used to stick his finger in Julia’s to and unfazed by unwanted male attention she is.
mouth when no one was looking. The last time he did it, she was
twelve, and she bit him—hard. After Julia gorges herself on
some party food, one of her aunts, Tía Milagros—a mean
gossip—congratulates her on being such a good eater. Julia
thinks about how no one in the family used to tease Olga the
way they tease her.
Julia watches her cousin Vanessa—who, at sixteen, is barely a Vanessa and Freddy represent two paths: the path of binding
year older than Julia herself—feed her infant child. Julia pities oneself to family, motherhood, and domesticity, and the path of
Vanessa, and looks away. She heads outside to greet some academic and cultural education and independence. Julia wants
cousins, Freddy and Alicia—Freddy is the only member of the what Freddy has—and is terrified of ending up like Vanessa.
family who has gone to college, and his girlfriend Alicia works at Nonetheless, it’s interesting that over the course of the books she
a prestigious theater company in the city. Freddy and Alicia tell never takes Freddy up on his offer. Her disconnection from other
Julia about their travels around the world, and ask her what people—especially her family—seems to apply even to those who are
she’s thinking about doing for college—they offer to help her purely and generously trying to help her.
with anything she needs for her application.
Julia heads back inside, where she sits on the sofa and begins Julia wants to escape her overwhelming family—even a pleasant
reading The Catcher in the Ry
Ryee. Amá often yells at her for conversation with Freddy stresses her out. Even books, though,
reading at parties, but Julia is able to read for a full half hour don’t allow her to escape for long in the face of her family’s antics.
before being interrupted by Apá, Tío Bigotes, and Tio Also notable here is Julia’s choice of book. In Catcher, the
Cayetano, who reminisce about their lives in Mexico as they get protagonist Holden Caulfield sees himself as superior to others
drunk on tequila. The men call her over to harass her about her (everyone else is phony, to him), and ends up in a mental breakdown.
book, her quince, and her poor Spanish. Julia reels with shame, The novel here is foreshadowing how Julia’s own judgmental
unsure of what to say, until Bigotes stands up and waddles to isolation is pointing her down the same path.
the bathroom where he begins audibly retching.
That night, Julia has an upsetting dream in which she’s back in Julia fears she’ll never catch up with the truth about Olga, and will
Mexico at Mamá Jacinta’s house—but the house is on fire, and remain in pursuit of her sister’s secrets all her life. Interestingly, the
when Julia jumps into a nearby river to escape, she sees a same dream also seems to imply that she senses the way that her
mermaid version of Olga who keeps swimming away from her. connection to her past —her grandmother’s house in Mexico—is also
becoming lost to her.

CHAPTER 7
At school, Lorena has made a new friend—a boy who is “gay as a Julia and Lorena have always been best friends—and when Lorena
rainbow-colored unicorn.” The boy goes by the nickname finds a new friend, Julia feels both jealousy and a desire to keep up
Juanga, and Julia hates him immediately. In history class, and not fall into second place. To do so, she knows she has to
Lorena tells Julia that Juanga has invited them to a big deceive Amá and risk getting in even more trouble—but is
masquerade ball in downtown Chicago—it’s going to huge, and determined to do whatever it takes to remain Lorena’s number one.
Lorena wants to go. Julia refuses, blaming her overprotective
mother. Lorena passes Julia a surprisingly well-forged
permission slip for an overnight field trip on school letterhead,
telling Julia that if she misses the party, she’s going to be sorry.
Julia brings the fake permission slip home to Amá, who tells This passage shows just how deeply distrustful and contentious
Julia she can’t go on the trip without even looking at the form. Julia and Amá’s relationship really is. Julia resents her mother for
Julia begs her to just take a look at it, but Amá replies that Julia, keeping her trapped at home—and for constantly comparing her to
who can’t even “make a tortilla,” is not ready for “grown-up” the saint-like Olga, made even more perfect in death. The pattern
things. Furious, Julia complains about never being able to get thus far in the book is constant, and destructive, but neither can
out of their “stupid neighborhood.” Amá vindictively states that break out of it.
Olga never felt the need to go out and see the world—she was
content at home. Crying, Julia stalks off to her room.
On Friday night—the night of the masquerade—Julia reads in Julia is determined not to miss out on fun with Lorena and Juanga.
the living room until her parents are asleep, and then stuffs She even puts herself in danger—allowing the unlicensed Juanga to
pillows into her bed and sneaks out to meet Juanga and Lorena drive her—to avoid being left out because of her parents’ restrictive
on the street. When Juanga pulls up, he tells Julia that though rules. Again the novel shows how restrictions naturally lead to
he doesn’t have a driver’s license, he’ll get them to the party in rebellion, while also hinting at how that rebellion, while
one piece. understandable, can be destructive.
At the party in a large warehouse apartment in a trendy Julia has been feeling stagnant and hopeless when it comes to
neighborhood, Julia finds herself dreaming of having a place learning more about Olga—but this chance meeting with one of
like it to herself one day. Juanga and Lorena socialize with lots Olga’s high school friends, and the revelation that Olga was “in love”
of people and drink, but Julia nurses a single beer and gets lost with somebody, reignite Julia’s hopes of learning the truth about
in thought. A young woman in a catsuit approaches her and whatever her sister was hiding. Meanwhile, this revelation also
asks if she’s Olga’s sister—she introduces herself as Jazmyn, a makes clear that Amá’s view of Olga is also incorrect, and that,
high school friend of Olga’s. Julia feels a hazy memory of the more broadly no one is a saint, and everyone is complicated.
girl return to her. Jazmyn effusively recalls how close she and
Olga were, and then asks Julia how Olga is—she hasn’t seen
her, she says, in few years, since she ran into Olga at the mall
and listened to Olga go “on and on about this guy she was in
love with.”

Julia, stunned, tells Jazmyn that Olga is dead. She is intrigued Julia distracts Jazmyn from her memories of Olga by sidelining her
by the idea that Olga was in love with someone—Julia knows with news of Olga’s death. Julia becomes overwhelmed by
Olga certainly didn’t have passionate feelings for her nerdy sadness—and by the fear that no matter where she goes in life,
high-school boyfriend. Jazmyn, though, is so devastated by the whom she meets, or what she does, she will always be in Olga’s
news of Olga’s death that she begins weeping, and doesn’t shadow, even more than she was when Olga was still alive.
respond to Julia’s questions. Feeling sick, Julia runs to the Meanwhile, thinking about Olga’s ghost while she gets driven home
bathroom, but doesn’t throw up. She rushes out of the by someone who is drunk again foreshadows the danger that Julia is
bathroom, determined to ask Jazmyn more questions, but can’t constantly courting with her behavior.
find the girl anywhere. After the party, as Juanga drunkenly
drives Lorena and Julia home, Julia thinks about how her
“sister’s ghost is hovering” over her no matter where she goes
or what she does.
CHAPTER 8
One Saturday, Amá, a housecleaner, forces Julia to come work As Julia tags along with her mother to clean houses, she witnesses
with her cleaning fancy homes in Chicago’s wealthy Lincoln firsthand—and for the first time, it’s implied—the humiliation and
Park neighborhood. There are three houses to clean—the first hardship her mother must endure each day just to make ends meet
two are relatively clean and easy, but at the third house, a for their family. Julia’s journey towards empathy for her parents is
pretentious man named Dr. Scheinberg greets the women and one of the novel’s central plot points, and in many ways, it starts
shows them around briefly before telling them he’s leaving, and here. There is an implication that Scheinberg purposely left the turd
will return later. As Julia cleans the museum-like home, she’s in the toilet, as a show of the power that he has over these
disturbed by pieces of art and artifacts which depict strange immigrant women who serve him.
sexual positions, and by the disgusting bathroom—Scheinberg
has left a turd in the toilet.
While cleaning the bedroom, Julia and Amá have a stilted and This passage shows that even as Julia and her mother do things that
uneasy conversation, and Amá asks Julia about how she’s doing help them understand one another, there is still a deep rift between
in school. When the conversation transitions to Olga, Julia them. This rift centers around their conceptions of Olga, but more
timidly asks if Olga had a boyfriend—Amá insists angrily that broadly those conceptions are colored by their cultural
Olga was not the kind to run around with boys. values—Amá’s ideas about Olga are driven by her beliefs about
what it means to be a good Mexican daughter.
Dr. Scheinberg returns home and thanks the women in Julia understands her mother a little better now—and feels sorry for
practiced Spanish—on their way out, Julia notices that he’s how hard she has to work and how much she has to put up with. At
staring appraisingly at Amá’s body. As the women step outside the same time, this experience makes it clear to Julia that she
into the snow, Julia is grateful—for once—to be out in the open doesn’t want to end up like her mother, even though she is learning
air and away from the house. On the bus, Julia’s muscles begin to appreciate Amá’s sacrifice.
to ache from exertion, and she thinks silently to herself about
how hard her mother’s life must really be.

CHAPTER 9
The school dance is approaching, and though Julia normally Julia is determined to continue her search for people who might
wouldn’t go, she’s determined to get to the afterparty, where know things about Olga she didn’t—she’s learning that more and
she hopes she’ll run into the sister of the host—a girl who went more individuals were in on parts of her sister’s life that Julia herself
to high school with Olga. Amá surprisingly agrees to let Julia was never privy to. Meanwhile, her relationship with Amá continues
goes to the dance, but insists on helping her pick out a suitable to be just as contentious and complicated, making Julia feel even
new dress for the occasion. The two of them go shopping at an more isolated in her search for answers. The conflicts, it’s important
outlet mall, but the trip is a disaster—the one dress Julia likes is to note, often revolve around sex and what it means to be “good” or,
a red-and-black number which Amá claims is revealing and in this case, “ladylike.”
unladylike. Frustrated, Julia locks herself in the dressing room
and cries, embarrassed by her body and desperate to escape
her mother’s constant judgement.
The night of the dance, Julia borrows a dress from Lorena, and Julia is becoming aware, slowly, of her reputation for being aloof and
the two of them go to the event with a group of judgmental. She’s not just this way with her family—she even acts
friends—Juanga has gone MIA after running off with an older coolly and contemptuously towards her peers. Perhaps there are
man. Julia looks down on the girls she and Lorena are going to ways in which she has more potential than her peers, but
the dance with, seeing them as stupid, and when a guy from her nonetheless the way she hides behind her sense of superiority
grade tries to flirt with her and she shoots him down, he isolates her.
accuses her of thinking she’s “better than everybody.” Julia is
angry, but briefly wonders if he’s right.
After the dance, the girls head to the afterparty—even though Julia is so desperate to find more information about her sister that
Julia knows doing so will get her in trouble with Amá for staying she risks getting in serious trouble with Amá. She is discouraged
out late. At the crammed, steamy afterparty at a house nearby, when she hits yet another dead end, and basically sinks into
Julia begins trying to scope out the host’s sister. Though Lorena hopelessness as she falls asleep at the party. Note how Lorena is
encourages her to relax and have fun, Julia can focus on interacting with others in the world, while Julia is once again alone.
nothing else. As the party gets sloppier and there’s no sign of
Olga’s classmate, Julia finds Lorena and says she wants to go
home. Lorena is flirting with a guy, and tells Julia to wait for her
on the couch—they’ll leave, she promises, in five minutes. Julia
sits down and falls asleep, and by the time Lorena wakes her up,
it’s three in the morning—and she’s going to be in deep trouble.
The next morning, after receiving her punishment, Julia Julia can’t stop getting in trouble—and almost seems to relish the
calculates that she’s spent forty-five percent of the last two opportunity to get herself grounded, if only to languish in the
years grounded. Though she knows she’s not the ideal unfairness she feels her mother is constantly leveraging against her.
daughter, she’s hurt by the fact that her parents—especially At the same time, this pattern is destructive, as Julia’s loneliness
Amá—treat her like a “degenerate.” When under severe and hatred for her life shows.
punishment, and banned from even going to the library—like
she is now—Julia feels painfully alone, and “hate[s] the life that
[she has] to live.”

