This memoir is by a woman who is still in her 20s, describing her life as a child of Mexican immigrants who was born in the US. Living just over the border from Arizona, her parents used to go back and forth all the time on long tourist visas, but stay in the US when it’s time for Elizabeth to start school - until she’s in high school and their visas aren’t renewed and they have to return to Mexico - while she decides to stay on her own.

This book gives a very sympathetic view of her struggles and burdens, as well as the incredibly hard work she put in to make the most of her opportunities. There is a lot that is sad, but also a lot that is inspirational. It was a good book but for whatever reason was just not quite a must-read for me.

3.75 stars

Although she was born in Tuscon, Arizona, Elizabeth always struggled to feel truly at home in America. Her parents had visas which allowed them to work and stay temporarily in the US but when she and her brother Fernando were born it complicated matters significantly. Her parents dreamed of giving their children an education that they could not get in Mexico. Always scrambling financially they worked long hard hours under the radar doing all the jobs no-one else wanted to do, never accepting government benefits for fear of being deported. At a young age Elizabeth was already a curious and intelligent student. She took to heart her mother’s constant whispers - “to succeed in America, you have to be the best.” At 15, a miscalculated move left her parents in Mexico, their visa renewal denied indefinitely. Her brother was 8 and remained in their care. Elizabeth, now a top student and mature for her age found a way to stay with a teacher’s family and finish highschool. This girl did not miss a beat. Overcoming severe poverty and sleeping on a strangers couch for years, Elizabeth persevered. She remained Valedictorian, was accepted to a multitude of top colleges and participated in many clubs and activities. It was not easy for this teenager to face the world alone, adding on to the guilt that her brother whom she adored, was growing up without her guidance. This memoir is a beautiful testament to the strength of family. It is also a reflection of our broken immigration policies that often separates loved ones, using these migrant workers and then throwing them away. Elizabeth is a success story but it is clear many are not as lucky. This memoir was fascinating and insightful, offering a glimpse into new perspectives. One of the greatest rewards of reading is nurturing empathy. Keep reading.

This memoir tells the experience of a daughter born in the US to undocumented immigrants. As is true for many children of immigrant parents, she is cast into the role of proving her parents' sacrifices worthwhile at a young age.

While I found the first half of the book compelling and emotional, I also found the second half felt more superficial. Overall, I enjoyed the book and feel her story is an important one, but it felt a bit incomplete in the end.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me early access to the ARC ebook edition of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Memoirs are so hard for me to review especially when I’m not handing out a 4-5 star review.. I always feel like I’m picking apart a person’s life when I really just didn’t love the way their story was told.

Kudos to Elizabeth Gutierrez for overcoming poverty, toxic family relationships and being separated from her Mexican immigrant parents for many years in order to achieve an excellent education and successful career. That’s no small accomplishment. I definitely got a sense of how gut-wrenching and oftentimes humiliating and discouraging her circumstances were.

However, I really wished for both more and less of various aspects she chose to focus on in telling her story. I wished for more about the immigration aspect. She clearly has a lot of strong feelings about her parents’ tourist visas not being renewed (which led to her separation from them as she was a US citizen) and also about the discrimination she faced as a child of immigrants. I wanted to know more facts about the broken system and the laws that affected them. Immigration laws are so complicated and confusing and clearly need to be reformed, and I was hoping for a clearer picture of how this system affects real people.

I also wanted a whole lot less of her educational and career experiences in the sense that I felt like I was reading a list of achievements for her Linked In profile. I always tune out when memoirs hit this point of just categorizing awards and job offers and speaking engagements, etc.

Gutierrez has gotten some criticism for writing a memoir when she is so young without the distance from the events that would allow for more reflection. I think there is value in hearing her story while she is in the midst of it but I also hope to hear more from her in the future as she matures.

