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.