When We Make It is a powerful and deeply moving novel-in-verse that beautifully captures the struggles, joys, and resilience of growing up Puerto Rican in Bushwick. Velasquez’s vivid storytelling creates an intimate portrait of Sarai, a narrator whose raw honesty and emotional complexity make her both relatable and unforgettable.

Sarai’s journey is a poignant exploration of identity, poverty, grief, and the weight of cultural expectations. Velasquez's ability to weave themes like colorism, young feminism, teen pregnancy, and the Puerto Rican diaspora into poetry is nothing short of remarkable. The free-verse format brings an immediacy to Sarai’s voice, making her story feel like a personal conversation, full of moments that sting with pain or swell with hope.

Reading this felt like revisiting parts of my own story. Sarai’s experiences—growing up food insecure, watching her family lean on religion as a source of strength, and navigating the class divides that separate Latinx communities—hit so close to home. Velasquez captures the nuances of these realities with such precision that I often found myself pausing to reflect on my own memories or sharing passages with friends and family.

Bushwick itself is brought to life in this book, becoming more than just a setting—it’s a character, a force, a home. Velasquez writes with such love and authenticity that you can feel the pulse of the neighborhood in every poem. The references to local landmarks and the community’s resistance to gentrification are vivid and grounding, serving as a testament to the strength and pride of those who continue to call Bushwick home.

While When We Make It is undeniably powerful, it isn’t without its moments of heaviness. Some of the themes—poverty, violence, addiction, and misogyny—are difficult to sit with, but they are treated with care and honesty. At the same time, the book balances its pain with hope, offering a message of resilience and survival that feels like an embrace.

A fierce debut that has a bit of a In the Heights vibe going for it. There is no holding back in this beautifully written novel.

A solid YA novel with great representation! I love books in verse and this one is no exception. It has beautiful prose and I love that it's actually about a teen/middle schooler.

I can almost see the pitch for this, which was surely its similarities to THE POET X, but Velasquez has a distinct voice and rhythm to her poetry and her own story to tell. At points it echoed Sandra Cisneros’s THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET in the way it seeks to capture a whole community, not just a family or a single narrator. I love this kind of book, the novel-in-verse but also the exploration of connectedness amidst adversity,

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I think this would be a fantastic fit for a high school library. Several of my upper-grade students would certainly be able to see themselves in Sarai's story.

I was not able to read this book in time, and so unfortunately cannot review it, but I have heard really great things and still hope to read it eventually!

This was so raw and full of feelings. I cried so many times and found myself tabbing so many parts. Highly recommend.

If Elizabeth Acevedo sets your blood aflame, then Elisabet Velasquez's debut will make you IGNITE. Told in beautiful verse, WHEN WE MAKE IT follows Sarai, a first-gen middle schooler living in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sarai is traversing multiple complicated issues such as gentrification, housing instability, being first-gen, and what her Boricua identity means to her.

I've already purchased this text for my classroom library, but I plan to add it to my poetry curriculum as an additional voice to accompany Elizabeth Acevedo's THE POET X and CLAP WHEN YOU LAND.

Synopsis:
Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican eighth grader who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has been denied.

When We Make It is a love letter to anyone who was taught to believe that they would not make it. To those who feel their emotions before they can name them. To those who still may not have all the language but they have their story. Velasquez’ debut novel is sure to leave an indelible mark on all who read it.

A beautiful debut story in the vein of Elizabeth Acevedo. I am excited to read more from this author in the future as she writes in beautiful verse here!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book follows Sarai and her life as a Puerto Rican middle schooler who lives in Brooklyn New York. This was AMAZING!!!!! Told in verse (so out of my comfort zone) and I absolutely loved it. I actually listened to this via audiobook and highly recommend that format. It was read my the author and you could hear the raw emotion and passion in her voice. It made it all the more incredible.

Sarai, her sister and mother go through so much. Poverty, racism, pregnancies, poor living conditions and trauma. A coming of age story where life (and people) are not perfect and she learns as she goes. A beautiful (and heartbreaking at times) story that will stick with me.

This book was in verse, and set in new york, featuring a young LatinX character struggling with her identity as a Latina and as a daughter and a sister. If that sounds like The Poet X, it's because it is very similar but in all the best ways, while still being its own unique book that I highly recommend. So much of this, however, is so much more heartbreaking than The Poet X, as our main character struggles with extreme poverty, a mother who is sometimes abusive and abused, an absent father, and eventually a teen pregnancy. Her mother struggles with mental illness and a miscarriage, which i wish there had been a TW for at the beginning just because of my own personal trauma. This book will stay with me for a long time, and I think is an important and timely read for teens even if it is set in the 90s.

I loved this one! It was such an important read and really had me thinking of the privilege I grew up with. I love the strong sister bond Sarai and Estrella have, the way they loved each other. Sarai has to grow up really fast, helping her mother with wellfare and finding places to live. This is a story about what it is about for first generation children, Sarai's family came from Puerto Rico. It has conversations about what it is like to live in a neighborhood that we may call "bad". Sarai has a lot of conversations about feeling Puerto Rican enough and if she really fits in to her community. I loved this.

