"I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that dives into the struggles of a 15-year-old girl, Julia, as she grapples with the death of her seemingly perfect older sister, Olga, and the weight of her family’s expectations.

Sanchez delivers a raw and honest portrayal of grief, depression, and the pressures many teenagers face while exploring the impact of cultural and socioeconomic expectations.

The dynamic between Julia and her repressive mother adds depth, highlighting the generational and cultural divide between Mexican and American values.

The ongoing mystery of Olga’s secret life is woven into the narrative, adding intrigue without overshadowing the deeper emotional journey Julia is on. The portrayal of Julia’s strained relationship with her mother, Amá, is especially poignant. The tension between Julia’s desire for independence and her mother’s traditional values creates a conflict that feels both authentic and universal.

Overall, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" is a compelling read, especially for those who appreciate diverse perspectives and emotional depth in contemporary fiction. This book's rich cultural discussion and authentic portrayal of mental health make it a standout. A solid four-star read, perfect for anyone seeking an insightful, emotional journey.

I thought the protagonist had a very strong narrative voice, and I was intrigued by how Olga and her memory stayed with her as she attempted to navigate life without her.

The writing in this book is a bit choppy. The characters are well developed and brilliant. The story about the immigrant experience is so captivating. A book everyone should read

I was drawn to this book by the celebrity endorsement but I was really disappointed. The main character is unlikeable and doesn’t develop anywhere near as much as you want her too. Among some of the more egregious things she says there is a lot of fatphobia which I found difficult to look past. The plot doesn’t get the resolution you are hoping for and the narrative develops jerkily, in a way that feels like this is a first, under-developed draft.

This was nothing like what I was expecting and I was actually a bit disappointed.
The synopsis was a bit misleading as the story focuses more on the mystery surrounding the recent death of the main character's sister. I appreciated the portrayal of mental health problems and the impact of grief as it felt raw and realistic. Our main protagonist grated on me a tad as I found her to be so frustrating and incredibly hostile. This could've been explained as her coping with the grief of losing her sister but I really struggled with making any form of emotional connection with her. Everything else, from the story to the pacing, was just okay. Nothing particularly wowed me like I was hoping it would, which was a bit disappointing!

Overall it was an okay read but it didn't live up to my expectations at all.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It dealt with a lot of intense emotions following the death of the main characters sister, and throughout the novel it felt authentic and raw.
I was thoroughly engrossed in the story as it unfolded.
A great read.

This was book was really great!! I enjoyed it a lot, loved the characters and the world building. The cover is also so lovely.

After Julia’s perfect sister Olga is killed in an accident, teenage Julia is left to negotiate the aftermath of growing up in the shadow of a perfect dead sister. Trying to live up to familial and cultural expectations whilst wanting to establish her own path is pushing her further and further away from those she loves. An incredibly vivid YA story of loss and tragedy. An excellent read.

I loved the idea of this.
My mum is Mexican-American and I grew up in London in the UK, so feeling out of place is second nature and I was keen to explore these themes.
This is one of those reads where I liked the storyline and the characters but I felt like it was missing something. I was intrigued by the synopsis of the story more then the actual read.

this was interesting and i loved the way it was written!! i loved the mystery elements and the uncovering of what exactly happened, i got a bit bored towards the middle and didn't always feel it brought something new

Julia Reyes is a funny, outspoken 15-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her only sibling, Olga is recently deceased. She lives in a rundown building with her low-paid working parents. Julia believes that Olga was the perfect daughter, helping their mother, attending church, having a respectable job & attending college, she had no social life and never brought shame to the family. Julia feels that she can’t compare with Olga, she argues with her mother, is cheeky in school & dreams of becoming a successful author which frustrates her parents. After Olga's death, Julia is racked with grief and wishes that they had been closer. Following an unusual discovery in Olga's room she starts to suspect that Olga might not have been so perfect after all.

As the story progresses, Julia’s frustration with the constraints she lives under poverty, parental expectations, and unwanted male attention are too much to bear. Rarely allowed to leave the house she starts lying to her parents so that she can sneak out with her best friend, Lorena. To Julia’s dismay Lorena becomes friends with a young man, they drink & take drugs to a level that Julia doesn’t like, making her feel excluded. Julia becomes so depressed and emotional that she attempts suicide. She is diagnosed with severe anxiety & depression. Julia’s doctor prescribed medication and counselling sessions. Her parents send her to visit relatives in Mexico. Initially, Julia is unhappy but finds the slower pace of energising. Before Julia returns home her grandmother shares a dark secret about Julia’s parents. On her road to recovery, Julia decides to discover who Olga truly was and begins to find her own sense of self.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter addresses themes such as mental illness, suicide, romance & the typical struggles many teens face within their relationships with their parents. Despite the dark aspects of the plot, the author has created a novel which is easy to read. Julia’s funny character brings adds beautiful lightness.

#IAmNotYourPerfectMexicanDaughter #NetGalley

This book was not quite what I had expected.

Julia's character annoyed me a bit, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I am an adult reading this book, and she is a teenager, being a teenager...I think her feelings of being caught between what she wants to do with her life, and what her family expect of her, will resonate with many readers, from all cultures.

