It feels reductive to say this, but reading this reminded me of Elif Batuman's The Idiot. Other than the obvious similarity of both novels being about a non-legacy Harvard student navigating their classes and relationships, I found both protagonists to be similarly spunky and funny. The glaring difference is that Catalina is undocumented (as are her grandparents who raised her), and this is largely a secret she keeps from everyone she interacts with at Harvard. This of course raises the stakes of everything she's experiencing in school, and affects how she responds to others and the decisions she makes. Following Catalina felt frustrating at times, but she has so much weighing on her. Having read many campus novels, I feel that this is a perspective that was missing from the genre and I'm glad Cornejo Villavicencio decided to dive into the fiction realm after her stunning debut, The Undocumented Americans. This doesn't quite make my top reads of the year list, but it was funny and sad and overall a special reading experience.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Catalina is not your average college senior who is looking forward to her career, her life, and her future.

Instead, she is an undocumented immigrant from Latin America. She was living with her undocumented grandparents in New York when she was accepted by Harvard. The University's policies did not object to her immigration status and they kept it secret. She has been a very successful student - making friends, joining societies and activities, and excelling academically. While this is all very positive, her future is scary.

This was a really different read for me, as I am clearly outside the target audience- or maybe I really am the target audience, as someone who is so far removed from the immigrant experience and the undocumented that I need to learn more about this segment of our population. It's brilliantly written in parts, though not all of it worked for me. I think that the author is bright as could be, but for what felt like a campus novel this novel is wildly lacking in specificity of place. On the other hand- if you take it as a coming of age, or a coming of realization of the deep misunderstandings of our country, maybe specificity is beside the point. Four stars for smart language and prose, but it just didn't work for me the way I wanted it to. The literal threads of the story just didn't connect for me- but I still enjoyed watching them woven in front of me.

📚Book review📚 :: Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio lends Catalina a voice that is not only important but crucial to truly understanding the impact of colonization, immigration policy and trauma on generations of people.

Catalina is funny, brilliant and beautiful. She's a Harvard student about to enter the "real world" but she's held back from certain possibilities because of her immigration status. Born in Ecuador, Catalina grieves her birth parents and her legality as many 20-somethings would grieve anything: with humor, compartmentalization and denial. That is, until her family's origins catch up with her. Then, not even sex and sarcasm can save her from her past.

While Catalina grapples with her identity as a young woman, she also has to figure out who she is as a Dreamer (a hopeful recipient of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). Who is she separate from her status? Can she ever really know? Does she want to?

I loved the perspective of this book. It is unlike any narrative of any book on the cluster f*ck that is immigration policy that I've ever read. It felt so real, so true. Catalina was her status but she was so much more. She was flawed, strange, even callous sometimes. She wasn't the poster child, wasn't the "perfect" Dreamer. Like every other college kid, Catalina was intense and boundless one moment and completely vapid and deranged the next. Catalina, like all of us, contains multitudes.

As the book drew to a close, the intensity of Catalina's powerlessness was intense and palpable. Cornejo Villavicencio wrote her dejection in such a way as to make the reader feel the character's immobility and sadness.

I love how impactful this book was. Catalina was just Catalina in many ways. But she was also the product of all our histories. The histories of imperialism, of stolen futures because, "there were consequences to empire."

The narrator’s voice was so refreshing and unique. I really enjoyed the writing and storyline. I will definitely keeping my eyes peeled for Villavicencio’s future books.

I really wanted to like this book--I loved Villavicencio's THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS. However, I found this novel difficult to get into, somewhat unfocused, and the voice was not to my taste.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Kind of meandering, difficult to follow, found the characters and topic uninteresting.

2.25☆

A coming-of-age story about an undocumented Harvard student. Even tho i felt sorry for Catalina. I thought she was quite hard to like. The story was allover the place cofusuing and hard to follow at times.

have been excited about this book since I first heard about it. If you know me, you know that my favorite book of all time is The Idiot by Elif Batuman, so Catalina was right up my alley. I really enjoyed the humor and Catalina's strange encounters at Harvard. There are so many generalizations about Latin America and undocumented immigrants that this book subverts, addresses head on, and humorously explores. This book read like a big whirlwind, but slowed down in the third act for me. I wish the end was a bit more fleshed out, but I enjoyed Catalina's voice so much I didn't mind all that much in the end. Overall, I am so glad I read this and I laughed out loud quite a few times.

All the stars! The Undocumented Americans was an amazing book that every one should read and I was very excited for this novel. Catalina gives you the story young women balancing her family, her place at Harvard and her undocumented status. The sarcasm and humor is biting, frequently breaking the fourth wall. I loved this.

Thanks to NetGalley and One World for the chance to read and review.