As the days go by, Julia suffers feelings of self-loathing and Julia is having a hard time with her family, her friends, and indeed
struggles with insomnia. She bottles everything up, though, and with her own grief. Other people know something’s wrong, but Julia
shares none of her feelings with her parents or Lorena. One is so staunch and stubborn—and surrounded by so few models of
day, after class, Mr. Ingman pulls Julia aside to ask if anyone else discussing their emotions—that she’s loath to accept
everything’s okay. She insists she’s fine, but feels tears threaten help, guidance, or comfort from anyone else. Mr. Ingman, though,
to leak from her eyes. Mr. Ingman asks Julia if she’s really doing doesn’t want to let Julia slip through the cracks, and Julia briefly
well, and Julia lies and says she’s emotional due to her period. allows him into her world.
Mr. Ingman, seeing through the excuse, tells Julia that she can’t
blame herself for her sister’s death, and reveals that his own
mother died spontaneously when he was just ten. Julia is
comforted by the story, and by Mr. Ingman’s kindness.
At home, the tired Apá is soaking his feet on the couch. Julia Julia is under a lot of pressure both at home and at school, and she’s
feels bad for her father, who always told her and Olga how making things worse for herself in a lot of ways by constantly lying
important it was to get a good job in a nice office with air to everyone around her. She knows that she’s digging herself into a
conditioning. Julia sits beside him on the couch and does her deep hole, but isn’t prepared to change her ways. Meanwhile, Amá’s
homework. When Amá comes home, she tells Julia she’s behavior isn’t much wiser. Amá treats family like an inescapable
looking poorly, and asks if she’s been eating junk in secret. She obligation and the only source of meaning, while Julia treats it like
tells Julia that she can’t be looking sallow for her quincé—she an anchor that must be escaped in order to live.
has to be “pretty for [her] family.” Julia feels a cramp in her
stomach and goes to the bathroom—she has gotten her period
a week early, which she sees as punishment for lying about it to
Mr. Ingman.
CHAPTER 10
Winter is over—Christmas and New Year’s have passed by in a The fact that the holidays are glossed over in the narration suggests
sad, slow blur. No one mentioned Olga during the holidays, but that they were too painful for Julia to process, let alone filter
her absence hovered around everyone. As spring arrives in through narration.
Chicago, Julia and her classmates get ready for their annual
outdoor field trip—a chance for city kids to get out of town and
see some nature. This year, the class is going to the Illinois
Beach State Park.
On the day of the field trip, Julia wanders around with Lorena Julia is lost in upsetting thoughts about her sister, and the puzzle
and Juanga—back from his love affair, and still inseparable from she may never solve, when Juanga’s words pull her back to the
Lorena. While Lorena and Juanga gossip and laugh, Julia is present. Stressed and upset, she lashes out cruelly. Julia’s fiery,
distracted by thoughts of her sister, and Jazmyn’s words about loudmouth personality is shown, here, to be exacerbated whenever
her. When Juanga complains that he hates nature, Julia snaps she’s feeling personal frustration or pain.
out of her reverie and becomes incensed, accusing Juanga of
having no “inner life.” When Juanga seems genuinely hurt, Julia
apologizes, and the three of them walk a little farther before
sitting down to eat their packed lunches.

As Juanga, Lorena, and Julia eat, Juanga begins talking about In this passage, Julia reveals her true feelings about her friends, and
sex, and Lorena teases Julia for being a virgin. Julia is hurt that about being stuck in high school in a place she hates: she feels she
Lorena is making fun of her, and begins retaliating, but when deserves (and is destined for) more. Julia’s anger at her situation is
Lorena accuses her of being too “stuck-up” to make a legitimate, the book suggests. And yet the way she responds to that
connection with a boy, Julia becomes truly enraged. She says unfairness is nonetheless destructive. It is tempting at first to read
that she is stuck-up, and proud of it; she’s better, she says, than the book as one in which Julia is not her parent’s idea of a perfect
the life she’s been dealt. Julia abandons her lunch and walks Mexican daughter, but is still “perfect in her own way.” But the book
away from Juanga and Lorena, down to the shore. seems to have a more complicated message. It never portrays Julia
as perfect, and seems to argue that there is no such perfection. All of
the characters are imperfect, all of them make bad decisions. Much
of Julia’s growth will come from learning that there is no perfect
that she must try to be, while much of Amá’s growth will be about
the same thing.
Julia sits alone for a while, and then a classmate named Pasqual Pasqual’s appearance in this scene is an odd one—Julia never states
approaches her and begins asking her about Olga. His how she knows him, and he doesn’t show up again throughout the
questions become more and more invasive, and though Julia novel. This lends his appearance a mystical quality, making it seem
asks him to leave her alone, he tells her she shouldn’t hate as if he’s speaking aloud a truth about Julia she won’t allow her
herself so much—everyone, he says, is messed up. Julia says she innermost self to verbalize or even understand.
doesn’t know what Pasqual is talking about, but Pasqual insists
she does before walking away.
Julia sits down and pulls out Camus’s The Str

Stranger
anger. She gets lost Things are so bad for Julia that even a difficult, existential book like
in the book until Mr. Ingman approaches her and asks her The Str
Stranger
anger offers her a sense of escape—though at the end of the
about what she’s reading. When she reveals the book is Stranger, the isolated narrator greets his coming execution with
teaching her a lot about “existential despair,” Mr. Ingman asks gladness, which perhaps also foreshadows Julia’s coming suicide
her once again if she’s okay—Julia admits she doesn’t know attempt. Mr. Ingman continues to try and be invested in Julia’s life
what it would be like to feel “okay” or “normal.” Mr. Ingman and well-being—and she continues keeping him at arm’s length. She
suggests she talk to someone—maybe a professional—but Julia won’t connect to anyone.
says she’s fine. Mr. Ingman asks Julia gently not to let him down,
and she promises him she won’t.
CHAPTER 11
Julia is barely halfway through the second semester of her Julia will not give up hope on her quest to get more information
junior year, but all she can think of is going away to college. about Olga. It’s become less and less clear, though, what her goal
When she’s home alone—a rarity—she occupies herself by is—whether she really wants to understand, for her own
searching for the key to Olga’s room, but hasn’t been able to satisfaction, who her sister was, or whether she’s simply looking for
find it anywhere. She feels as if she’s hit a dead end when it dirt on Olga as a way of making herself feel better about her own
comes to more clues about Olga’s life, but has come up with continually-mounting mistakes and failures.
three last ways to try to get some information: visit Olga’s
work, try to get her transcripts from the community college,
and ask Juanga to help her get in touch with Jazmyn.

One day after school. Julia takes the train to Olga’s drab and Just as Julia failed to convince the concierge at The Continental
dreary community college. She finds the registrar’s building and that she needed to know what her sister’s association with the
approaches the record desk, repeating the script she’s written place, she is failing to get the registrar to give her any
for herself in her head. When she gets up to the desk, she information—though it seems as if perhaps the registrar has
introduces herself, explains that Olga is dead, and asks for her uncovered something strange, anomalous, or unsettling.
transcripts. The woman behind the desk asks for Olga’s dates
of attendance, and Julia gives them to her. When the woman
enters the numbers into the computer, though, she seems
puzzled. Julia asks what’s wrong, but the woman behind the
desk says she can’t tell her anything or release any of Olga’s
records until a year after the date of her death.
Julia is furious, and begs the woman to make an exception—the Julia is not going to simply walk out of the college the way she
registrar is staunch, though, and asks Julia to step aside and let walked out of The Continental—she’s desperate, deteriorating, and
the other people in line have their turn. Julia begins screaming angrier than ever, and launches into a trademark tirade before
at the woman, accusing her of being soulless and ugly to boot. It making an exit. The desperation that drives her search—a
is only when the registrar threatens to call security that Julia desperation not even Julia seems to fully understand—is in full
storms out of the building. evidence here.
CHAPTER 12
Julia feels as if the date of her quinceañera is hanging over her Normally, a quinceañera would be a cause for excitement and
“like the blade of a guillotine.” She’s been forced to take waltz celebration—but for the aloof, rebellious, and tradition-averse Julia,
classes though she’s hopeless at dancing, and dreads the “bland there’s absolutely nothing about the party to look forward to. She
food” and “odious music” which will be part of her celebration, knows her parents are wasting their money on her—but is powerless
as they’re hallmarks of all quinces. Julia won’t even be able to to say anything that would convince them to cancel it, since she also
sneak in a book to distract herself, as she’ll be the center of knows that the party is more for Olga than it is for her. It is not just
attention. Julia has learned, through eavesdropping on her Julia who is disconnected from her family. Her family is also
parents’ conversation, that they’re paying for the party with disconnected from her.
money from Olga’s savings and life insurance. Though Julia
wishes they’d use that money to send her to college or find a
better apartment, she knows any mention of these things
would be fruitless.
One Sunday morning, while Julia is helping Amá put together For all her pettiness in recent weeks, in this passage, Lorena shows
party favors, the doorbell rings. Julia opens the door and finds that she does truly love Julia. She’s invested in Julia’s growth—she
Lorena standing there—she apologizes for being a “bitch” to wants her friend to learn to be more open-minded and stop closing
Julia, and says she hates not being able to talk to her best herself off from people and experiences.
friend. Julia doesn’t accept Lorena’s apology so easily—she
demands to know if Lorena really thinks she’s stuck up. Lorena
says she doesn’t really think Julia is stuck-up—though she
wishes she were less judgmental sometimes.

Julia expresses jealousy over Lorena’s friendship with Juanga, Julia’s journey to become a more empathetic person is one of her
but Lorena begs Julia to have some empathy—Juanga has a main trajectories throughout the novel. Though she was jealous of
terrible home life, and his father often beats him up because of Juanga, and judged him for his promiscuous and flamboyant ways,
his sexuality. Julia, suddenly feeling badly, promises she’ll be she sees now that she was wrong—Juanga has his own problems,
nicer to Juanga. Lorena invites Julia out to go get some pizza, and Julia needs to see things through other people’s eyes if she’s
and Julia happily agrees to go. ever going to make any lasting friendships.
At a pizza parlor in a nicer neighborhood, Julia orders two Julia is starving—which indicates symbolically that she’s in
slices for herself. When Lorena asks if she’s seriously going to emotional turmoil. As she reveals the depths of her depression to
eat them both, Julia admits that she would’ve ordered three if Lorena, Lorena becomes concerned for her friend. Julia, though, has
she didn’t think doing so would “embarrass” Lorena. After never spoken any of this out loud to anyone, and needs a sounding
eating, Julia is still hungry, but she tries to tell her stomach to board if she’s going to keep her sanity. This passage makes it clear
quiet down rather than ordering herself another. As she sits that Julia is in a state of deterioration—and that if she’s going to
digesting her food, she feels a deep sadness creeping over her. “make it to college,” she’s going to need to learn how to ask for help
Lorena asks her what’s wrong, and she admits that from the people who love her. While Lorena is a good friend, she also
sometimes—actually, “like, all the time”—she hates her life. doesn’t know how to deal with Julia’s revelation of her depression,
Lorena is shocked and seemingly angry, and urges Julia not to as is made clear when her response is to tell Julia not to talk in that
say such things. Julia begins to cry, and admits that she doesn’t way.
even know if she’ll “make it to college.” She doesn’t feel anything
makes sense, and the already painful parts of her life have been
made worse by Olga’s death.
Lorena encourages Julia to remember that she’s almost Though Julia at last opens up to Lorena, Lorena is not very receptive
out—she’s not going to have to live the way she’s currently to Julia’s feelings—out of fear, she seems to want to deny the depths
living forever. Lorena begs Julia not to say “anything stupid like of Julia’s depression and push aside what she’s just heard. She also
that” again, and Julia agrees. She then changes the subject, suggests Julia abandon her search for more information about Olga,
telling Lorena about her failed attempt to get Olga’s transcripts perhaps believing that spending so much time thinking about her
from the community college. She says it doesn’t make any sense sister is what’s slowly driving Julia to the brink (which isn’t such a
that Olga never even earned an associate degree given how bad diagnosis, though it misses the deeper issues in Julia’s family
long she was taking classes, and is determined to find out what that are driving Julia to be so obsessed with the search in the first
it is that “isn’t right” about the situation. Lorena suggests that place).
Julia’s imagination is getting to her—she says that Olga
probably did just live a normal, boring life. Still, Julia asks
Lorena to get Jazmyn’s number through Juanga. Lorena agrees,
though she says she doesn’t see the point in digging any deeper.
After taking Lorena home, Julia begins the walk back to her Julia’s mother’s overbearing nature and strict rules start to make
own apartment. On the way, though, a car full of men pulls up more sense in light of this passage—it’s clear that Julia’s working-
beside her, and a couple of them start shouting lewd things at class neighborhood is not the safest place, and the fear and
her. Julia tries to ignore them, but their comments become helplessness she feels when confronted with yet more predatory
more and more aggressive. As the men’s shouts get louder, men are acute and disorienting. Just as the book is nuanced in the
Julia sees an elderly man walk out of an apartment just ahead. way it dissects the idea of anyone being perfect, it is similarly
She makes eye contact with the man, who stops to ask her nuanced in the way it handles people being wrong. Amá isn’t wrong
what’s wrong. Julia gestures at the car, and the old man begins to worry about Julia, men, and sex, but the controlling way she
shouting at the boys. The car speeds away, though the driver shows that worry has its own negative impacts.
threatens to “find [Julia] again” as he hits the gas. The old man
walks Julia all the way to her door, and makes the sign of the
cross as he leaves her—Julia feels comforted.

