Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this wonderful book! Furia is an extremely powerful feminist story about a girl finding herself and her place in the society around her. The main character, Camila, has a strong personality and a strong sense of what she wants, but struggles to find a way to achieve her dreams. She grapples with balancing her love of futbol and her love for a boy, and I especially love that the story doesn't take the usual path that this kind of story takes. I also love how well developed the setting for the story is, and while reading it, I was able to fully picture Camila's neighborhood in Argentina, though I have never been there myself. The supporting characters are also well developed and interesting, and I especially loved following Camila's relationships with her family members. This is an extremely beautiful and powerful story, and I highly recommend it!

Camila is a soccer goddess, she plays with passion, heart and amazing talent, but she has to keep that All a secret in a world and a family who thinks only men can make their way in the world through futbol. As Camila fights to take a stand at home and on the field she feels her passion and confidence wavering. Will her dream slip out of her hands? Will she risk it all and not reach her dream? This book was a beautiful ode to soccer and the athletes, especially the women, who play the game. This book was especially powerful because of the choices Camila, la Furia, made and how they were not strep typical of so many other YA books in this genre. Camila is a heroine for today’s young woman.

I super wanted to love this because of the awesome premise, but the writing style is just not clicking. Wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished and rated it lowly. DNF.

Furia is a powerful debut about an aspiring soccer player from Argentina, dreaming to make it big!!

Camilla secretly plays for Eva Maria, a women's soccer team, hiding this identity of hers from her parents. All she wants is to play and be someone, not live in her brother's shadows. And then there's also the bubbling emotions with the sensation Diego Ferarri that Camilla doesn't know how to handle.

I loved the story!! It is all sorts of beautiful and strong, and Camilla's voice is profound. The author did such a great job in portraying her emotions, her feelings for the game and Diego, the emotional suffering that she goes through at home. Her father was such a pig, and his subtle comments thrown in during gatherings just tug at the heartstrings. I loved the complicated family dynamics. However, I wished we could have gotten more of Camilla and her brother's relationship because I really liked that and would've loved to know more.

When Diego came into the scene, I didn't like him much. I had all my doubts on him and was literally screaming inside my head for Camilla to stop seeing him. But later on, I guess he grew on me a little. I wasn't entirely fond of their relationship tbh, it felt weird and out of the place. Like, his words felt so out of the place, like it's not genuine. <Spoiler> And I was so mad when he came back and had the audacity to ask Camilla to join him, goodness. I wanted to smack him but I'm glad Camilla didn't join him. That was really great!! </Spoiler>

What I loved the most was Camilla's determination. I think it is really inspiring and beautifully portrayed. The way the games were described, the angst and the joy upon winning, the pain of hiding it - it was all fantastic and those were the parts that I loved the most! And I also think the romance was well balanced with the bigger plot; even though at times it seemed to outweigh the goal of soccer. Still, I enjoyed it.

The last few scenes were heartbreaking. It got intense and very real. I, for one, loved the story even more because the characters and to make sound decisions - not the stupid ones that I usually witness in YA. The final game she played was an emotional joy ride - it was heartwarming and beautiful!!

Yess, I did feel like there were certain scenes in the book that weren't very necessary, but it was ok. I seemed to overlook them.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave us a small insight into Argentina lives, and about a girl who dared to dream. Very inspiring and emotional, this is a stunning debut to look out for!!

Thanks to the publishers for an advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Furia is the game-changing and fiercely feminist contemporary I've always wanted to read.

Written in a style that is accessible and easy to understand, Furia narrates the story of Camila Hassan, your average high school senior — unless you count the fact that she's a futbolera, a female futbol (or soccer!) player. While girls playing futbol is legal, it's still not socially acceptable for many families in Argentina, including Camila's family, which sees futbol as something that's meant to be played by boys only.

Under the backdrop of Rosario, Argentina, Mendez creates a political climate that is alarmingly familiar, regardless of where you live. She paints a picture of a world that is making progress in terms of laws and acceptance, but is still governed by those who don't believe wholeheartedly in equality. The sexism in Rosario is palpable, whether it's how girls aren't given the opportunities boys are, or how the disappearance, rape, and/or death of girls is almost normalized and seen as oh-well-what-could-we-have-done through the eyes of some people. All in all, the sheer oppression that some women have to go through is searing and painful to read. But more importantly, Furia is a story of hope.

Camila comes from a family that's not very well-to-do. Her father is abusive, manipulative, and a disgusting human being. Her family's a mess and her life is a whole spool of lies, all tangled up. However, Camila has a talent, and talent brings opportunity. And my god, Camila seizes her opportunity, and takes her future into her own hands. It is beautiful, empowering, and so refreshing to see.