@penguinteen invited me to share a few of my favorite lines from this amazing debut novel-in-verse by @elisabetvelasquezpoetry!! Let me just say after I finished reading my heart was so full & heavy with emotions. 🥺❤️

The passage that resonated with me the most from When We Make It was Class Clown and not because I was nominated for class clown in high school but failed to win! 🤣

It’s because my laughter is one of my favorite things about me. I love how I can see the humor in all things and how my smile and laughter outwardly shows what I’m feeling.

But my laughter has also gotten me in trouble my entire life. I’ve been kicked out of ballet class and my laughter has been mocked. I’ve been called loud, wild, unprofessional, immature, & countless others things simply because of the sound I make when laughing & not because of my other actions or merits. I mean it’s not like I can change how I laugh, trust me I’ve tried! I think it would sometimes be easier if I was a stone cold and serious statue, but I’m glad I surround myself with people and things that bring me joy & make me laugh.

I didn’t have time to narrate the entire passage so I picked a few lines I wanted to share.

When We Make It is out NOW and you can find a link in my bio to purchase!

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Thoughts and Themes: I really enjoy reading books in verse because of how different the stories go and how much emotion can be packed in. I like how Sarai is questioning so many of the things around her in this book and her place amongst everything and everyone.


I really liked how this story took you around the places Sarai was living in but also introduced you to her culture. I liked getting introduced to her culture through each verse and learning more about her and her family.

Characters: In this book you get introduced to several characters through their interactions with Sarai. You get to meet her mother, sister, and some of the other adults who briefly are in her life. While each character is introduced to you briefly, I think you get a good image of the role that everyone plays in Sarai’s life.

I really liked getting to know Sarai through the whole book and how she thinks of the world and of others. I also liked getting to see the relationship that Sarai has with her sister throughout this book. I thought it was great to see how she doesn’t want to be anything like her sister but she also really respects her sister. I liked that we get to see both Sarai and her sister’s relationship with their mother but also how far away their mother is from them emotionally.

Writing Style: This book is written in prose and I really liked that choice. I liked how none of the pieces were long and it gave you the sense of how Sarai was always going from one place to the next physically or emotionally. There were so many pieces that I really enjoyed in this book and it was just great to be able to explore Sarai’s world through poetry.

You ever read a debut that is so good that immediately afterwards you want to make everyone read it and understand that the author is going to eventually blow up? When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez was SO excellent. I was shocked that it is a debut — this book is amazing. If you liked With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo or Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, you will LOVE this book. I promise.

When We Make It is set in Bushwick starting in 1996. It follows Sarai who is first generation Puerto Rican. She lives with her sister Estrella and her mother in a rundown apartment. They live a life of poverty and dream of someday making it out. Sarai is introspective and determined. As we read the story, we see that she’s living in a society that is sexist as well as racist – with colorism playing quite the role in her life. Life is hard for Sarai, but there’s good too. This book is one of the most authentic portrayals of poverty I have ever read — right down to access to entitlements and how they are a LIFELINE even if they aren’t always enough. As the story goes on, there is teen pregnancy and post partum depression. Through it all though — Sarai’s voice is so strong.

Normally I do not like audiobooks that are narrated by the author, it just doesn’t sound as good to me as audiobooks narrated by the professionals. Let me tell you, Elisabet Velasquez kills the narration in When We Make It. After listening to this I had a profound need to go around recommending it to everyone. It was amazing. Every inflection, every pause is deliberate. The audiobook really conveys the story the way it is meant to be conveyed. If you want to start getting into audiobooks or verse books – you need When We Make It. The audiobook is four hours and six minutes and just perfection.

Im giving this a 5 stars because this books reads really well and is a great book but I wasn't able to make it more than a quarter because the digital formatting is horrible. But im sure the print copy is gorgeous and im gonna just grab one of those.

Elisabet Velasquez wrote a stunningly beautiful love letter to being Nuyorican. It’s a masterful piece in verse perfect for fans of the genre.

A novel-in-verse about a young girl struggling with her identity as a Puerto Rican New Yorker whose family must overcome poverty, mental illness, and homelessness. There is a lot of joy in these pages as well. A perfect read for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Sarai is a Puerto Rican eighth grader living in Bushwick with her mom and sister, Estrella, in 1996. She struggles with her family, while her mom just tries to keep them alive, moving from apartment to apartment. Sarai struggles to find her place in the community, knowing that her family doesn’t have the same lifestyle as her friends. There are pressures to follow a certain system, yet Sarai knows there’s the possibility of a different, and better, life that she could reach one day.

This novel was written in verse. This was the perfect format for this emotional story. Sarai and her family had a lot of struggles, though they didn’t always realize that things could be different. The rhythmic writing, and the inclusion of Spanish words mixed in with the English, made me feel like I was right there with Sarai.

There were some tough subjects in this story. These include addiction, mental health, postpartum depression, gun violence, and racism. These subjects were handled delicately, but are definitely important to telling this story.

When We Make It is a beautiful story about girls who can defy the odds.

Thank you Dial Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.