My Side of the River, by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, is an heartfelt autobiography that will touch your very soul. It's an honest look at what happens when a teenage girl is forced apart from her parents in order to persue the American dream. It’s also a story about what we're willing to sacrifice to try to ensure that those we love will have a better life, as well
Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez was born in the U.S., the oldest daughter of immigrants. When she was just fifteen years old, her parents were sent back to Mexico and not allowed to return. So, she stayed, bouncing from home to home while excelling in high school.
Years later she brought her brother, also born in the U.S., back, so he can have the same advantages as her.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

My Side of the River follows Elizabeth's story as she navigates the ups and down of being a child of immigrants, a homless youth, and a first-gen.

Reading about Elizabeth's life was hard. She did a good job of highlighting the difficulties that both immigrants and children of immigrants face. Her frustration (which many of us who have gone through some of the things she went through feel) was palpable.

I would've liked the book to convey more emotion. At times it felt like the author was just reciting facts. I also would've liked to see her discuss how our culture affects how we handle things, like pressure to succeed, mental health issues, and especially dysfunctional family dynamics.

Overall it's a good book to get a sense of what immigrants and children of immigrants go through.

I didn’t know too much about this book when I made the request. I knew it was a memoir on immigration and that it was on the list of most anticipated books of 2024.

I’m certainly glad I made the request (and that I was approved).

The writing style flowed well and kept me engaged throughout the book. I truly felt for the family as their story was told and the impact of policies was felt. It was a heartbreaking and inspiring read. We can do better.

While I rarely pick up non-celebrity memoirs, I’m so glad I did this time. Great read.

I received this eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

The narrative starts while the author is living in the US with her parents, the family intact, establishing the rhythms and contours of her life before her parents return to Mexico to avoid deportation. Even before Elizabeth’s parents returned to Mexico, there were extraordinary difficulties her family endured, displaying great resilience and perseverance. After the return to Mexico, Elizabeth and her brother remain in the US, with her brother eventually returning to Mexico. Although a family has volunteered to take her in, she is not treated as family, and her needs are barely met. She largely fends for herself as she aspires to be a high achieving student–aspiring to attend an elite college that offers generous scholarships.

She does achieve entry to a dream college, which in turn presents its own set of challenges and culture shock. After graduation and obtaining a job, she brings her brother to live with her so he can also get a US education. Navigating the corporate world and serving as the guardian to her brother presents more challenges to American life for individuals from immigrant families; Elizabeth finds herself continually packaging trauma as a commodity to earn admittance.

Despite the many obstacles and hardships, there is something gentle about the story, which I think is largely due to the author’s earnestness parallel with her cataloging of the problems with how American society disparages immigration while immigrant labor and contributions are wanted. It can be viewed as an inspiring immigrant triumphant story, but I see it as a critique of US policies.

My Side of the River gives a look at the life of a woman who was an American citizen to Mexican immigrant parents. Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez has lived most of her life in the United States with her parents. Living with other family members in trailer homes and sheds, they survived the best they could until her parents had to leave the States for fear of being deported. They left Elizabeth behind. From then on, it was up to Elizabeth to make her way through school and make a future for herself and her family so they could be together again. It was never easy, but she was able to accomplish her goals. This is a book everyone should read for two reasons: First, to understand the struggles that our immigration system places on families where the kids are citizens, but the parents are not and Second to know what you have to do to accomplish your goals, no matter who you are.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this title!

I received a complimentary copy of this book, and the opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

I devoured this book in just a few hours. I really was touched by the rawness and vulnerability of the author as she told her story.

Her resilience and commitment to her family was amazing.

I would definitely recommend this book to others!

This was such a nice read because I connected with her story very easily. It was vulnerable for her to put her story out there and I appreciated it so much.

My Side of the River was an excellent memoir and gave insight into the experience of an undocumented person. It was told with vulnerability and compassion.