With romance, familial bonds, an addressal of toxic masculinity and cycles of abuse, heart-stopping soccer action, and so much feminism(!), Furia is no doubt an upcoming release that you should anticipate, read, and love.

Am not entirely into sports or books with the theme, but this was just so good.

We see Camilla a teenager deeply in love, with an abusive father while finding her voice in a deeply sexist patriarchal environment of In Rosario, Argentina. A powerhouse of skill and talent in football. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

Slow paced but i loved her courage in finding her path regardless of her other desires. A coming of age story with an own voice representation.

I loved this #OwnVoices contemporary YA set in Argentina!

An anthem to following your dream, despite your family’s and community’s rules and expectations. This story touches on the dangers many women face to just live their daily lives, and how they are portrayed as deserving of the violence against them. It addresses the struggle it takes to rise above those chains and cling to a dream. To refuse to let someone else save you, and instead to save yourself by sticking to your goals and your heart.

I do love fútbol (soccer), so the parts about the passion and the pain and sweat and disappointments resonate with me. Even if you aren’t a sports lover, you won’t be lost by the passages about it. I think, though the lens of their passion for the sport, it will expand your compassion for the characters’ love and struggle, and the family they build together.

Goddamn, I really, really loved this book.

It’s not even fair to make the comparison, but this was everything I wanted Kulti to be. This was everything Kulti—with its slut-shaming, double standards, and unrealistic romance—could NEVER deliver. Even the two books’ titles make this point crystal clear: Zapata’s is named after the love interest, while Saied Méndez’s centres its furious, incorrigible female protagonist: Camila Hassan.

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What stood out to me above all else was Camila’s tenacity and fire. We aren’t simply told this about her—these qualities manifest in her every action and every word. Camila is unwavering in her love of fútbol and her determination to carve her own path as a professional fútbolera, apart from her father’s cruelty and the expectations forced upon her by both family and society.

Time and again, Camila chooses herself over the men in her life, including the one she loves with her whole heart. She wants more than they could ever give her—more than even Diego, her childhood love and now an international superstar, could provide. Camila makes some really heart-shattering decisions throughout the course of the novel that demonstrate the lengths to which she will defend herself, her mother, and the other women—named and unnamed—who have shaped her life.

At every level, Furia is an unapologetically feminist story that does not shy away from the harsh realities faced by women, and particularly those in Rosario’s poorer neighbourhoods. Camila’s story unfolds in a space where women are denied abortions, face emotional and physical abuse at the hands of partners and family, and continually find themselves gaslit by men for simply existing. With poignant ferocity, this book asserts the memory and legacy of missing and murdered Argentinian women, and champions the ways in which women survive, resist, and thrive in the face of misogynistic violence.

And the women in this novel aren’t perfect. I thought this was such an important point to make: that we all find ourselves—intentionally or not—complicit in the undermining of ourselves and other women. But we all have the capacity to learn and grow, too, whether it’s Camila’s mother finally seeing Camila as someone worthy of ambition (beyond just cuffing a fútbol player) or Camila herself reflecting on the problematic way that she stereotypes botineras—baller wives—as superficial and gold-digging.

<<<“I’m following my own path, chiquita.”
“But he’s your true love.” Karen sounded like any little girl hoping for a happily ever after. When she saw me, she saw her teacher, a role model to follow. I didn’t want her to think that to be free and happy, a woman had to turn her back on love, but I didn’t know how to do both.>>>

There’s this AWESOME subplot that develops as Camila begins tutoring kids at a church shelter. She mentors a little girl named Karen, who has a stutter and is SO FIERCE and devours stories and poems written by women authors. The quote I pulled above is one of my favourite scenes in the whole damn book: it captures the ambivalence that I found so real and raw about Camila’s voice.

In fact, this sort of nuance made the romance arc really compelling for me. I loved Camila and Diego together (I’m suuuuch a sucker for tropes where the childhood love becomes someone famous/successful and they have to navigate falling for each other as adults). Diego is loving and generous—and even so, Camila still holds him accountable in the moments he falls short. (Sal and Kulti could’ve learned a thing or sixteen from these two.)

Not to mention, with lines like these, how could you NOT root for them??? I mean:

<<<La Furia met her equal in el Titán. The latent goddess inside me pulled at her bindings until she snapped them. Together, we held on to this boy who’d come to wreck my world.>>>

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The only part of this book I have complaints about is its length. For the most part, the pacing was perfect—but at certain crucial moments, I wished there’d been greater elaboration. I fell so hard for these characters and became incredibly invested in their storylines; I could’ve read at least another 200 pages of Camila and Roxana, Camila and Karen, Camila and her mother and brother, and of course, Camila and Diego. I REALLY hope that there’s a sequel, because I seriously miss reading about them already.