On Monday, Juanga gives Julia the number for one of Jazmyn’s Though Julia pushes on and on in the face of dead end after dead
friends. Julia calls the girl, Maribel, and gets Jazmyn’s number end, she’s starting to doubt whether she’ll ever have an answer to
from her. At home, Julia hides in her bedroom closet as she calls the truth about Olga—or about herself. Julia is starting to consider
Jazmyn—when she gets the other girl on the line, she nervously that even if she does find out what Olga was hiding, bit by bit, she
introduces herself, and apologizes for resorting to getting her won’t actually understand anything more about the “puzzle” of her
number from a friend. She asks Jazmyn to tell her more about sister. This demonstrates that there’s a difference between learning
what Olga said about being “in love” the last time Jazmyn ran information and understanding the truth—Julia is starting to realize
into her. Jazmyn says the encounter was a long time ago, that gathering facts about Olga won’t bring her any closer to the
though, and she doesn’t remember much. Just as Julia hears person she’s lost.
the apartment door open, Jazmyn remembers that Olga said
her new boyfriend had a “good job.” Julia thanks Jazmyn for her
help and hurries off the phone, worried that her own life is “a
stupid puzzle” she’ll never be able to figure out.
CHAPTER 13
It is the night of Julia’s quinceañera. She is dressed in a “tight Julia has been dreading her quiceañera for months—and seems
and tacky dress covered in frills, ruffles, and sequins.” Beneath almost determined to make it as difficult and dreadful as possible
the dress she wears a girdle, which makes her feel constrained for herself rather than just putting on a happy face for her family.
and short of breath. Julia is fully aware that the party is more Julia knows that her parents aren’t really throwing the party for
for her “dead sister” than for her—there is no part of the night her—they’re throwing it for Olga—and the constant inability to
that she’s enjoyed, and knows her parents have poured escape her sister’s shadow is weighing on her more heavily than
thousands of dollars “down the toilet.” Julia moves through the ever.
ritual dances and ceremonies of the party almost on autopilot.
When there’s a break in the program, she asks Lorena to go
with her to the bathroom and help her lift her cumbersome
dress so that she can use the toilet.
In the bathroom, Lorena and Julia run into Julia’s gossipy Tía Julia is in a sensitive place—forced to be the center of a party that
Milagros. She greets Julia by remarking that Olga must be “so she doesn’t want by parents who aren’t hearing, or listening to, her—
happy” for her right now—Julia flatly replies that Olga is dead. and even though Tía Milagros’s comment isn’t particularly mean-
Milagros asks Julia why she’s so angry all the time, and Julia spirited, Julia takes any mention of Olga as a personal slight. She
begins flying off the handle. She asks Milagros who she is to lashes out in anger, shocking even the wild-child Lorena.
judge Julia or treat her like a “disappointment.” She accuses
Milagros of being bitter because her husband “left [her] ass
years ago.” Milagros begins crying and storms out of the
bathroom, while Lorena quietly chides Julia for being so mean.
The rest of the night, as Julia dances with boys and greets Even at her quincé, Julia can’t give up her quest to discover more
guests, she can’t stop worrying that Milagros will tell her and more information about Olga. The blindsided Angie clams up,
parents about what happened in the bathroom. When Angie and Julia lashes out at her, too. As the party begins spiraling out of
shows up late with a gift in tow, Julia corners her and demands control, the restless and anxious Julia once again turns to food for
to know if Olga had a boyfriend when she died—Angie deflects comfort—she wants more, wants something, she can’t find or get,
the question, claiming that Olga wouldn’t have had time for a and food replaces it.
“secret relationship,” but Julia’s suspicions only grow. Julia
demands that Angie tell her what she knows, but when Angie
continues deflecting, Julia tells her to leave the party, and walks
away. As she does, she sees Milagros talking to a concerned-
looking Amá and Apá. Julia sits down at her table and gorges
herself on a piece of cake.

When Amá, Apá, and Julia arrive home at their apartment that In spite of Amá and Apá’s attempt to give their family a nice night,
night, they flick on the lights to find roaches scurrying in every they themselves must return home to a filthy, roach-infested
direction. Julia and Amá begin their practiced routine of apartment. Julia’s anger at her parents spending thousands of
stomping every roach they can get, and Julia ruins her fancy dollars on this party doesn’t seem out of place. Meanwhile, Julia is
white shoes. After cleaning themselves up, Amá and Apá exhausted, disgusted, and humiliated as she helps kill the roaches,
confront Julia about what she said to Milagros, and accuse her and so is Amá. The exchange to end the chapter shows both Julia
of “embarrass[ing]” them in front of their guests. Amá asks and Amá so stuck in their pattern of anger that they lash out at
what she has done to deserve such a disrespectful daughter, each other, saying things that are as hurtful as possible. Julia denies
and wonders aloud if she should send Julia back to Mexico. her Mexican heritage; Amá explicitly blames Julia for the death of
Julia protests that life would “suck even harder” in Mexico. Amá her “perfect Mexican daughter” while also making clear that Julia is
shakes her head and tells Julia that perhaps if she could only no such thing.
“keep her mouth shut” and behave, Olga would still be alive.
CHAPTER 14
After summer break, Julia starts the fall semester of her senior Julia has been sidelined by grief and distraction, but as the school
year off by meeting with Mr. Ingman every Thursday after year begins, she’s more determined than ever to get herself out of
school so that he can help her to prepare for standardized tests her working-class neighborhood for good, and in into the college of
and college applications. Julia is grateful for the help of Mr. her dreams. Julia is focused on escape.
Ingman—“one of the smartest people [she’s] ever known.” Julia
is determined to pull her grades up enough to get in her dream
colleges in New York, Boston, and Chicago. Julia has been
saving money all summer, cleaning houses with Amá in hopes of
earning enough to cover a one-way flight to wherever she gets
into school.
As Julia writes her admissions essays, Mr. Ingman encourages Mr. Ingman knows that Julia should use the limitations she’s faced
her to play up the fact that her parents are undocumented and the structural poverty she and her family have endured as a
immigrants. Julia is afraid to do so, fearing that someone will part of her story—but Julia is protective of her parents, even in the
report her parents and have them deported—Mr. Ingman face of all the strife that’s been between them lately. This is an
assures Julia this won’t happen, and promises her that he interesting moment in the book, as it acknowledges the way that
would never lead her astray. He tells her that she’s one of the certain disadvantaged minorities can, in some ways, use that
best students he’s ever had, and he’s determined to help her disadvantage to their own advantage, while at the same time
secure a bright future for herself. making clear that those disadvantages (such as potential
deportation) are nonetheless extremely real, profound, and
destructive.
After school gets out early for a half-day one day, Julia takes Things are stressful both at home and at school—Julia has a lot of
the train to Wicker Park, where she visits a used bookstore. She exciting things going on, but is also facing a lot of pressure. She has
has seventeen dollars saved from her lunch money, and is scrimped and saved lunch money so that she can go buy some
hoping to treat herself to a couple books. While browsing the books as a way of escaping into a fictional world for a time—this
poetry section, she picks up a book by Walt Whitman. She shows that books are more important to Julia than even food.
smells the pages and reads some of it, getting lost in the world
of the book. She hardly notices when a cute white boy
approaches her and begins making conversation about how
much he loves Whitman. Julia is grateful to have someone who
wants to discuss literature with her, and she begins gushing
about all her favorite novels.

After flirting back and forth about their favorite—and least- Julia’s blind “date” with Ramiro was more about peer pressure than
favorite—books for a few minutes, Julia and the boy, whose it was about attraction—with Connor, though, Julia finds herself
name is Connor, introduce themselves to one another. Julia genuinely connecting with someone she both thinks is cute and who
feels an intense attraction to Connor, and isn’t sure what to say shares her interests. In fact, it is notable that Connor is the first
to him. Julia buys her books, but when she’s finished checking other teenager portrayed in the book who does share Julia’s
out, Connor follows her out of the store and invites her for a interests.
coffee so they can continue talking. At a hipster coffee shop
nearby, they make fun of the other patrons, and Julia wonders
if she’s on her first real date or not.
Connor asks Julia where she’s from, and she tells him she’s Julia and Connor are from very different words—Connor is white
from Chicago. When he asks where she’s “from from,” she and affluent, and rarely meets people who aren’t like him. This
jokingly accuses him of being racist before telling him that she’s makes him slightly insensitive to Julia’s cultural and socioeconomic
Mexican—and that if he wanted to know her ethnicity, he could background, but Julia is willing to overlook this fact because they
have just asked. As Julia and Connor continue talking he seem to have a deeper connection of shared interests. This tension,
reveals he lives in Evanston—a wealthy suburb of Chicago. between the way that their backgrounds make them unable to
They continue flirting and discussing literature, and Julia feels connect, even as their shared interests offer a connection, will
so happy she wonders if she’s dreaming. continue throughout their relationship.
Eventually, Julia blurts out that her sister died last year—she Connor truly likes Julia—and she likes him back. In spite of the
tells Connor that though she feels she never knew Olga, she differences between them and the small hiccups in their
finds herself wishing lately that there was still a way to get to conversation that result from this fact, Connor feels empathy for
know her. She tells Connor about the strange things she’s Julia and wants to help her on her quest—something no one else in
heard about Olga, and expresses frustration that she can’t get her orbit is doing for her at this point.
onto her sister’s laptop to hunt for more clues. Connor
expresses sympathy for Julia’s situation—and tells her that he’s
a whiz with computers, and might be able to help her hack into
Olga’s laptop if she can bring it to him. Connor and Julia leave
the coffee shop and wander the city for hours, talking and
flirting. When it’s time for Julia to go home, Connor walks her
to the train station and kisses her goodbye before telling her he
wants to see her again soon.
A few days later, Julia meets up with Connor in the city again Julia’s relationship with Connor is flourishing at the expense of her
after lying to Amá about a field trip to the Cultural Center relationship with Amá. As Julia lies more and more often to get
downtown. As Julia approaches the restaurant where she’s away from home and indulge in the luxury of food and the escape of
meeting Connor and sees him standing outside, her legs turn to books, she’s trying to abandon—at least temporarily—who she is
rubber—she wonders if she’s in love. The two go inside and and where she comes from. Julia has escaped from her community
eat—Julia experiences Indian food for the first time, and and family through books; now she is doing it through a relationship.
gorges herself on the delicious spicy food. Afterwards, they
return to the used bookstore and then walk to the park, where
they sit on a bench and make out. Julia is happy and grateful for
how kind and tender Connor is.

CHAPTER 15
It’s been a year since Olga’s death, and Julia admits that Julia is at a true dead end. A year has passed since Olga’s death and
sometimes she still catches herself looking at the front door, Julia’s not any closer to uncovering anything substantial about who
waiting for Olga to walk in. Amá still cries often, but always in Olga really was or what her life was truly like. She’s haunted by the
private, and Julia is afraid to talk to her mother about the things sense that there are still secrets to discover, and yet her grief over
they’re both feeling. Julia has continued trying to find out more her sister’s loss seems to be growing sharper rather than duller as
about Olga, contacting her college and The Continental several she learns more and more.
times, but she can’t get any information out of anyone—and she
still can’t find the key that unlocks Olga’s room, so she has no
access to Olga’s laptop.
Julia has been having nightmares about Olga, and intense Julia’s state of mind is slowly but surely deteriorating. She can’t get
waking flashbacks to their shared childhood. She feels mired in Olga out of her head—even in dreams—and is becoming reliant on
grief—her only moments of joy come when she sees Connor. others to buoy her moods, given how sullen and haunted she herself
The two of them talk on the phone every single night, and has become. Connor, and the escape from her family and
though Julia knows Amá must be aware something’s up, her community that he provides, is her only source of joy. But the fact
mother doesn’t speak English well enough to understand Julia’s that her joy comes from cutting herself off from her community
phone conversations. suggests this is not a tenable situation.
One wintry afternoon, Lorena insists on going sledding in the This brief scene with Juanga and Lorena is a respite from the near-
city with Julia and Juanga. Julia hasn’t hung out with the two of constant anxiety and grief Julia fears. She’s still able to pull herself
them very much lately, as they’ve been drinking more and together and have fun with her friends—but as the novel progresses,
more, but she’s excited to spend some time with them—even it will become clear that even these small moments of joy aren’t
though she’s never been sledding in her life. The three of them enough for Julia.
take the train into the city and, unable to afford real sleds, buy
some plastic mats from a hardware store. The three of them
then climb to the top of a hill in a local park and push off
together. They scream and laugh all the way down, and Julia
feels true happiness as she lies in the snow at the bottom of the
hill and listens to church bells ringing in the distance.
Connor has asked to visit Julia in her neighborhood, but she’s In spite of the joy her blossoming relationship with Connor brings
embarrassed to bring him around her parents’ roach-infested her, Julia is forced to reckon with the fact that they come from
apartment, so she deflects his inquiries. Instead, she volunteers completely different worlds. Connor is so wealthy that he’s able to
to meet up with him in the city more and more often. One act like a tourist in places like thrift shops—places where Julia and
afternoon, Connor takes Julia to a thrift store, and leads her up her family, out of necessity, shop for the items they need to scrape
and down the aisles pointing out the crazy old clothes. Julia by. Julia doesn’t know what to do about her sadness, anxiety, and
feels itchy and uncomfortable in the store—thrift-shopping has shame over the gulf between the two of them, but she certainly
never been a hobby for her and her family, but rather a doesn’t want Connor to learn the truth about who she is and where
necessity. Julia grows more and more upset until finally she she comes from. Her relationship with Connor forces her to hide the
asks to leave. Outside the store, she tells Connor she’s just truth of her life.
emotional because she’s getting her period, and Connor takes
her to a fancy organic grocery store to pick out some special
chocolate.

