This book both angered and intrigued me. Angered by the possibility of this as an actual future for this country, angry at the clearly left-winged bent laying it at the feet of white supremacy and all things racist and stereotyped. Intrigued by the journey, the determination and courage Vali displayed to find sanctuary. Anger at the fact such a thing as sanctuary had to exist in the first place. I can't speak to the authenticity of the experience since this is claimed by the authors as a "dystopian" novel though it seems it is only an election away from happening.

Heartbreaking.

What a difficult but important read. Although it’s dystopian and set in the future there is so much that is what we have seen under the Trump administration. We follow Vali and her family trying to find sanctuary as the government closes in all on illegal immigrants. Citizens are required to wear chips to prove they are legally allowed to be there. Her mother and her had fake chips implanted but they cost 5,000 and they were unable to
Get one for her father. He was deported and they found out he was murdered. Vali saw a picture of his body after he had been found. The government has been cracking down even more and her mother fears they are not safe so they start their journey to sanctuary but her mother is captured along three way and her mother pleaded with her to continue the trip with her brother. He is only 8 and is in the country legally but that doesn’t matter because no one else in the family is. Vali is determined to get to
New York to Find the nun that has promised to
Help them get to Sanctuary.
This book is heartbreaking and the sad part is some of these things are occurring now. Incited and my heart broke over and over again but I knew I had to continue. I think this should be required reading for high schoolers.

I feel genuinely conflicted because it's hard to rate this book as a book alone--it's a message.

Do I support the dignity and inherent rights of all humans, regardless of documentation? Of course.

Is this a good book? No. No, it's really, really not.

Vali serves as both vehicle and witness throughout. One of the authors (not sure which, but by the style, I can tell it's definitely one of them) used this book to express her views--which would be fine except it's meant to be a YA novel, not a political essay, and also her views were shallow and repetitive. But it's the "witness" aspect that bothers me the most, especially when coupled with someone with very little empathy or self-awareness. The really awful things--the violence, the sexual assault, the traumatic loss throughout--those don't happen to Vali. There is the loss of her father, but that's used as background, not plot.

Spoiler

There's a reason it was Tomas, not Ernie, who died. Ernie always had plot armor because Vali isn't really here to suffer, she's here to watch.

Also I really didn't like Ernie, but this further supports my point. If this were about Vali as a character, Ernie would've been old enough to contribute; he's not because he exists whine and to be a burden, to make Vali a Better Person(tm).

Vali's views are simplistic because this book is simplistic. When white children are playing soccer and having fun, it's wrong because she's suffering. When Ernie is riding a carousel and having fun, it's the rightest thing in the world because he's an innocent child. I honestly felt a little sick when what humanized a DF agent to her was that he, like her mami, wore a crucifix. It's not entirely surprising since the authors are in no way interested in engaging with anything on more than a surface level, especially not the fact that American whiteness is inherently Christian. I think that's another reason this book annoyed me so much, the utter lack of nuance, sometimes to the point that it almost felt satirical. Like... every single POC is rounded up, with nothing to indicate their documented status; I thought the implication was supposed to be that documentation wasn't actually relevant, but that was never examined within the text. (At least I don't think it was, I might've skipped it, this book gets super boring.) Probably that's because Vali doesn't care about other people.

That's the other thing. Vali doesn't care. There is some late-in-the-story "Vali doesn't care" that's supposed to be like her doing what she has to do to survive, but other than babysitting+, what has she really *done*? She doesn't care from the beginning. Her friend disappears and it's like she totally forgets she ever had a friend. Someone tries to help her but she's deeply offended that this government bureaucrat isn't giving her enough. When people stop serving Vali, she stops caring about them.

Finally, the world-building was just... bad. It's not just that the President read as bland--if you're writing a stand-in for Cinnamon Hitler, at least try to mimic his cadence. The US seems to be pouring money into everything. A massive wall, police everywhere, shiny new schools--the US currently pours an obscene amount of money into the police, it's the schools I really can't buy. And somehow all the teachers are just these utterly jaded, gun-toting propaganda machines (except the one teacher who isn't white, obviously). The saddest part is that could've been an easy fix! Just say the US is repurposing its military and ceasing foreign engagements.

But this, like everything else, is neglected because this isn't a novel. It's a fable. It's a fable in masquerade serving as a vehicle for one author's political views. I don't even disagree that strongly with a lot of her views. I just think she's not a very good writer.

This was a brutal story. Heart wrenching at ever turn. It is one of the scariest books I’ve read, maybe ever, simply because it is so searingly close to reality and It feels only inches from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The writing was beautiful, engaging, and suspenseful.

Despite being a challenging read, it is worth the pain and discomfort to spend time in our potential future and ask yourself what you are willing to do RIGHT NOW, to avoid this outcome?

This book about a young illegal immigrant and her brother in the "near future" is a harrowing tale about the government rounding up all illegal immigrants. All legal people are implanted with an ID chip. If a person is stopped and when scanned, are found to not have an identity chip, they are violently arrested. Of course, someone has found a way to make counterfeit chips, which almost always malfunction. Vali and her mother have counterfeit chips. Her brother does not. When her mother's chip malfunctions they are separated. Vali and her brother have to get to safety. This is the story of their trials and tribulations. A good read even if it is politicized.