And if that hasn't convinced you: This is the first book I’ve ever pre-ordered for myself AND my best friend when I was only halfway done. That’s how much I adored it.

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez // 5⭐️
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Thanks @NetGalley, @yamilesmendez, and @algonquinyr for the eARC! Furia releases on September 15, 2020, right in time for Latinx Heritage Month ✨
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CW: domestic violence, femicide
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Everything about this book is absolutely stunning, including the gorgeous cover art of the protagonist Camila Hassan. Furia is a powerful #ownvoices story about Camila’s journey towards becoming a professional futbolera, set against the backdrop of her barrio in Rosario, Argentina. In her quest to turn her love of soccer into a profession, Camila - or La Furia as she is known on the field - faces many obstacles, both personal and systemic. Camila is torn between family: her mother, who wants her to succeed and rise above her current life, her brother Pablo, a soccer star in his own right, and her father, with his rigid and often violent beliefs about women’s roles in society. Thrown into the mix as well is Diego, Camila’s childhood friend turned international soccer legend, who returns to Rosario and strikes up a passionate romance with promises of a life of luxury. Throughout the story, the book also doesn’t shy away from touching upon the hardships and injustices that are unfortunately all too common in some Latinx communities, such as femicide, domestic violence, patriarchal gender expectations, and a culture of machismo. Camila, in her fight to achieve independence and follow her dreams, serves as an inspirational heroine for anybody looking to free themselves of expectations.

I really loved the setting of this book. I found it to be such a informative read. I really loved how this book was focus on girl involved in sports. I really thought that this book had so many issues that tied together so well. I also liked this book did have romance plot but it was not the major plot point. I thought that the "game" element was much more focused at the start and the end, but not as much in the middle. I also liked how this book tackled domestic violence and abuse throughout the read and also tackled more harder and global issues as well like dangerous environments. It was a read that def captured me. I hope to read more by this author in the future.

I am always on the hunt for YA about girls who are truly athletes. Girls who are jocks, not just girls who maybe do a sport for fun. Camila, Furia, is one of those girls. I loved this book. It's impossible not to root for he at every turn. The only complaint I would have is I wanted MORE!

Firstly a huge thanks to the publisher for this e-arc. So grateful!

I believe this book should be read by every girl and totally buying and gifting . This book is set in South America where our heroine has a passion for sports . Camilla cannot talk about her love sports because she is a seventeen year old in Argentina with a very strict mother . I was pumped that there was a romance element in it but it didn't overshadow the fierceness of Camilla. Loved this book and recommend it

A very engrossing look into the life of a fierce soccer player having to deal with the anti-feminism of both family and the Argentine society, and a romance.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you, Algonquin Young Readers, for the chance to read it.

TW: domestic violence, abusive relationship and parents, murder, sexism


Camila Hassan lives in Rosario, Argentina, in the barrios and she lives a double life. At home she tries to be a perfect daughter, careful around her quick-tempered and abusive father, trying to live within her mother's expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother's shadow.
But in the fields she's La Furia, a brilliant and talented futbolera and when her team qualifies for the South American tournament she's excited and ready to take this chance and see how far she can go. Her dream is to get a scholarship and study in a North America University. But her life is complicated by family relationships and when her childhood friend and first love, Diego, now a famous star playing for the Juventus, comes back, Camila tries not to get distracted by their feelings for each other.
Camila is then forced to face her secrets, her feelings and dreams, ready to fight to have a place in a world who doesn't want to make place for a girl like her.


Furia is a brilliant and intense #ownvoices contemporary, a coming-of-age story, told by a stubborn and fierce character, who is fighting to live and follow her dreams in a sexist and patriarcal society. Camila is a complex and captivating character. She doesn't want to follow her parents' expectations, she doesn't want to hide in her brother's shadow anymore, to hide and fear her father, to not fight back.
She's ambitious, smart and she won't let anyone stop her dreams, not even herself and her feelings. Her story with Diego is sweet and cute and I loved the trope childhood friends to lovers, but their relationship is complicated by Diego's job and home in Italy, a glamorous life that clashes with Camila's simple one and Camila's desires to be someone, to become a futbolera and get away from her house and life.