That Saturday, Connor invites Julia to come to his parents’ Julia is experiencing a lot of firsts with Connor—and in spite of her
house in Evanston. He tells her that they’ll be out of town, and overprotective mother’s strict rules, she wants to spread her wings
the two of them will have the house all to themselves. Julia is and explore her sexuality. Julia doesn’t feel she can talk to her
stunned that Connor’s parents would leave him home mother about sex, and because Olga is dead, she has few people to
alone—Amá and Apá would never let Julia or even Olga stay by turn to discuss her feelings about this new part of her life.
themselves—but tells herself that “white people are different”
and accepts his invitation. Julia is anxious as she wonders
whether Connor expects the two of them to have sex on
Saturday—she doesn’t know if she’s ready, or what it would
even feel like to be.
Julia calls Lorena for some advice. Lorena offers Julia only one Lorena is there to offer Julia advice, but the advice she gives is sort
piece of wisdom: “shave [your] pussy.” Julia protests that of bleak. Lorena clearly sees sex as an act of feminine submission, as
women always have to pick and pluck at themselves for men, something that is more aimed around pleasing a man. Julia, though,
but Lorena insists that if Julia doesn’t follow her advice, Connor has no one else to turn to.
will be “grossed out” by her. Julia asks Lorena if sex will hurt;
Lorena tells her it will, at first, but will “get better.”
On Saturday, Julia lies to Amá about going downtown to an art As Julia travels to Evanston, she is unable any longer to ignore the
gallery for a school project. Amá seems suspicious, and warns glaring cultural and socioeconomic differences that separate her
Julia that if she’s lying, she’ll find out—she always does. Julia world from Connor’s. He comes from a place of wealth and privilege,
hurries out of the house and stops at the pharmacy to buy and sees the world through that lens. Julia is more overwhelmed
condoms before boarding the first of three trains that will take than envious, unable to believe that such a different world is a train
her out to Evanston. When she arrives in the neighborhood, ride away.
she’s stunned by the giant houses and tree-lined streets. She
finally arrives at Connor’s house—which is as big as the entire
apartment building Julia and her family live in.
Connor answers the door and invites Julia in, telling her she Connor again displays insensitivity towards Julia, both in
smells like Mexican food. Julia is “mortified,” but laughs anyway. commenting on her “Mexican food” smell and touring her around his
Connor shows her around the house, and Julia takes in their lavish home as if it’s no big deal. Still, Julia decides to stay with him,
beautiful, clean, expertly decorated home with awe and anxiety. perhaps because she senses that his insensitivity is not willful
Through photographs, Connor shows Julia his mother, brother, (though one could also argue that it is his responsibility to work to
and stepfather, and then the two of them order Thai food and see past his own privilege), and also perhaps because she wants to
watch YouTube videos. be a part of his world even at the expense of a measure of self-
respect.

While they’re watching videos, Connor tells Julia how beautiful Julia’s nervousness and discomfort in this chapter, this passage
she is. He begins kissing her, and soon he is on top of her on the confirms, doesn’t stem necessarily from her hangups about sex or
sofa. Julia still has her shoes on, and knows she needs to take her uncertainty about Connor, but rather from her own shame and
them off—but she’s haunted by the memory of a time in grade trauma regarding her working-class roots and the poverty she’s
school when a roach crawled out of her sneaker at a friend’s grown up in. Connor seems to be a genuinely nice guy, but as the
house. Julia tells Connor to slow down for a minute—he asks book will make clear there is also a bit of laziness in his niceness.
her if she’s a virgin, and she confirms that she is. He asks her if Also his readiness with that condom stashed in the cushion makes
she’s “positive” that she’s ready to have sex, and she says she is. clear that he is more experienced than Julia. All of that aside, Julia’s
Connor pulls a condom from under a couch cushion, puts it on, first sexual experience is mostly a positive one.
and the two of them have sex. Julia is in pain for a little while,
but soon she feels an “intense” kind of pleasure. When Connor
finishes, Julia wraps her arms around him and buries her face in
his shoulder.
When Julia gets back to her apartment, her parents aren’t Even after having sex with Connor and eating Thai food, Julia
home, and she’s grateful for the privacy. She’s starving, even remains ravenous—it’s notable that reaching an important
though she and Connor ate lunch, and she rifles through the milestone with Connor has done nothing to satiate her. The only
pantry and fridge searching for something to eat. There’s thing that will is more information about Olga—the fact that she
nothing in the house, though, but condiments and freezer- finds the keys hidden in the waffle box is symbolic of what she’s
burned waffles. Julia pulls the waffle box out of the back of the really been “hungry” for all along.
fridge and hears something rattling in it—she pulls out a small
bag which contains some of Amá’s jewelry, as well as the key to
Olga’s room.
Late that night, after Amá and Apá are asleep, Julia gets up and Julia doesn’t know how to open Olga’s laptop or what to do with her
opens the door to Olga’s room. She takes out the laptop, things, but decides they’ll be safer in her own room, where she can
lingerie, and hotel key card and hides the underwear and key in examine them whenever she wants.
her room—the laptop she stashes in her bag, so that she can
carry it with her to school in case she gets to see Connor
afterwards.
The next afternoon, Julia comes home to find her mother When confronted with Olga’s racy underwear and hotel key card,
crying on the sofa—the boxes containing Olga’s lingerie are Julia says the items aren’t hers. But the fact that she doesn’t place
open on the living room floor. Though Julia insists that the the blame on Olga or reveal her sister’s secret indicates that Julia is
items aren’t hers, Amá refuses to believe her. unwilling to risk further devastating Amá. She is seeking the truth
about her sister, but she senses that her mother would not want to
know that truth. So even as she is punished, she protects her
mother. Though one might also argue that she doesn’t blame Olga
because she is sure that her mother would never believe her.

Julia is grounded big-time—Amá takes away her cell phone, and Julia is used to being punished all the time for things she’s done. But
her only way of contacting Connor is by using a pay phone near being punished for something she didn’t do is a whole new
school. Three weeks have passed since Amá found the lingerie, scenario—and with no one to turn to and no way of connecting to
and Julia hasn’t seen Connor in all that time. Julia feels her life the one person who allowed her to forget her troubles, she sinks
is falling apart. She complains to Connor on the phone almost deeper and deeper into despair.
daily, but one afternoon, as she airs her woes, he tells her that
he doesn’t know how to help her—he cares for her, but being
unable to see her or even talk to her most days is weighing on
him. Julia tells Connor that she doesn’t know when she’ll be
able to see him again, or when things will get better.
Julia enumerates all the things that are bad in her life—her Connor is genuinely unprepared to deal with the issues Julia’s
dead sister, her “shitty neighborhood,” her overbearing parents. facing—he’s never had to confront loss, poverty, or frustration with a
Connor says he wishes he could understand what she’s going cultural background. There are a number of ways to read Connor’s
through, but admits he doesn’t. He says Julia should speak to a actions here. He’s clearly overwhelmed, out of his depth, and still
therapist or counselor, but Julia says no one cares about what concerned. His advice that Julia see a therapist is not bad advice!
she has to say, and hangs up the phone. And yet at the same time there is always a suggestion in the book
that Connor never pushes past his comfort zone. He says he can’t
understand, and leaves it at that. For her part, Julia feels he’s giving
up on her, and so she doesn’t hear the wisdom in his advice that she
talk to a therapist. It’s hard to say who’s “right” in this scenario,
which is one of the ways that the book is successful in showing the
ways that cultural and experiential differences can lead to tension
and misunderstanding between imperfect people.
CHAPTER 16
Julia isn’t allowed to leave the apartment. After going through This passage shows just how little Amá understands Julia, and how
the rest of her things, Amá found Julia’s diary—though Amá little she tries to. Julia is devastated over the loss of all her hard
doesn’t speak English very well, she knows a bad word when work—unable to see or connect with her friends, unable to vent to
she sees one, and has ripped out every page containing a bad her sister, and unable even to express her own thoughts in private,
word or a reference to sex or desire. Julia feels like a husk—life she feels completely boxed in.
without her writing “doesn’t feel worth living.” Julia’s diary
wasn’t just full of her feelings—her poems, too, have been
destroyed, some of them representing months or years of hard
work. Julia hasn’t spoken to Connor in three weeks, and she
misses him so much she can barely stand it—but refuses to
contact him, knowing he doesn’t want to “put up with all [her]
problems.”
Christmas vacation goes by, and it is almost as bad as the Julia feels profoundly alone. Even when others who care about her
previous year’s. By the time Julia returns to school she’s so reach out in an attempt to help her, she feels so demoralized that
depressed that she can barely make it through a day without she doesn’t see the point in talking about her feelings.
taking a crying break in the bathroom. Lorena and Mr. Ingman
have expressed concern about Julia’s mental state, but she
doesn’t know how to explain what she’s experiencing to either
of them.

One day, after school, Julia decides to take the bus downtown. Cut off from her friends, isolated emotionally and intellectually, out
She’s broke and cold, but needs some time to herself. In of place in her family, and faced with cyclical, inescapable poverty,
Millennium Park, she walks around the amphitheater and the Julia buckles mentally and physically under the weight of all her
ice-skating rink. She wishes she could go for a skate or buy stress and grief in this bleak, lonely passage.
some hot chocolate, but she’s completely broke, and begins to
contemplate what the point of living is if she “can’t ever get
what [she] want[s.]” Julia stands shivering in the cold for hours,
unable to calm the swirling thoughts in her head.
CHAPTER 17
Julia wakes up in a hospital bed with Amá standing over her. The lapse in narrative and omission of Julia’s suicide attempt allows
She has a horrible headache, and begins crying as soon as she readers to fill in the blanks. Julia reached her breaking point in the
remembers where she is, and what she did. A young man and an park—unable to afford even a simple treat to soothe her worried
older woman are also at Julia’s bedside—the woman introduces mind and hungry stomach, she collapsed under the weight of all her
herself as Dr. Cooke, and explains that the man beside her is stress and trauma and attempted to commit suicide. Now,
Tomás, a translator. Julia asks Dr. Cooke if she can get out of surrounded by medical professions and loved ones, Julia realizes
the hospital, but Dr. Cooke insists Julia needs to stay a little just how severe her actions were—and regrets having undertaken
longer. Julia apologizes for trying to kill herself and promises them.
she’ll never do it again. Dr. Cooke tells Julia that what she’s
done is serious, and that everyone present wants to find a way
to help her. Julia asks if she’s going to be locked up like in the
book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Dr. Cooke applauds
Julia for maintaining her sense of humor.
An hour later, Julia is sitting in Dr. Cooke’s office. Dr. Cooke Julia’s constant ravenous hunger is a part of adolescence, to be sure,
asks Julia about what’s going on in her life, and what has and is exacerbated by her family’s food insecurity—but as a symbol
brought her to the brink. Dr. Cooke asks Julia how long she’s of Julia wanting more out of life, her inability to find food in a
been depressed and thinking about killing herself, but Julia moment of profound hunger means so much more. No food in the
insists the act was spontaneous. She just “lost it” the night house, to Julia, represents more than an empty belly—it represents a
before—she didn’t really want to die. When Dr. Cooke asks dead end and a lack of hope.
what triggered Julia’s “desperation,” Julia replies that she
simply reached a boiling point when she came home from the
park hungry and couldn’t find any food to eat.
Julia tells Dr. Cooke that she feels so far away from the life she Julia has no interest in being the person her parents want her to
wants—the things she yearns for feel impossible to reach. Dr. be—she wants to live her own life, on her own terms. It’s good that
Cooke asks Julia to tell her about the things she wants. Julia she’s able to admit this rather than push herself into a mold she
says she wants to be a writer with independence—someone doesn’t fit—but still is unable to deal with the pressure associated
who has privacy and space to grow and breathe. She says she with her parents’ wishes for her.
feels suffocated by her parents, by Chicago, and by her family’s
desire for her to be more like Olga—more perfect.