There is a suicide attempt in the book, which came as a surprise to me, and that's why i felt it was a little 'heavier' than the blurb made the book out to be.

The book opens with our heroine, Julia, looking at the body of her sister, Olga, who was the perfect Mexican daughter, killed by a car in their hometown of Chicago, travelling from the community college back home, where she helped their mum cook and clean and also do her cleaning jobs outside the home.

Julia is very different. She's a writer, and she's keen to break away and go to a big college in New York or another city. While her best friend Lorena seems happy with her life obsessed with boys and not wanting to move away, Julia wants more, although Lorena's path is equally validated. When she realises there might have been something they didn't know to Olga's seemingly quiet life, she tries to work out what was going on; her geographical world also starts to shift slightly as she meets her first boyfriend and starts hanging out in his more middle-class neighbourhood.

When a crisis hits and is sent home to her grandmother in Mexico, she learns more about the mum she clashes with, once a rebellious teenager herself, and her dad's secret artistic leanings. She also learns more about just how their journey across the border played out. But will that change her need to escape from her family life in Chicago, or will her time out of school affect her college chances?

The book is subtly done and not all secrets are told, while characters do come to understand one another better.

A great read, my blog review here: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/03/27/book-review-erika-l-sanchez-i-am-not-your-perfect-mexican-daughter/

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sanchez 📚
I was delighted when my request to review this was accepted by Netgalley! It follows the story of Julia, who, after her sister Olga dies in a tragic accident, does not feel she can be the Perfect Mexican Daughter her parents want her to be: that was always Olga's role, not hers.
I really enjoyed this book! It gave a real insight into Julia's life and the relationship she has with her family, whilst at the same time being a part mystery surrounding a secret Olga was hiding from Julia and her parents. It explores so many serious themes, though a couple of small, sometimes indirect references to the LGBTQIA+ community I felt were not so well written and instead only almost existed rather than being actually a part of the narrative.
The book includes a lot on Julia's mental health and I think it is really eye opening to the kind of pressures young women may be feeling from their families to be the perfect daughter and to live their parents' dreams rather than their own.

This book is a stunning exploration of what it means to want so much while feeling like you have so little. Sanchez does an excellent job of exploring cultural expectations, socioeconomic issues, and anxiety and depression as a late teen. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ya-fiction-posing-the-questions-that-continue-to-haunt-us-as-adults-1.4802059

“Why does everything hurt all the time?” might be the perfect YA fiction line. It refers to emotional pain (if it were physical pain, it’d be the perfect summary of adult life once the knees start going) and to philosophical questioning, to reckoning with an unfair world in which pain is unavoidable and sometimes overwhelming. It may seem melodramatic, but like so many questions raised within young adult fiction, it’s one we return to throughout our lives. Why can’t things be easier? Why can’t things be more fair?

The line appears in Erika L Sánchez’ I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Rock The Boat, £8.99). Already acclaimed in the United States, it arrives on this side of the Atlantic in advance of a Netflix adaptation later this year. On the one hand, it’s a classic coming-of-age story concerning itself with an adolescent establishing an identity separate to that of their family and particularly her parents. But it’s also a mystery: Who was Julia’s reclusive, obedient, “perfect” older sister having a secret relationship with before she died?

We meet Julia at her sister’s funeral and quickly learn about her family’s resistance to “normal” American behaviour such as “hanging out”. Julia’s mother “doesn’t have any friends and sees no point to having any. She says all a woman needs is her family. According to her, only orphans and whores run around in the streets by themselves.”

Julia aches for freedom, to make her own choices, to reach beyond what is hoped for her (an office job), and to attend college to become a writer. The tensions of first-generation immigrants are explored deftly, with Julia caught between the opportunities and hope the US offers and the Mexican traditions her family still cling to, without romanticising either country.

Sánchez, who is also a poet, gives us an authentic teen voice here. There’s a specific ache associated with being young and hurting – old enough to try to make sense of things but not yet an adult who can make independent decisions that might alleviate or change some of those things – and it leaps off the page in this novel. Illustrating the capacity of proper support to alleviate some of that pain (ranging from honest communication to therapy and medication) also offers necessary and realistic hope. This is a gorgeous novel.

Adored this book! It’s a poignant but laugh-out-loud funny contemporary YA about losing a sister and finding yourself amid the pressures, expectations and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.

I'm not sure what I expected this novel to be but I found it challenged me in ways I did not expect. At it's core it is a coming of age novel about self-discovery amidst the shell of trying to comes to terms with grief and uncovering other's truths. The novel navigates some heavy topics that can be triggering but does so with an honest, realism that opens the door for frank discussion. That being said, I would urge caution in reading a novel like this one for younger reader if they are struggling with similar mental health issues unless they have a support system with whom they can discuss these topics with.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I absolutely loved this book - it made me laugh and cry and everything in between. Julia is such an identifiable character and her voice comes through in the narrative so clearly. I thought it dealt with some very big issues very sensitively and well. If I had one criticism, it's that the detective element of the novel doesn't gel completely with the rest of the narrative - I'd have been happy just to explore Julia's life without having to go that far into Olga's. But I didn't really care as the writing and characterisation were both so strong.

This was a strong YA novel, the mystery of what had been going on in her older sisters life was intriguing enough that I wanted to keep turning the page.