I really liked how Camila refuses to give up, how she keeps fighting, finding a way to play, to train, to partecipate to the tournament, not letting anything in her way, trusting herself, her passion and talent, her team.
She wants to have her own life, refusing to be shackled by other's dreams or expectations, by her abusive father, by her submissive and abused mother. She won't let anyone stop her and she's really amazing and strong. Her relationship with Roxana, her best friend, is truly intense and I love how they support, help and understand one other. I loved reading how she teaches to kids from the group home to keep them off the streets, helping and supporting them and her relationship with the fierce and stubborn Karen. Women supporting women is so beautiful and empowering. I really appreciated how it was underlined the education's importance.

The women's condition is addressed in Furia, by hinting at the pro-choice movement, at the missing women and girls and at movement "No una menos", above all when a girl they knew is killed. Camila lives in a deeply patriarchal and sexist society and she's hit and hurt by this ideology both outside and inside her home.
Always being underestimated by her father, Camila is conscious of the risks of being a woman in Argentina, risks addressed when she dresses, when she's out at night, when she's alone, listening to her family's worries and ideas.
The deeply patriarchal society is clear in their words, in what a "respectable" girl should do or be, in their victim-blaming:

"Kind of late for a respectable girl to be out and about, don't you think?"

"If she hadn't being hanging with the wrong crowd, she'd still be alive"

"When you aren't at home, we worry you'll be on the next poster. If you're not careful, it'll be your fault if you are."

(quotes from the earc, so they may be subject to changes)

Camila's brother Pablo, her mother, her father seemed to be surrendered to the world where they live, where girls are afraid to come home alone at night because they are scared to be attacked and killed, but Camila, her friends, they don't want to live like that and they fight to be safe, protesting, arguing, fighting back.

Camila is trapped, almost until the end, in a cycle of violence and bitterness with her family, a cycle made of wrong choices, unwanted and unexpected pregnancies, lost opportunities, family's expectations, betrayals, lies and cheatings.

Furia is an intense and brilliant coming-of-age story about a young woman fighting to have her own life, following her dreams and desires, a thrilling love story and set in a world where women want to be free and safe.

Author: Yamile Saied Mendez
Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ • ✨ / 5
Reviewed: Maya

This book is full of important issues, and it seemed to be marketed straight to me. An OwnVoices, soccer-loving, feminist novel, sign me up! So many people have loved this book, but even though the book was good, it just wasn’t for me. The writing was good, but didn’t have me flipping through the pages because I wanted to know more. The storyline was very real and important, however I found some aspects of the book only touched on topics that deserved to have more discussion and pages. Camilla, the only POV character, had a strong spirit and refused to stand down for the patriarchy. There was just something (it was probably me) that meant I didn’t fall in love with her. Argentine culture can be easily imagined and I really enjoyed this part of the book, as it opened up a new perspective for me. Loads of reviews I have read have talked about how emotional the book was, however for me, I did not find the book to be particularly moving at all. I have very mixed feelings on this book; the topics are so important and the way they were shown through soccer was really clever, but I struggled to fall in love with the storyline or the characters.

I cannot describe how much I LOVED this book!! Teenage Camila is hiding a secret - her talent for soccer - in patriarchal Argentina, where she is expected to be the perfect, studious daughter. But she dreams of playing professionally and has been hiding her activities on the soccer field from her family. Now, when her childhood sweetheart Diego comes home to visit from Italy, where he has become a world famous soccer star, she must contend with her reignited love for him at the same time that it may conflict with her soccer dreams.

How can I describe how wonderful this book is?? There is a magnificently strong sense of place - I felt like I could really picture the city of Rosario - and I'm glad this story is set amidst the background of the nationwide Ni Una Menos campaign to combat the high rates of violence against women. This book was equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. There are some heavy issues dealt with directly on the page, including domestic violence. Soccer is a huge part of my life so I obviously loved that aspect of the book but I don't think it's necessary to be a soccer fan to be a fan of this book. You will absolutely fall in love with Camila's spirit and root for her throughout her story. I also need to say a big THANK YOU to the author for the epilogue, which I thought was perfect!

I know I'll be returning to this book and I think I've just found my newest go-to comfort read.

4 stars

I really enjoyed the sense of place, the cultural aspects, and especially the way Furia is characterized throughout this novel. It's impossible not to be on her team (so much so, apparently, that I really couldn't avoid that bad pun).

Camila is a strong character in both body and mind, and I love these aspects of her. Often, I find that in literature of all genres, when there is a woman character who has her stuff together, she is STILL depicted as smaller, more fragile, etc. in some way than all of the men around her, and I really loved the attention to Cami's muscular legs, and the various examples of powerful physicality that she demonstrates here. She IS physically smaller than the male characters, but she is never - not even in moments of extreme vulnerability - described as powerless in a way that feels cringey. I'm so tired of seeing that trope, and I really appreciate how much attention goes into fighting that in this work (and, let's be honest, her kicking butt in much more exciting ways than the dudes do, overall).

