My Side of the River follows the childhood and young adulthood of Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez as she navigates life in the United States as the daughter of immigrants. At age 15, her parents are forced to make the difficult decision to return to Mexico, prompting young Elizabeth to make a difficult choice of her own: to remain in the US in order to finish her education and go to college.

Elizabeth’s story is filled with resilience and pain; she has a clear goal to “be the best” but has to figure out how to make that happen as a kid essentially living on her own. By the end of the memoir, I felt a sense of pride in Elizabeth after reading all the challenges she endured and overcame.

As a memoir, I did feel like this lacked just a bit. She jumps around from one big event to the next, and doesn’t always go into the emotions behind what happened. I also prefer memoirs to have a bit more reflection, which just might not be possible for someone who is still so young and still figuring things out. All that aside, I can think of many kids I’ve taught over the years who would benefit from reading this book - I know they would feel seen in Elizabeth’s story, and that is something truly important.

Overall, I think this is a worthwhile memoir and I’m excited to see what Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez does with her life! Clearly, it will be something great.

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER
Elizabeth Gutierrez

She lives on the south side of the river. It was tough growing up where she came from. But it was home.

When her parents are told they cannot return to America Elizabeth desperately tries to find a temporary home for her and her brother so she can continue her high school career in the only place she has known.

Now a homeless minor with incredible responsibilities, it takes incredible fortitude for Elizabeth to finish school, and take care of her brother and herself. She tells her story of resilience in her new memoir, MY SIDE OF THE RIVER.

Out now!

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER was great. I enjoyed reading Elizabeth’s story of her life. She has done so much already and she has so much life to live and experiences to have.

I would love to read another memoir from her a little later in her life to see how these formative years shaped her as an adult and how the lessons she learned carried over to adulthood.

I recommend this memoir to those seeking to make their own American dreams come true, whatever those dreams may be.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy! It was a pleasure!

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER…⭐⭐⭐⭐

"My Side of the River" offers a poignant and captivating memoir of Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez's journey as the daughter of immigrants facing family separation and adversity. It delves into important themes like generational trauma and the pursuit of the American dream and impacts the heart of the reader throughout.

This was so smart, so well written and another very welcome addition to the list of titles I recommend as a bookseller when someone asks what they should read instead of American Dirt. I will press this into their hands happily! Beautiful memoir.

This book is a fantastic memoir and provides a personal experience with US immigration law. Highly recommend.

Elizabeth was top of her freshman class as she began high school and had her whole future ahead of her. But when her immigrant parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico and not allowed to return to the US, Elizabeth’s world turned upside down. Elizabeth suddenly found herself homeless, parentless, and responsible for herself and her younger brother. However, she was determined to stay in the US to take advantage of the opportunities her parents initially came to the US so she could have.

This is a memoir that should be on everyone’s must read list. What a powerful and inspiring story of resilience, determination and love. I wish there had been a little less of her day to day life because it did sometimes make the story go slow, but her journey is so inspiring it is worth the read. I cried multiple times when reading this and had it on my mind for a while after finishing the book.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I really enjoyed reading Elizabeth's perspective of being a child of Mexican immigrants and the different challenges they faced. This book was engaging, informative and I really appreciated learning about a lived experience I'm not as familiar with.

This book showed me a type of life I am not very familiar with in my place of privilege. I think the book had such great potential that it didn't quite measure up to. It started strong, but by the end, it felt like the author was just including highlights without any real depth of detail. It would have been nice to get a bit of her parents' or brother's perspective on certain events.

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!

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