Dr. Cooke asks Julia more about her parents. Julia discusses Julia’s parents are strict, demanding, and overprotective. In all her
the painfully difficult and distrustful relationship she has with constant battles with Amá and haunting silences with Apá, Julia has
Amá, and the distant, ghostlike way Apá moves through their only ever focused on how their actions affect her. She’s never
house. When Dr. Cooke asks Julia about her parents’ stopped to think about the reasons why they are the way they are,
immigration to the US—and to consider whether their or why they treat her the way they do. Julia knows that her parents
experience might have been traumatic or isolating for have hard lives—and in this moment, breaks down emotionally as
them—Julia breaks down and begins crying. She says she feels she feels a rush of empathy for them, and shame at how her actions
stupid and weak, but Dr. Cooke ensures her that she’s neither. have hurt them. Meanwhile, though, Dr. Cooke engages with Julia in
a different way than anyone else does: she listens, she does not want
or need anything from Julia, and she affirms Julia’s right to want the
things she wants without shame.
Dr. Cooke tells Julia that she can be discharged from the As Julia talks with Dr. Cooke about her future, she feels
hospital the next day if she agrees to an intensive weeklong overwhelmed but full of hope for the first time in a long time. She’s
outpatient program, weekly therapy, and a regimen of beginning to understand that part of what she’s been feeling is
medication to help with her anxiety and depression. Julia is beyond her control—that they have an “official name” and are not
grateful that the pain and intense feelings she’s been having unique, meaning other people have dealt with them too, which in
have “an official name.” Julia returns to her room and gets in turn means that there are things she can do to help herself feel
bed, looking forlornly out the window—until she spots Lorena better.
and Juanga standing on the opposite corner, waving up at her
like mad.
CHAPTER 18
During the movement therapy portion of her outpatient In group therapy, Julia is able to meet other teens like herself who
program, Julia’s instructor Ashley asks Julia how she’s feeling. are struggling with mental health, circumstantial stress, and
Julia says she’s feeling “snacky.” The other members of Julia’s overwhelming pain. She’s able to feel less alone for the first time in a
program—the emotional Erin, the beautiful Tasha, the self- long time.
harm-scarred Luis, and the acne-ridden Josh—feel sort of like
friends to her, and the members of the group often make one
another laugh in spite of their difficult circumstances.
At lunch, a new kid named Antwon tries to get Julia to go on a There are even moments of levity during Julia’s time in her
date with him. She shows him her wrists and tells him jokingly outpatient program, such as the wannabe-Romeo Antwon’s
that she’s not trying to date, as she just tried to kill herself less shameless attempts to get Julia to go out with him.
than a week ago. Antwon promises he can “take care of [her,]”
but Julia shrugs him off, telling him she can take care of herself
as she heads to her next therapy session.
Every day of the outpatient program follows a careful schedule: Julia is confronting her feelings every day in therapy, and thinking
movement therapy, homework time, lunch, group therapy, art seriously about what she did and why. She’s beginning to realize
therapy, individual therapy, and then a “closing circle.” In that she didn’t want to die—though it’s not exactly clear what she
between sessions, Julia and her fellow patients discuss the did want, and whether she was after attention, catharsis, or simply
things that landed them in the program, how long they’re each an escape from her circumstances.
staying, and what their hopes are for when they’re finished.
When Tasha asks Julia one day at lunch if she really wanted to
die, Julia says “not really.”

That night, at dinner, Amá and Apá tell Julia that they think she As Julia recovers from her suicide attempt, she must reconfigure her
should go to Mexico for a little while and spend some time at plans for her immediate future. Going to college and getting out of
Mamá Jacinta’s house once she finishes her outpatient Chicago has been her primary goal for so long that she hasn’t
program. Julia protests, believing that being “shipp[ed] […] back stopped to slow down and see how perhaps her ambition is
to the motherland” won’t be helpful. Amá and Apá insist that stressing her beyond what she can handle. Her whole focus has
Julia will be able to relax and recover in Mexico—she always been escape from her community. Yet what her mother proposes
loved going as a little girl, and would enjoy it even more now. here is a reconnection to that community in the form of a trip to her
Julia is forced to admit that she did used to love her trips to grandmother’s town in Mexico.
Mexico—still, she tells her parents she’s worried about missing
so much school that she won’t be able to go to college. They
insist she could simply go to community college, but that’s not
good enough for Julia—she wants to get out and see the world.
On the last day of the program, Julia sits with Tasha on a break, Julia is beginning to reconsider her life through other people’s eyes.
and they both discuss how tired they are of the program. They To Julia, being sent to Mexico feels like a punishment or
discuss whether they’ll ever feel “normal” again, and Tasha banishment—but to Tasha, the chance to get away and see a new
admits that she doesn’t even know what it would look or feel place is the stuff of dreams.
like to be “normal.” When Julia tells Tasha that her parents are
sending her to Mexico after the program’s over, Tasha’s eyes
get wide, and she tells Julia how lucky she is to be able to “get
the hell out of here.”
On Monday, Julia returns to school. She tries to ignore her Julia returns to school, still in many ways her old haughty, fiery self.
classmates’ stares and questions about where she’s She makes up lies to disguise the real reason for her absence—and
been—some people know the truth, but “some ding-dongs” to feel superior when she successfully fools people—but her friends
believe Julia’s lies that she’s been on a long backpacking trip know the truth, and want to comfort her. After a week in outpatient
through Europe. When Julia sees Juanga and Lorena, they both therapy, though, Julia is exhausted and ready to move on.
embrace her and tell her how happy they are to see her. They
make her promise never to do something so stupid again, and
to talk to them if things ever get bad again. Julia is grateful for
their concern, but tired of “having an audience” for her every
feeling.
In a therapy session with Dr. Cooke, Dr. Cooke and asks Julia As Julia continues working with Dr. Cooke, she discovers some
about the day she tried to kill herself. Julia says that everything important things about herself, and vents feelings she’s been holding
just became too much—things had been bad enough after inside for far too long. Julia is sick of how things are at home—she
Olga’s death, but once Amá found Olga’s things and grounded feels trapped by the secrets she’s keeping, and by the pressures she’s
Julia, Julia started to feel like a prisoner. Dr. Cooke asks why facing as she struggles against Olga’s shadow. Dr. Cooke empathizes
Julia didn’t tell the truth about the underwear, but Julia says with Julia and validates her feelings, leaving Julia experiencing relief
that the truth might have “destroy[ed]” Amá and shattered her at the fact that her emotions don’t make her a bad person.
perfect image of Olga. Julia says that she feels her whole life is
unfair, and she was born into the wrong family. She wants a
normal life and a happy family—Dr. Cooke tells her she
“deserve[s]” to have those things.

That night, Julia sneaks into Olga’s room again to look for more Julia is beginning to admit to herself that part of the reason she’s
clues. She’s leaving for Mexico in the morning, and is looking for been so doggedly tracking down information about Olga is partially
something before she leaves. She wonders if Olga has written out of a desire to feel vindicated in her own messy, difficult behavior
down her laptop password somewhere, and begins going and attitude.
through notebooks and drawers. As she searches, she realizes
that maybe Olga was the “sweet, boring” girl everyone knew
her to be—that perhaps she just wants to find something
incriminating about Olga so that she herself can feel like less of
a “fuck-up.”
When Julia finds a piece of paper with random letters and Julia finds what she’s been looking for all along—definitive proof
numbers written on it and enters the text as the laptop’s that even the sweet, “perfect” Olga had secrets, desires, and a
password, it opens. There’s nothing much on Olga’s hard drive, double life. Julia wonders why her sister would never have shared
but in her emails, Julia finds what she’s been looking for: these things with her—especially when doing so ultimately only
clandestine, angry emails to a boyfriend. The emails date back made the both of them feel more guilt, shame, and loneliness over
to 2009, and as Julia reads through years and years of them, the years. But a reader can imagine that Olga also felt the pressure
she realizes that Olga had a boyfriend—a married of being the “perfect” one, and couldn’t bring herself to fail to live up
boyfriend—who continually promised Olga that he would leave to those expectations and hurt her parents in the process.
his wife for her. Before Julia can finish all the emails, the
connection to the neighbor’s internet cuts out, and Julia is left
with a thousand unanswerable questions. She is even slightly
mad at Olga for sealing up all her “bad” things and letting Julia
get cast as the “malcriada” of the family for years.
Julia replaces the laptop under Olga’s bed, knowing there’s no Julia has discovered a huge secret about her sister—but is not
use in taking it to Mamá Jacinta’s house in Los Ojos. She does, satiated, and still longs to find out even more.
however, keep the piece of paper with Olga’s email username
and password on it, in hopes of getting the chance to visit an
internet café south of the border.
CHAPTER 19
After a bumpy flight to Mexico, Julia lands to find that water Julia’s chances to read more of Olga’s emails are—for the moment,
has leaked in her carry-on bag, soaking all of her at least—thwarted. It’s interesting that this occurs just as she lands
belongings—and ruining the piece of paper with Olga’s login in Mexico, and the reconnection it potentially offers to her past. For
information written on it. the time Julia is in Mexico, the quest to find out more of Olga’s
secrets are left behind.

Julia’s Tío Chucho picks her up from the airport in his rusty and As Julia arrives in Mexico, she’s happy to see the kind and amiable
battered pickup truck. Tío has long been Julia’s favorite uncle, Chucho—but slightly horrified when she realizes that even in
and as they settle in for the four-hour drive to Los Ojos, they Mexico, she’s not going to be able to escape Olga’s shadow or the
catch up on one another’s lives. It becomes clear to Julia that grief her entire extended family feels over her loss. At the same time,
Tío Chucho believes she’s been sent to Mexico because she’s what Julia is starting to semi-realize is that Olga’s status as the
been getting poor grades—he knows nothing about her “perfect” one also cut her off so that no one truly knew her.
depression or her suicide attempt. He encourages her to do
well in school so that she can go to college and not have to work
“like a donkey” like the rest of her family. Chucho laments the
loss of Olga, calling her “la inocente”—the innocent. Julia winces
as she remembers that no one in her family ever knew the real
Olga. Not wanting to talk about Olga, Julia pretends to fall
asleep against the window.
Hours later, Julia—who has fallen asleep for real—wakes up just In spite of Julia’s fears that she’ll never be able to escape Olga’s
as Chucho’s car pulls up to Mamá Jacinta’s house. Mamá shadow, she feels genuinely happy and peaceful as she reconnects
Jacinta runs to the car with tears in her eyes and embraces with this branch of her family. There’s something about them that’s
Julia, who starts crying too. At the door to the house is a crowd more open and less judgmental than her family in Chicago—this
of people—Julia’s relatives and extended family who have come foreshadows the journey towards increased empathy and love Julia
to greet her. Among them are her mother’s sisters, Fermina and will experience while here in Los Ojos.
Estela, who wrap her in hugs and call her sweet nicknames.
Julia is overwhelmed slightly by the attention, but not in a bad
way like she is back at home.
Julia’s relatives rush her to the kitchen and feed her a lavish Whereas at home food is scarce—and Amá is constantly berating
dinner of beans, rice, and beef tostadas. Mamá Jacinta tells Julia for eating junk—in Mexico, Julia’s family is tripping over
Julia that she’s too skinny, and hopes she fattens up a little themselves to feed and nourish her. This symbolizes their support
before it’s time for her to go back to the States. Julia wolfs her and love for her, and their desire to see her grow and flourish, but
food and asks for seconds, which she eats as her many relatives also the fact that, in this way at least, life in Mexico is less difficult
pepper her with questions about her life in America. She feels than that for a poor immigrant in Chicago.
like a celebrity—at home she’s the black sheep, but here, she’s
beloved. She laughs as she realizes that perhaps Amá was right
after all—perhaps a trip to Mexico is just what she needed all
along.
The next day, Mamá Jacinta teaches Julia how to cook menudo, At home, cooking lessons with Amá are complicated and layered
a rich dish made from tripe. Though Julia hates Amá’s cooking with lessons about traditional femininity and expectations. With
lessons at home, she finds herself enjoying the work of cleaning Mamá Jacinta, however, cooking is about togetherness, happiness,
and preparing the meat and cooking the delicious food. As the and indulgence. It’s a chance to grow closer to one another—and
women wait for the dish to simmer, Mamá Jacinta asks Julia while the food cooks, Mamá Jacinta tries to talk to Julia about
about what’s going on at home. Julia is reluctant to answer, but what’s going on, and reassure her that any of Julia’s secrets are safe
Mamá Jacinta assures her that whatever she says will stay in Los Ojos.
between them—and won’t make its way to Amá. Mamá Jacinta
tells Julia that Amá was always the rebellious daughter, and
tells Julia she shouldn’t be so hard on her—she’s been through a
lot.

Julia asks Mamá Jacinta what she means, and Mamá Jacinta This passage foreshadows that there is more to the story of Amá
tells Julia about how Amá and Apá were robbed when they and Apá’s robbery than meets the eye, continuing on the novel’s
crossed the border. Julia says she already knows the theme of secrets, lies, and the morally ambiguous shades of gray
story—she’s heard it several times over the years, and while it’s which keep certain things buried for years.
sad, she doesn’t see why it's such a huge deal. Mamá Jacinta
laments the bad luck her daughter has had in life, and Julia
quietly sips a cup of tea.
CHAPTER 20
The next morning, Julia goes into the room which used to be Julia’s journey towards becoming a more empathetic person starts
her mother’s bedroom and looks around. She is aware of the with a reversal of roles. Normally, her mother is the one who does
irony of the fact that though she hates when her mother goes the snooping in hopes of figuring out who her daughter is and what
through her things, she’s now going through her mother’s old she’s up to—now, wanting to know more about her mother and
things. She doesn’t find anything exciting, though she does understand her better, she engages in that very same action. Julia is
come upon a framed drawing of Amá when she was young. She learning more about her parents, and beginning to see them as
brings the drawing to Mamá Jacinta and asks who drew people—people with just as many hopes and dreams for their lives
it—Mamá Jacinta, surprised by the question, reveals that Apá as she herself has, and also people with their own imperfections.
drew it. Julia is surprised, and insists her father doesn’t draw,
but Mamá Jacinta tells her that he was once known as the best
artist in Los Ojos. Julia asks her grandmother why Apá would
have stopped, and Mamá Jacinta suggests that Apá got too
busy with work in the factory and other responsibilities once he
got to America.
That night, in bed, Julia lies awake and wonders how long she’ll Julia is still unable to shake her desire to solve the puzzle of Olga’s
be in Mexico. She wonders if she’ll ever be able to find out who life—but now in Mexico away from the constant quest to find more
Olga’s boyfriend was, and as she thinks about what she knows information she is able to put some of those pieces together to
so far, decides that he had to be a doctor at the office where understand more about her sister’s situation.
Olga worked.
Fermina’s oldest daughter Belén is “the town hot girl.” She is Julia is bonding with her entire family, and learning to appreciate a
not much older than Julia but nearly a foot taller, and dresses in different, slower way of life. Julia has been so obsessed with college
revealing clothing that makes everyone in town stare whenever and forward motion that she’s forgotten how nice it can be to just
she walks down the street. Belén decides to take Julia out and enjoy the present.
introduce her to everyone else in town—Julia is nervous about
talking to so many strangers, but decides to go along. After a
few of these walks, Julia begins to enjoy them, and loves
listening to Belén’s constant gossip, even though she doesn’t
know who any of the people her cousin talks about are.