This was a beautiful story about the Mexican immigrant experience. Elizabeth’s parents worked so hard to give her the opportunity to have an American education. The pressure on her to be her best and to survive without them. When they had to return to Mexico and she was raising herself, her parents couldn’t come if she needed them. This book was so heartbreaking and beautiful. A must read for what the first generation American experience is really like. Elizabeth’s story captivated me. Highly recommend

In this complex, brutally honest memoir, Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez describes her childhood and young adulthood as an American citizen and oldest daughter of undocumented parents living in Arizona in the late 1990s and the twenty-first century. Focusing on her family and those dynamics, her academic and life challenges (including homelessness and food insecurity) while living on her own at 15, and transitioning to an Ivy League education on the East Coast (and navigating the American university system on her own), Camarillo Gutierrez provides a first-person example of what these challenges look like to real people in the United States, giving a face to news headlines and the reality of living as a citizen with undocumented parents. Camarillo Gutierrez is brutally honest and realistic with her explanations and memories of growing up in Arizona, and she does not sugarcoat the difficulties and challenges. Her narrative voice is strong and decisive, and she also provides some social and cultural understanding to her situation and that of other undocumented individuals.This book is critically important to understand these real perspectives and understandings of the undocumented situation in the United States, and Camarillo Gutierrez has brought this narrative to life without addressing or stooping to the levels of the media’s perspective on this social situation.

The story Elizabeth unfolds is one of heartbreak, perseverance, determination, and grit. When her parents are deported to Mexico, she loses her stability overnight. Unwilling to back down from the fight for her life, Elizabeth buckles down. A thought provoking tale of courage and determination against the backdrop of immigration policy, this book is not for the faint of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

A few years ago, human rights took a backseat to a political circus, and those rights rapidly digressed to where they were DECADES ago - as our nation, comprised of immigrants, chose an elitist (and very odd, considering the history of the US) path of exclusion.

A personal account which should be required reading in every high school, to remind individuals that our country was founded based on a framework of inclusion.

This book reminds us all of the potential human cost of political views (torn apart families, loss, and devastation).

This book is a powerful, important and fascinating individual account of the rending of one immigrant's family's existence in a country where a "good life" was supposedly readily available for those who made their way to her borders.

Unless you are native American, if you live in the US, YOU too ARE an immigrant in a nation of immigrants.
This powerful book reminds us of the human cost of turning our backs on our brothers and sisters similarly attempting to improve their families future by immigrating to the United States.

My Side of the River is a memoir examining the plight of immigrants and first generation citizens in the United States. The story is urgent and timely and warrants 4*. However, with so many books on the subject to choose from, the writing was not as polished as I would have liked. Overall, I can recommend it but only with 3*.

I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.

I grew up fifteen minutes from the Mexican border in a community of mostly immigrants, so I actually have a few friends who have been in similar situations to the one that Camarillo Gutierrez talks about in her story. What I really appreciated in her memoir is her focus on education and overcoming the obstacles to get it and the way this explains the horrific immigration policies that split families. This should be mandatory reading for Americans. Perhaps it would help them cultivate more empathy for the people that come here in search of a better life.

What a great memoir! Not only does Elizabeth discuss her life as the oldest child of immigrants growing up in Arizona, but she also describes the other side of immigration...the human side. Her writing style kept me engrossed in her story and empathetic to the way immigration policies have affected her life. This memoir has a smooth and consistent flow to it that kept me listening. I finished it in one sitting. There is so much to hear and learn in this beautifully heartbreaking and heartwarming piece of literature. Whether you support "the wall" or not, and regardless of your stance on immigration issues, I implore you to read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez debut memoir is a compelling work of non-fiction that I wished was fiction only because I didn't want her lived experiences to have happened in real life. In the short but powerful piece, Camarillo Gutierrez tells her experience growing up in an immigrant community in Tucson. While the author and her younger brother are American citizens, her childhood is shaped by her parents' Mexican citizenship and questionable status to remain in the U.S. As the memoir progresses, the author is forced to make the choice to continue her American education without the rest of her family or return to Mexico and give up her dreams when her parents are denied re-entry into the U.S. Camarillo Gutierrez, at a young age, becomes a surrogate mom for her younger brother in order to give her brother the best opportunities in U.S.

Much of this memoir happens during Arizona's “Show Your Papers” era and how undocumented immigrants or those who “look” like undocumented folks are judged harshly and repeatedly taken advantage of. The author gives a vibrant description of the harsh realities of life at the border as well as the crushing poverty. She asks the reader to consider how direct and systematic racism prevents individuals from achieving the American Dream.

5 stars! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. I will post reviews on post this review on Goodreads, Bookbub, Amazon & Barnes & Noble.