I really wanted to like this one, but it was ultimately just too meandering and stream-of-consciousness for me. It took me two whole weeks despite being a relatively short book. As others have said, it very much reminded me of The Idiot by Elif Batuman, both in style and setting and in that the authors are much too smart for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This! Was! Incredible!! I have nothing but good things to say about this book. One of the best things I’ve read this year, it managed to be so much at once: Emotional, funny, heartbreaking, messy. The writing isn’t exactly lyrical but is still somehow so beautiful? Catalina’s voice was compelling and drew me in and I could easily follow her character for a long time. I implore everyone to read it, even to just read about the stresses and heartbreaks of this particular life that is a reality for so many. It opens your eyes to the things an undocumented person has to go through that you would never even think about.

ARC provided by NetGalley

This story follows Catalina who is finishing school but as an undocumented person, she’s not sure what her next steps will be. The writing style was super interesting where it felt like a stream of consciousness most of the time.

I’m really interested to see what this author writes next!

Thank you to Netgalley and One World for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book because the subject matter of undocumented immigrants, particularly as it relates to DACA, is important. I simply never grew fond of Catalina, or her family, or any of the characters in the book. Being inside Catalina’s head for the entire book was not a place I enjoyed. It made the book seem much longer than its 223 pages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

Amazing book. As a Harvard student, I found it very relatable. I also appreciated reading about the experience of an undocumented student. Would definitely recommend!

I started this book and then put it down for a while due to the off putting stream of consciousness style. But then I decided to finish it because I wanted to see what happened to Catalina, an undocumented immigrant living with her grandparents and attending Harvard. I would like to say the novel garnered my interest on my second try, but alas, I can’t. Catalina’s mental state spirals downward as the novel continues, and I could understand neither the direction of her self-destructive behavior nor the purpose of her story. She loves James Joyce, and if you do too, you might enjoy this book. I, however, am not a Bloom’s Day celebrant.

Catalina is an undocumented immigrant who came to America from Ecuador as a child to live with her grandparents after her parents were killed in an accident. Her grandparents are also undocumented. Accepted at Harvard, this fictional memoir recounts her experiences there. Pre DACA, a major obstacle for this Ivy League educated young woman is that she will not be able to secure a job upon graduation.

This short book (224 pages) exposes the insecurities, fears, and emotional toll experienced by undocumented individuals and families. It is written mostly as stream of consciousness with quite a bit of fantasizing which for me took away from the importance of the topics explored. This style will not be for everyone; others may find it a vibrant, contemporary read. I did enjoy the references to Latin American history and culture.

Book: Catalina
Author: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, One World, for sending me an ARC. This is another case where it’s me and not the book. This book had so much going for it, but it ended up not being the book for me.

In this one, we follow Catalina and a year in her life. She has not had an easy start in life. She barely escaped death in Latin America. She is now in America, living with her undocumented grandparents. Now, she is a senior in high school and is faced with what to do next. The problem is that she doesn’t have a lot of options. Since she is undocumented, she has to keep herself uncover. She starts to develop feelings for someone and comes to terms with the fact that the world is not as she was told.

All we are doing in this book is following Catalina as she goes throughout her days and tries to figure out what comes next. She has a lot on her mind and just doesn’t know what where to go or what to do. All she has been told is that she is one of the chosen ones. Everything is overwhelming right now. She does manage to take everything in. She doesn’t fit in anywhere she goes and just hasn’t found her place in the world. She also realizes that she does not have the same opportunities as everyone else around her. She realizes that her world is actually much smaller than those around her. She needs to figure out what to do next and how to do it.

I did find the structure of the story to be somewhat difficult to follow. One minute we would be in the doom and the next we would be talking about something else. It made it hard to stay in the story. I know we are supposed to see how much of a chaotic time this is and all, but it just didn’t work for me on the page. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but this style is not one that I really enjoy in books.

The writing is stunning and beautiful. It takes you right into Catalina’s world and allows you to see everything that she is going through. It makes everything comes to life in a way that transports you into the world. The story structure also works for the story. Again, it was something that didn’t work for me. Everything is truly well done in this book, but it’s just not for me.

Don’t let my negative review stop you. Trust me when I say that it’s not the book, it’s me.

This book comes out on July 23, 2024

This book just really didn't hit the mark for me. The main character's voice was choppy, and the narrative was difficult to follow at times. Because of this, I unfortunately wasn't very invested in the story's arc. It felt very raw and unfinished which ultimately didn't hold my attention until the end.

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Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this title. This review contains my honest thoughts.

DNF at 30%. There's nothing exactly *wrong* with this book, and I"m sure a lot of others are enjoying it. But there's something about the tone that isn't making me feel good inside. It's not about the content or subject matter, which I enjoy, but the narrative voice.