On one walk with Belén, Belén points out a “depressing park” as This passage foreshadows the terrible violence that has come to Los
the place where a group of narcos—drug lords—beheaded the Ojos—and will come again. While in many ways her extended
town mayor years ago. When Julia is shocked by the violence, family’s life in Mexico is better than that of her life as an immigrant
Belén points out a nearby house that was burned down by a in Chicago, in other ways it is much more dangerous. After this
Molotov cocktail. Julia asks if she is safe in Los Ojos, and Belén passage, it is more clear why people would leave the town to go to
insists she is—as long as she doesn’t stay out late, “especially the United States illegally, despite the risks.The destruction
alone.” described here also points to the cyclical and often inescapable
nature of poverty.
CHAPTER 21
One of Julia’s youngest cousins is turning three years old, and Julia’s desire to give some money to the indigenous women shows
the family has planned a big pig roast at a venue in town. As again her capacity for empathy. She sees Belén’s judgmental nature
Julia, Belén, and Mamá Jacinta walk over to the party, they pass as cruel and hypocritical, and begins to understand the ways in
a group of indigenous women and girls begging for alms—Belén which her own haughtiness has stood in her way before. Belén’s
rudely calls the women “typical indias” and orders Julia not to behavior may also be taken as pointing to the ways that prejudice is
give them any money. After Belén moves on, Julia quickly prevalent all over.
reaches into her pocket and gives a young girl all of her change.
At the party venue—owned by the richest family in town, This passage symbolizes the often unpleasant nature of ambition.
whose wealth, it’s rumored, came from selling drugs—the men Food has always been a comfort for Julia, and she enjoys snacking
are killing the pig for the barbeque. Julia is upset by the display, on junk. To see where her food actually comes from, though, makes
and Belén calls her a “delicate” American. Determined to prove her reconsider what it means to gorge herself. In Mexico, Julia is
Belén wrong, Julia chooses to stay and watch the pig get learning to look her desires and ambitions in the face and see how
slaughtered rather than take a walk with Mamá Jacinta. After destructive they can be—just as she understands now that for every
the pig is slaughtered and bled, as the men begin frying it up, dish of chicharrones, a pig must be slaughtered. This does not mean
Julia feels her mouth water almost against her will. She is that she doesn’t enjoy the food by any means. But she is becoming
“weird[ed]” out by the strangeness of the human body. After more aware of the complexity of life.
the pig meat has been used to make delicious chicarrones, Julia
wolfs them down.
The party gets into full swing, and there is dancing and eating Julia’s quick jaunt with Andrés allows her to see the beauty of Los
as everyone celebrates. Julia’s cousin Andrés, who is just a few Ojos from a new vantage point, and to have an experience she’d
years older than her, asks her to come next door with him—he never be able to have in Chicago—or in her dreams about New York.
takes her out to a barn where there are two beautiful horses Julia is seeing that there are other ways of life that are beautiful,
tied up, and asks if she wants to go for a ride. He tells Julia that and understanding that she doesn’t have to put so much pressure
the horses are in love, and cry when they’re separated. Touched on herself to live only one way or in pursuit of only one thing.
by the beauty of the animals, Julia pushes her reluctance aside
and joins Andrés on a peaceful ride through town.

After Andrés and Julia return to the party, Julia dances with the The party takes a dark turn as the narcos show up and threaten to
slightly drunken Tío Chucho and has a great time spinning bring violence and discord to the celebration. Julia is seeing that
around on the dance floor, unlike at her quinceañera. After a there’s a dark side to Los Ojos—and beginning to understand that
few songs, however, a group of men in black masks and rifles she’s lucky, in many ways, not to have to face pressure on this scale
enter the venue—Chucho grows noticeably upset, and walks back in Chicago.
away from Julia towards the men. The party grows quiet and
still as everyone watches Chucho pull an envelope from his
pocket and hand it towards one of the men, who nods at
Andrés briefly before leaving the party. Julia asks Belén what’s
going on, but Belén urges Julia to be quiet and stop asking
questions.
CHAPTER 22
Though Julia hates sports, she agrees to tag along with Belén to Just as Julia pinned all her hopes on going to college in New York
a local soccer match. Halfway through the match, a young man and becoming a famous writer, she pinned all her romantic hopes on
named Esteban comes to sit between Belén and Julia, and Connor—even though there were many ways in which he wasn’t a
starts chatting Julia up. Belen and her friends are amused by perfect match. When she meets Esteban, she understands that it’s
Esteban’s interest in Julia, and when the game is over, they okay to want two things at once—or to ask for more when faced
depart in a pack, leaving Julia and Esteban alone. Esteban with something insufficient. Julia’s both reconsidering the nature of
offers to walk Julia home and Julia accepts, remembering what ambition and the utility of it—it’s not a bad thing, but there are ways
Belén said about walking around alone at night. As the two of to be an ambitious and hopeful person without pushing oneself too
them talk and flirt, Esteban admits he’s had his eye on Julia hard or closing oneself off to other things.
since she got to town. Julia is confused by the warm feelings of
desire she’s having for Esteban—she thought she was in love
with Connor, and yet Esteban makes her feel “all goopy inside.”
That night, Julia sits with Tía Fermina, Tía Estela, and Tío Julia continues bonding with her family in the idyllic beauty of Los
Chucho in Fermina’s backyard. Julia admires the stars, and Ojos—and yet the threat of violence lurks just underneath the
admits she hardly gets to see them in Chicago. Estela tenderly surface of even the most perfect, relaxing evening.
braids Julia’s hair, admiring her thick and glossy locks as Julia
eats figs and enjoys the warm night air. Tía Fermina goes inside
and brings out a pitcher of cold hibiscus tea. As Julia sips the
tea surrounded by her family and the warm breeze, she feels
totally content and at peace.
The next morning, Julia goes with Tía Fermina to a small market Julia’s family knows that things aren’t right in Chicago—there’s no
three towns over to buy some special cheese. On the ride over, other reason she’d come to Mexico alone. As Fermina asks Julia to
Fermina complains about the drought affecting the tell her what’s going on, she tries to help Julia see things from a
countryside, and Julia is amazed by how familiar the scenery different angle, and to understand that her mother is just a woman
and passing towns look, though she hasn’t been to Mexico in trying her best. Julia maintains that Amá is cruel, judgmental, and
many years. As the women arrive in town and walk through the invasive, however—she hasn’t yet learned to see that perhaps her
streets, Fermina asks Julia how Amá is doing, and Julia admits mother’s flaws and tics are part of something larger.
that things at home have been extremely difficult since Olga’s
death. Fermina laments that she can’t do more for her sister,
and expresses sorrow at the fact that Julia and Amá seem to
have a difficult relationship. Fermina begs Julia to be kinder to
her mother, and to try and make her life easier. Julia retorts
that though she tries with Amá, her mother is strict,
overbearing, and tries to control her every move.

Fermina tells Julia that there’s a lot she doesn’t understand With this shocking revelation, Julia is forced to reconsider
about her mother, then goes quiet and starts to cry. Julia asks everything she knows about both of her parents. Suddenly, so much
what’s wrong, and Fermina reveals tearfully that during Amá of Julia’s life makes sense—Amá’s fearfulness and resulting
and Apá’s border crossing, the coyote leading them through strictness and overprotectiveness, Apá’s disconnected, dissociative
the desert raped Amá while his associates held a gun to Apá’s nature, and most of all, their obsession with praising and elevating
head, forcing him to watch. Julia is so shocked by the news that Olga to compensate for the horrible truth about her conception.
she has to sit down on the ground. She can’t help but picture
the horrible assault over and over—and what’s worse, she
realizes that because Olga was born a bit under a year after her
parents arrived in the state, it is likely that she was the product
of rape. Fermina cries as she tells Julia that she wanted her to
know, so that she can better understand where her mother is
coming from—that she wants to protect Julia, not hurt her.
That night, Julia is distracted by thoughts of her parents and Julia experiences a minor existential crisis as she slowly absorbs the
can’t sleep. As the days pass by, they all blur together, and Julia revelations about her parents and Olga—but in the meantime, life
begins feeling aimless and lost in thought. She spends most of goes on. Secrets and lies have the power to stop someone in their
her time with Belén and Esteban, and though she fantasizes tracks—but keeping them tamped down allows real life to spin
often about Esteban, he’s never tried to kiss her—but he does forward with surprising normalcy.
sometimes hold her hand when Belén isn’t looking.
One night, Julia is inside Mamá Jacinta’s house with her The violence in Los Ojos begins to escalate, with the physical
grandmother, Belén, and her aunts, watching telenovelas, when shattering of Julia’s bubble of safety and happiness in Mexico
the women suddenly hear men’s voices screaming obscenities coinciding with the interior symbolic shattering of everything she
at one another in the street. Belén mutes the TV and the thought she knew about her life back in Chicago.
screams grow louder—then, the women hear gunshots. All of
them drop to the floor, and the distraught Mamá Jacinta begins
crying. As everyone crawls towards the back of the house, Julia
peeks outside the window, and sees two dead bodies in the
middle of the street.
The next day, Tía Fermina performs a cleansing ritual on Julia to Fermina’s cleansing ritual shows that there’s still a lot that Julia isn’t
get rid of the bad luck and energy from the shooting. She uses dealing with. There’s pain, confusion, and so much more lingering
an uncooked egg to gently touch different parts of Julia’s body just below the surface—and Julia will need to deal with her
with the cool shell, whispering prayers and making crosses on problems if she wants to become whole.
Julia’s extremities. At the end of the ritual, Fermina cracks the
egg into a glass and holds it to the light; there is blood in the
yolk. Fermina gasps, and asks Julia what’s going on with her.
The narcos have plummeted Los Ojos into violence again, and Julia has long felt alone in her restlessness and desire to get out of
Mamá Jacinta tells Julia it’s time for her to go home. She books her neighborhood. Now, she sees that the problems she’s facing and
a flight for Julia back to Chicago, but tells her she’ll need to take the things she’s feeling are universal—and that for some people,
a bus to the airport as it’s dangerous for Tío Chucho to drive even members of her own family, things are much worse than they
her. Jacinta explains that at the party a few weeks ago, Chucho are for Julia herself.
gave the narcos a bribe—they are trying to recruit Andrés into
their service, but he doesn’t want to work for them. Mamá
Jacinta laments that her town is turning to “garbage.”

The next day, Julia meets up with Esteban to say goodbye. He There are things that Julia and Esteban can talk about that she
tells her he’ll miss her—but that he might be crossing the can’t with Connor. Esteban understands Julia on a deeper level, and
border soon, and will perhaps see her again someday. Julia begs they share a common culture, a common hatred, and a common
Esteban to be careful during the crossing, and expresses her fear.
anger about the “giant wound” the border truly is. Esteban
takes Julia’s face between his hands and kisses her deeply.
On the bus, as she pulls away from Los Ojos, Julia cries quietly. The dead donkey Julia spies on her way out of Mexico serves as a
She has Apá’s drawing of Amá with her, and has promised visual metaphor for the journey she’s undergone there. She is able to
Mamá Jacinta that she will take care of Amá always. As the bus see that violence and beauty can exist in the same landscape—and
moves through the desert, Julia is struck by the intense beauty that though there is always something ugly simmering just below
and colors of the place, even in spite of the drought. As the bus the surface, life must carry on anyway.
approaches the city, however, Julia spies a dead donkey in a
field—two vultures circle above it.
CHAPTER 23
Back in Chicago, Amá picks Julia up from the airport and takes Julia and Amá’s trip to a restaurant—their first in years—symbolizes
her to a restaurant in Chinatown. Julia can barely remember that both of them want to meet on even ground and enter a new,
the last time she and her mother ate together at a restaurant. more open stage of their relationship. Still, there’s a new barrier
Chicago is beginning to thaw, and the city is “more alive” than it between them—albeit an invisible one.
was when Julia left. When Amá asks about Julia’s trip, Julia
admits that she had a nice time, and didn’t realize how much
she’d missed Los Ojos and her relatives there.
Amá tells Julia that Mr. Ingman called the house last week and Amá and Julia are able to have their first real conversation in a long
said he was worried about Julia and her whereabouts. Amá time—and Amá is clearly trying hard to communicate to Julia that
tells Julia that Mr. Ingman said Julia is the best student he’s though she hasn’t always been there for her, she does truly love her
ever had, and asks why Julia wouldn’t have talked more about daughter and want the best for her. It seems as if a new chapter in
her success in school. Amá apologizes for not paying more their relationship is beginning.
attention to Julia, and tells her she loves her “with all [her]
heart.” She explains that she’s so overprotective because she
doesn’t want Julia making stupid mistakes—she wants Julia to
have a good life.
Julia can barely look at Amá without thinking about what she Even though Amá is making a huge effort and trying to usher in a
was forced to endure during the border crossing. She doesn’t new stage of their relationship, Julia remains anxious and upset
think she’ll ever be able to tell her mother that she knows her about the secret she’s learned regarding the border crossing. Julia
secret—but at the same time, wonders how she, and everyone wonders what her relationship with her mother will look like now
else, is able to go through life with so many secrets “locked that there are so many secrets between them, even as so much has
inside.” Unable to say anything about what she’s learned, Julia been revealed and renewed.
simply apologizes to her mother for hurting her.