More than her physical strength, Cami/Furia possesses incredible emotional maturity, and I love the example she sets for readers and her own community. She makes choices that I often found surprising - in a good way. She doesn't fall into a binary of having to choose completely between different aspects of her life; she finds ways to choose herself in a really advanced manner that I think even most adult readers will admire. It's also powerful to see the way she models this behavior quietly for her friends, the young people in her life, and even her mother.

I did come into this with some reservations about how much I'd get into the soccer aspects of this novel, and that part was not totally for me. This noted, I really like how soccer - in various ways - becomes a testing ground for Cami/Furia's independence, strength, and ability to operate both individually and communally.

I can't wait to read more from this author.

📚Review: Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Camila Hassan has dreams that no young woman should ever dream, especially in Rosario, Argentina where young girls who dream end up with their faces on posters with “Missing” plastered across the top.

Camila lives in the shadow of her brother, a rising soccer star that will “save” his family, she tiptoes around the wrath of her short-tempered father, and possibly worst of all — she feels abandoned by her mother who turns a blind eye to Papa’s abuse.

Why can’t she be a futbolera? Why does her mama stay with her papa? Why does her papa measure their worth by the team they play for when he won’t even let Camila take the field? Why does her first love Diego choose to come back now, as an international soccer star, and complicate things?

All this weighing on her, it’s no wonder she must keep so many secrets. The biggest? Alongside her team and her best friend Roxana, Camila hopes to make her dream of playing futbol in the USAa reality. If anyone can do it, it is Camila, la Furia.

The premise of Furia had me hooked right away. Camila is a strong, empowering Latin American woman that has the world stacked against her, but it doesn’t stop her from pushing the boundaries to make her dream a reality. With that being said, there were too many underdeveloped plot lines. I kept wanting to know more about the girls that kept going missing. I wanted more of the history of Rosario to better understand the discrimination the women were going through. I think the hype of Diego was overdone and he overshadowed Camila sometimes. Finally, I lost it a little in the middle where they were sorting out their love story and it took me a long time to get back into it.

So, I do think this book is incredibly important. I love that it is a book with sports where a female character is unstoppable. I think students of all ages will appreciate Camila’s spunk and feel connected to her struggles. Despite my critiques, I do believe I will buy it for my classroom and I will recommend it to students.

3.75 ⭐️s as a whole— 4⭐️s if I’m just considering how I feel about Camila alone.

I loved everything about this book! Yamile Saied Mendez was able to capture a snapshot of Camila's world so beautifully! "In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan leads a double life." She lives in the shadow of her domineering father and professional futbol player brother, but when she sneaks off on her own covering her tracks with compounding lies, she is a force to be reckoned with. She is La Furia, the dynamo futbol player on a scrappy young women's team who earn their way to the Sudamericano women's tournament, and, depending on how well she plays, giving Camila a chance to make her dreams come true as a pro in the United States.

I appreciated the descriptions of Camila's life in the barrio, of her team scrimmages, and of the complicated love interest in her life. I loved that she found her strength from within and when she played with joy, she was her best, most powerful self. Most of all, I appreciated the strength of the women in this book. It is Camila's story, but it is also a beautiful journey of the mother-daughter bond, enduring supportive female friendships, and the ability of women to fight for their dreams, rights, and freedoms within an often abusive, misogynistic, Latinix culture.

I highly recommend this book!

Advanced copy provided courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Triggers: emotional and physical abuse

I absolutely loved this book. It's emotional, feminist and a YA set in Argentina which I have never come across before. It is also about football, which appealed to my inner child who was obsessed with the sport so much. Set in Argentina, it has such powerful descriptions of the setting and the food. I was totally blown away by how good this is.

A standout for me is that Camila Hassan is such a likeable character. She is so determined, strong, but also kind, and is always fighting for what she wants. She plays football for a girls team, but always seem to be in the shadow of her brother who plays for the local team, and her childhood love Diego who has made it big and plays for Juventus in Italy - he is tipped to be the next star of the national team like Messi. Camila's father is also abusive towards his family, which broke my heart.

Camila is mature beyond her years, particularly when it comes to Diego. She makes such good decisions when it comes to her future and I love how powerful that makes her. Her compassionate side definitely shines through whilst she's teaching kids English, including a bright girl called Karen.

Overall I loved this book. It gave me such a roller coaster ride of emotions and I am so glad I got to read it early.