When Julia and Amá get back to the apartment, Amá lets Julia Julia has thought for months that Connor was over
have her phone back. When Julia turns it on she sees that she her—uncomprehending of her problems, scared off by her emotions,
has multiple calls and texts, all from Connor. She quickly calls and unable to connect with her. To learn that he has been thinking
him and tells him that she was in Mexico—when he asks why, about her and worrying about her fills her with hope that there’s still
she tells him it’s a “long story,” not wanting to share the truth a chance for them—and that she’s still lovable and worthy in spite of
about her suicide attempt. Connor says he’s relieved to hear all she’s been through.
Julia’s voice—he thought she’d hated him. Connor says he’s
missed Julia, and she says she’s missed him, too. He invites her
to meet him at the bookstore the following afternoon, and she
says she will, determined to find a way there.
Julia goes out to the living room to ask Amá if she can go hang Even though Amá and Julia are being more open with one another
out downtown with Lorena tomorrow afternoon. She feels bad than they’ve been in the past, this passage shows that Julia still
that she has no choice to lie—even in spite of their moment of doesn’t fully trust Amá to trust her. There are still going to be secrets
connection earlier, she’d never tell her mother about Connor. and lies between them—and perhaps always will be.
Amá agrees to let Julia go, since she hasn’t seen Lorena in such
a long time—as long as she’s back before dark.
Because she sees that Amá is making an effort, Julia decides to As Julia accompanies Amá to her prayer circle, her opinionated,
make one too—and agrees to go along with her mother to her loudmouth ways are tested. Julia sees many parents discussing their
church group that night. As the two of them arrive, Julia gorges struggles to be good to their children in spite of failing to understand
herself on coffee and cookies, and then sits down in a circle them—Julia believes it’s cruel for a parent to reject their child, but at
with her mother and the rest of the attendees. The members of the same time, sees her own mother struggling with how to accept a
the prayer group talk and share stories of the difficulties daughter she doesn’t fully know how to approach. In seeing her
they’re facing in their lives. When one man confesses that he’s mother talk about her uncertainty about what to do, though, she
having trouble “forgiving” his son for being gay, Julia angrily also sees that her mother is trying even if she isn’t always
speaks up, thinking of Juanga, but manages to calm herself succeeding.
down before she says anything too hurtful. When it’s Amá’s
turn to speak, she admits that she’s been neglecting Julia in the
wake of Olga’s loss—and that she has a lot to learn about who
Julia is and what she wants out of life.
That night, once her parents are asleep, Julia uses her key to As Julia discovers one final, earth-shattering secret—Olga was
get back into Olga’s room and finish reading her emails. She pregnant at the time of her death—she is tested more acutely than
hops onto a neighbor’s internet and reads through the emails. she has been by any other secret she’s learned. She must now
The emails reveal that Olga’s lover had children in high school confront directly what it means to take a secret to the grave—to
and has been married to his wife for over twenty years. Julia want to shelter loved ones from a painful truth even if it means
wonders why her sister put up with the man’s excuses for so creating a vast distance or rift.
long—and how she was able to hide the truth of what she was
going through from everyone. As Julia gets to the last email,
she learns a stunning truth—Olga was pregnant with her lover’s
baby when she died.

CHAPTER 24
Julia calls the hotel where Angie works, and, once confirming Julia is determined to confront Angie and get the truth of what she
that Angie’s there, hops on a train to get downtown. She knew about Olga out of her once and for all. Julia knows how to run
marches in the front door, and approaches Angie at the front her mouth—and is not afraid to confront Angie with it at her place
desk. Angie is clearly nervous to see Julia, and tells her she can’t of work.
talk right now, but Julia, faking pleasantness, says she must
have some time to talk about her dead pregnant sister—and
her married boyfriend. Angie, blanching, tells Julia that she’ll
take her out for a quick coffee.
At a nearby coffee shop, Julia asks Angie why she didn’t tell Between Amá’s secret and Olga’s, Julia has a lot burdening her mind
Julia the truth. Angie insists that no one would have “gain[ed]” and her heart. She’s beginning to see how naïve she was about so
anything from learning the truth—Olga is dead, and the truth many things, and how blind she’s been to the turmoil that’s been
would only have hurt people. Sometimes, Angie says, “people boiling just below the surface of the family. To the loudmouth,
don’t need the truth.” Julia begs Angie to tell her the name of confrontational Julia, all of this seems like too much to bear—but
the man Olga was seeing, but Angie refuses, and asks how Julia Angie’s perspective lets Julia see that perhaps the best, kindest thing
learned all of this in the first place. When Julia says she went she can do is keep these things to herself. Julia is learning the
through Olga’s emails, Angie calls her snooping “messed up.” difficult and morally ambiguous lesson that, sometimes, airing
Julia insists that nothing is more messed up than Angie’s choice secrets and lies can do more harm than good.
to keep Olga’s secret for her. Julia wonders how she is going to
keep the secret for her whole life—her parents deserve to
know, and she doesn’t want to live a lie. Angie, crying, implores
Julia to understand that “some things should never be said out
loud.”
Julia heads to Wicker Park to meet up with Connor at the Things with Connor are different than they were before, but Julia
bookstore. They don’t hug or kiss as they see one another still likes him and he obviously still cares for her. In the midst of all
again for the first time, and Julia is surprised by Connor’s short the insanity Julia’s going through, having a kind (and oblivious)
haircut. The two of them walk through the store and catch up friend and outlet in Connor is a good thing—and Julia is, in a way,
on what’s been going on, and then make their way to an testing her secret-keeping skill out on him.
outdoor park. Julia asks Connor if he’s seeing anyone new, and
though he laughs at the question, he doesn’t say that he isn’t.
When Julia asks if he’s gotten into any colleges, he reveals that
he’s been accepted to Cornell—his first choice. Julia
congratulates him, and says that she’s hoping to end up in New
York, too. Connor says that if she does, he promises to come
and visit her. Julia says she isn’t sure if she’ll get in, but Connor
tells her to believe in herself.

As the sun begins to set, Julia asks what happens next. Connor Julia and Connor are at a strange time in their lives—they’re both
says he isn’t sure—all he knows is that he’s missed Julia terribly. preparing to move on to bigger and better things. Being
He suggests that since they’re both going away to college soon, communicative about their ambitions and their desires to take
they should enjoy their time together without overthinking things as they come allow them to have a freer, more equal
things. Julia is slightly disappointed, but agrees with Connor’s relationship, one that’s open and giving even though it’s shrouded in
plan. secrets and half-truths. Julia is learning how both of these qualities
can exist in any given relationship. At the same time, Connor is
content as always not to try too hard. His position is both
pragmatic and just a tad lazy and selfish. Somehow in the book he
always seems cocooned just a bit in his privilege. That doesn’t make
him bad, any more than Amá or Julia are bad for their failures, but it
is a facet of his own human imperfection.
CHAPTER 25
A lot has happened since Julia left for Mexico. Juanga has a new The world has spun on without Julia, and she’s experiencing a little
boyfriend, Mr. Ingman is engaged to another teacher, and bit of whiplash as she tries to catch up with all she’s missed.
Lorena has missed her period—and believes she’s pregnant. Lorena’s pregnancy scare brings back memories of Julia’s cousin
After school one day, Julia takes the train to a nearby clinic with Vanessa and the way that to get stuck in their neighborhood with a
Lorena so that she can have a pregnancy test. Julia can tell her baby is to get further entrenched in the cyclical, inescapable poverty
friend is nervous, and asks what she’ll do if it’s positive. Lorena that they’ve been working so hard to escape. Lorena’s plan to steal
says there’s no way she’s having a baby—she doesn’t want to money for an abortion further shows how poverty can lead to
get stuck in their neighborhood. Julia asks Lorena how she’ll reckless, dangerous action.
pay for an abortion, and Lorena says she’ll steal a stash of
money José Luis keeps in his closet.
Lorena’s test reveals that she’s not pregnant. She and Julia The girls are high on the good news about the negative test, and full
leave the clinic in high spirits, and Lorena says she wants to of restlessness and the feeling of potential. They decide to spend a
celebrate. Julia points out that they don’t have any money—but ton of money on delicious fine food, cementing that for other
Lorena reveals that she’s already stolen five hundred dollars in characters in the novel—not just Julia—ravenous consumption of
cash from José Luis. The two girls head downtown to a fancy food is tied to ambition, dreams, and the desire for more.
seafood restaurant overlooking the Chicago River, and gorge
themselves on a platter of seafood as they discuss Julia’s love
life. Lorena says she wants to meet Connor, and Julia texts him,
asking him to come join them.
Julia tells Lorena the truth about Olga—that she was pregnant Julia is aware of the power of the secret she’s keeping—as well as the
when she died, and had been seeing a married man for years. power of the other secrets within her family. She doesn’t want to
Lorena can hardly believe that the innocent Olga had such a perpetuate a culture of lies anymore, but at the same time, is
huge secret, and asks if Julia is going to tell her parents—Julia beginning to see that things are not so black and white—and that
confesses she hasn’t decided what to do. She says that learning Lorena’s perspective about radical truthfulness might not be useful
Olga’s secrets might just upset them, though she admits there for Julia’s precarious familial situation. She sees how secrets can
are “too many secrets” in her family already. Lorena says she cause damage, but also how they can be a form of protection, too.
thinks Julia should tell her parents, but Julia isn’t so sure.

After lunch, the girls meet up with Connor in the city. Lorena Lorena is skeptical of Connor from the get-go. She’s protective of
clearly doesn’t like Connor right off the bat, but when Julia Julia, just as Amá is—she doesn’t want her to get hurt or to operate
pulls Lorena aside and points out that she was the one who under false hopes. To Lorena, it’s possible that Julia’s relationship
wanted to meet him, Lorena softens and tries to make some with Connor represents Julia’s desire to escape the neighborhood
conversation—though she’s still pretty icy as they settle in at a and socioeconomic class she and Lorena share—a slight to Lorena
coffee shop for some snacks. When Connor goes to the for sure, and an ambition she wants to tell Julia might be too lofty.
bathroom, Julia asks Lorena why she’s still giving Connor such a More broadly, though, Lorena is skeptical of the possibility of any
hard time. Lorena points out that Connor probably looks down cross-cultural, cross-socioeconomic relationships. She can’t believe
on the girls and sees them as “ghetto.” Julia insists Connor isn’t that anyone of Connor’s class can fully avoid looking down on those
like that, but Lorena argues that “they all are.” of a “lower” class. It’s interesting that the book never rejects Lorena’s
argument. Rather it simply lets it stand, as another complication in
a complicated word.
CHAPTER 26
After school one day, Julia takes the bus to Olga’s office. She The answer to the mystery of Olga’s life has been hiding in plain
sits in the waiting room, looking at the list of doctors who work sight since the start of the novel—the grieving man at the back of
there, but knows there’s no way she can figure out who the her funeral was her married lover, and seeing him again in the flesh
mystery man is. When the receptionist asks Julia if she’d like to fills Julia with dread and anxiety.
make an appointment, Julia knows she can’t loiter any longer.
Just as she’s about to give up, a man in a dark suit enters the
office—it is the mysterious man from Olga’s funeral. The
receptionist greets the man as Dr. Castillo. Julia hurries out of
the office, but waits outside the building for Castillo to emerge.
When Dr. Castillo comes out of the office, Julia follows him to The hotheaded Julia, true to her nature, is violently angry with
his car—a shiny black BMW. Just as he’s about to get, in she Castillo—she believes he hurt and exploited her sister carelessly.
confronts him. When he asks who she is, she says she’s Olga’s Castillo, however, wants to extend an olive branch—and Julia,
sister. He replies that Olga was a “wonderful employee” and is surprisingly, accepts his offer to explain things to her.
missed by all. Julia says she is sure Castillo misses Olga most of
all—seeing as he’s the one who got her pregnant. Dr. Castillo
tells Julia he can explain everything, and offers to give her a
ride to a local diner so they can talk.
At the diner, Dr. Castillo tells Julia that he truly loved Julia’s anger, confusion, and contempt towards Castillo rev her up.
Olga—and that when Julia’s older, she’ll be able to understand She is willing to listen to him, and anxious to hear the truth of what
just how complicated things were between them. Julia asks Dr. transpired between him and Olga. Her restlessness as she awaits
Castillo how old he is, and he says he’s forty-six. Julia tells him the full explanation is symbolized by her sudden hunger—and she
that he’s older than her and Olga’s father. Dr. Castillo tries to can’t help but feel, as she orders, that she feels like ordering on
tell Julia that he really did want to marry Olga—especially after Castillo’s dime is like taking a miniscule revenge against him (and
he learned she was pregnant. A waitress comes by to take their perhaps in general a revenge against all the rich people who exploit
order, and though Dr. Castillo gets a coffee, Julia decides to those less fortunate).
take advantage of the free meal and orders a grilled cheese.

Dr. Castillo opens his wallet and takes out a picture—it is a There are two sides to every story—and as Castillo offers his, Julia
folded-up ultrasound image. As Julia looks at the image, she feels sadness and rage combined. She can’t believe that the man
wonders aloud how she’ll manage to keep this secret. Dr. who strung her sister along for years could possibly have loved
Castillo begs her not to tell her parents, claiming that Olga her—but as she has learned over and over again throughout the last
wouldn’t want to “hurt” them—sometimes, he says, it’s best not several months, sometimes, things aren’t what they seem to be.
to tell the truth. Julia asks how she can possibly trust the man Castillo seems to be legitimately distraught, and to have left his wife
who strung her sister along for years—but Dr. Castillo begins when he realized what he lost. And yet, at the same time, he didn’t
crying, and insists he has been “ruined” by Olga’s death. He do enough when Olga was alive. In some ways reminiscent of
reveals that since Olga died, he’s gotten a divorce from his wife. Connor when Julia was struggling, he never pushed past his own
Julia points out that he did what Olga wanted too late, then comfort when it truly mattered.
picks up her backpack and leaves.
CHAPTER 27
Julia still isn’t sure how to talk to Apá—there’s so much she Even after Angie’s lesson, Julia is still struggling with how secret-
wants to say to him, but can’t. The secrets she’s keeping are keeping relates to morality. She knows that to burden Amá and Apá
beginning to “feel like strangling vines.” Julia constantly with Olga’s secret would be selfish; but at the same time, she is not
questions whether keeping Olga’s secrets is selfish, or whether sure how much more loneliness she can take. She tries to connect
the more selfish thing would be to share them with her parents, with Apá in another way, but fails—the narrative suggests that while
who have already suffered enough. Still, Julia decides that she secrets and lies may chip away at a relationship, to reveal secrets
needs to try to keep her relationship with her father alive. One might be to blast that relationship away altogether. It's also not
morning, she sits down with him for some coffee and asks him clear what the book thinks of Apá’s stance toward drawing. It makes
about his art—she wants to know why he stopped. Apá reveals sense why he gave it up in a practical way, but was it actually a
that he saw drawing as a “waste of time” once he got to the waste of time? But the point that “sometimes you don’t get to do
States—sometimes, he says, “you don’t get to do what you want what you want to do” does connect to the way the book treats the
to do.” Apá puts his coffee cup in the sink and leaves the realities of life—as always complicated, always messy, and never
kitchen. perfect.
Since returning from Mexico, Julia has been having weekly Julia’s relationship to secret-keeping is complicated by another
sessions with Dr. Cooke. Their “number-one topic” is Julia’s facet, too, which is that revealing that she knows a painful secret
relationship with Amá. Julia is grateful that Dr. Cooke never might do to her relationship with Amá. There’s the chance that Amá
seems to judge her, even when she admits things that are is burdened by keeping the truth from Julia, and Julia revealing she
painful or embarrassing. When Dr. Cooke asks how things are knows it already might make things better—but Julia is too afraid to
going one afternoon, Julia reveals that she believes her mother do more damage to her fledging relationship with Amá to reveal
is trying to let her have more freedom—even as she grows anything just yet. For now, Julia is leaving her options open—leaving
more and more anxious the closer Julia’s departure for college a possibility for the future—which is a step in and of itself, and
gets. Dr. Cooke asks if Julia would ever consider talking to her leaves space for a relationship to blossom in the meantime.
mother about the border crossing, and suggests that discussing
it would be a way for them to go closer—maybe not now, but in
the future. Julia says she doesn’t want to bring it up now, but is
open to the fact that one day she might be ready to discuss it.

Julia’s college acceptance letters begin to arrive. In one Julia is feeling a rollercoaster of emotions as her college
afternoon, she gets rejected from Boston University, Barnard rejections—and acceptances—begin to stream in. The letters
College, Columbia University, and Boston College, and begins represent her life’s work, and determine whether she’ll be one step
to lose hope that she’ll be able to go away to school after all. closer to her dream of making it as a New York writer, or one step
Juanga and Lorena urge her not to get discouraged—and farther away. Julia’s hard work is rewarded in the end, and she
remind her that if all else fails, she can move downtown with decides to pursue her dream without looking back—even though she
them—but Julia remains determined to get to New York. The knows that in leaving home, she’ll truly never be the “perfect
next day, two huge envelopes arrive in the mail—one is from Mexican daughter” her parents have always wanted her to be.
DePaul University in Chicago, and one is from NYU. Julia has Having engaged with if not solved her issues at home, Julia’s now
gotten into both places with full rides. Amá and Apá prepared to fulfill her ambition and move on to the next stage of her
congratulate her, and though they’re disheartened that she life.
wants to choose NYU over the closer university, they are
genuinely proud of her and promise to support her journey to
New York.
The end of the school year approaches, and Julia is growing Julia has felt insecure in her relationship with Connor since the
more and more restless about her impending move to New start—she’s been afraid he’ll be repulsed by or disdainful of her
York. One sunny May afternoon, she attends an outdoor fair appearance, her heritage, or her attitude. Those feelings are evident
with Connor. As they share food and listen to music, she asks here when she doesn’t entirely believe his promise to visit. Her
him what is going to happen to the two of them after the disbelief might also stem from the knowledge she’s gained that the
summer is over. Connor promises he’ll visit her in New York, future is uncertain. At the same time, as Julia has dealt with some
but Julia doesn’t quite believe him. She starts to cry, serious issues over the last several months, however, she’s grown to
overwhelmed by how quickly her life is changing. Connor tells understand and like herself more. And she’s also learned that there
her she looks beautiful and kisses her cheek. Julia smiles, is a value to live in the present, and to connect to people in that
believing him for the first time. present. And so, when Connor kisses her and says she’s beautiful,
she is able to believe that even as their future remains uncertain.
CHAPTER 28
After months of adjusting to her medications and attending Julia, who refused any and all help offered to her just a few months
sessions with Dr. Cooke, Julia’s depression and anxiety have ago, has come a long way. No longer averse to letting people in, to
lessened significantly. She keeps track of her low points in her admitting her shortcomings, or to seeking help, she has unlocked the
journal, and finds that she’s able to talk herself through even “vault” within herself and learned to face and deal with even the
her worst doubts and insecurities about herself. At her final most difficult parts of herself and her life.
session with Dr. Cooke, she reads her therapist a poem she’s
been working on in which she imagines going into the “vault” of
her life and examining everything—her dreams, her secrets, and
the beauty in between.

After dinner that evening, Amá tries to engage Julia in a talk This passage shows that Amá is just as overprotective as ever—but
“about boys.” Though Julia tries to resist the sex talk, Amá tells Julia, and the readers, know now that at the end of the day all Amá
her to be careful around boys and protect herself from them. wants is to keep Julia safe from harm. The two women are able to
She tries to warn Julia about drugs men put in women’s drinks, joke about the difficult spots in their relationship, now, having
but Julia says she already knows all about roofies. Amá is gotten better at seeing and understanding one another over the
confused by the word “roofies.” She warns Julia worriedly that course of the novel. In some way the same pattern exists, but there
if she has sex she could get AIDS or become pregnant, and Julia is also a new faith and understanding of each other and their
finally cuts her mother off—acknowledging that she’d rather underlying love that makes it easier for those same old gears to
learn how to make tortillas than continue talking about sex. grind without causing the same hurt.
Amá laughs heartily.
CHAPTER 29
The morning before her flight to New York, Julia calls Freddy As Julia quickly ties up her loose ends in Chicago, there’s a
and Alicia to tell them she’s headed to NYU. They tell her bittersweet energy in the air. She’s excited for what’s to come and
they’re proud of her, and ask her to visit them over winter proud of what she’s achieved. But she also knows that in getting
break. Lorena comes into the room as Julia is ending the call what she’s always wanted, she’s leaving behind some wonderful
and sits on the edge of Julia’s bed, offering to help her pack. parts of her life in Chicago that she’d overlooked for years. This final
Lorena has been accepted to nursing school and is waitressing meeting with Lorena in the book also attests to the enduring love
part-time; she and Juanga are hoping to get an apartment and friendship between the two. Where there is uncertainty about
together soon, once they’ve saved enough for a deposit. Julia Julia’s future with Connor, there doesn’t seem to be any about her
tells Lorena how proud she is of her and how much she loves relationship with Lorena.
her, and promises to call “ten times a day.” Lorena begins to
cry—something she hardly ever does in front of Julia—and then
heads off to work, telling Julia she loves her.
The next day, as he prepares to take her to the airport, Apá Julia finds herself triggered and plunged back into memory by the
dresses in the same faded blue shirt he was wearing the night sight of Apá’s shirt. As she relives the night of her suicide attempt,
he found Julia slitting her wrists. At the sight of the shirt, Julia she feels grateful beyond measure that Apá was willing to do
feels a shameful pang, and wishes that she and her father could whatever it took to save her from herself. He is as stolid and
both un-live that night. Julia flashes back to a memory of uncommunicative as ever, and yet behind that she can sense his
hearing Apá pounding on her locked bedroom door as she took profound love for her, and returns it.
a knife to her wrists—she loved her father more “in that
moment” than she ever had.
At the airport, Julia bids her parents goodbye as she prepares Julia has longed to leave home for so long, partially because she felt
to enter the security line. She can’t believe she’s leaving them, her parents never understood or supported her. Now, though, Amá
and feels terrible for going away to school. Amá hands her makes it clear that she loves, knows, and supports Julia—even her
some money, telling her it’s in case she starts to “crave bad habits—and Apá is promising to be more present and revisit the
something when [she gets] to New York.” Julia begins weeping, truth of who he once was. Julia feels sad as she leaves her parents,
and then opens her backpack. She hands Apá the drawing of who have made just as much of an effort to change as she has.
Amá, and asks him if he’ll draw a picture of her sometime. He
nods solemnly.

Julia falls asleep on the plane and wakes up to see the New Julia is nervous as she embarks on this new chapter in her life—but
York skyline just outside her window. She can’t believe how big refuses to let fear, confusion, or uncertainty hold her back. She can
the city is. As she looks down at the buildings, she wonders tolerate that uncertainty, now, as a condition of life. She’s learning
what her life there will be like. Though she doesn’t know what more about who she is and what she wants every day, and
the future holds—who she’ll be, whether she’ll continue seeing developing a more holistic view of herself as a complex, full person.
Connor—she’s excited for what’s to come. She finds herself She is not interested in either being or rebelling against being a
thinking of Mexico, and of Esteban, and of all the unknowns in “perfect” person.
her future. Still, she’s proud of how far she’s come—and refuses
to let herself get dragged down by the fear that her brain might
“fail” her again.
Julia still has nightmares about Olga, and isn’t sure if they’ll In the novel’s final lines, Julia is able to articulate what the last two
ever stop—or if she’ll ever stop feeling badly about carrying years have taught her. The whole time she was trying to uncover
Olga’s secret. She feels grateful and blessed to be able to make information about Olga, she didn’t realize that she was actually
choices that her parents—and even her sister—were not able to getting closer and closer to uncovering, facing, and understanding
make for themselves, and in fact wrote her college essay (at Mr. the hardest and most painful truths not about her sister, but about
Ingman’s suggestion) about how her drive to succeed in life was herself. Even in the ugliness and uncertainty Julia has been able to
connected to her responsibility to making her family proud. As find beauty and solidity, and feels empowered as she enters this next
the plane begins its descent, Julia pulls out Olga’s ultrasound phase of her life.
picture and stares at it. She reflects on how, in the years she’s
spent combing through her sister’s life to understand her
better, she actually ended up finding “beautiful and ugly” pieces
of herself instead.

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What challenges does the main character Julia face?

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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

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Victor – One of Julia’s young cousins.

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led to Olga’s death—but as Amá articulates it now, Julia

Explanation and Analysis

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Related Characters: Tía Fermina, Julia Reyes (speaker),

Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker)

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ideas—and she is going to have to figure out how to find

Explanation and Analysis

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Related Characters: Julia Reyes (speaker), Dr. Cooke

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Explanation and Analysis

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

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Julia sits down and pulls out Camus’s The Str

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