I tried to read this one but it did not grab me. I finally put it down. I think it is perhaps due to my own tastes rather than the novel having faults. DNF for me.

Catalina is about a girl who survived death in Ecuador and was sent to America to live with her undocumented grandparents in New York. We follow her as she attends Harvard: interning at a magazine, working at Peabody Museum, befriending the son of a famous filmmaker, and… well… spiraling.

It’s delicious in the way only a story of a girl losing herself in upper class society can be. Catalina is raw, she is delicate, she is selfish, and she is scared. One scene of note really highlighted the work as a whole to me: during winter break, Catalina’s friend who studies anthroplogy took an educational trip to Columbia and all she could focus on what that he didn’t invite her. Despite the fact that he was going to further his education, despite the fact that she’s undocumented. Although her fear of deportation is always at the forefront, it’s always juxtaposed by this sort of selfish carelessness.

Much of Cornejo Villavicencio’s storytelling is through stream of consciousness (which I’ve learned doesn’t bother me like it once had), she also undercuts profound moments with silly, direct statements that I found quite enjoyable. For example: “To many of my ancestors, I would have been just another little brown girl, forgotten on another continent, passed around from hand to hand. Imagine being born a goldfish.”

Though I took much longer reading this book than I expected (mostly due to the fact that this is told in four parts/seasons with no chapters beyond that), I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the life of an undocumented college student in an elite environment.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and One World for an ARC of this book!

This is a coming-of-age story in the literary tradition of James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and his Ulysses, the education of the singular Stephen Dedalus as a product of the Irish education system, prior to his leaving Ireland.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s Catalina was born in Ecuador and sent north to the United States as a child to live with her undocumented grandparents. Her education takes her as an undocumented citizen to Harvard, during the introduction of the Dream (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act.

Unlike Dedalus’ completed education, Catalina’s education is formative within the university. Her field of formal study is journalism, while at home, her grandfather informally teaches her about the culture of Ecuador. At Harvard her study of the culture of Ecuador expands to the history of the Incas and, an integral part of her education, a physical object, the khipu, a woven string weaving used by early Ecuadorians as a form of linguistic communication, virtually forgotten. A linguistic twist occurs when she takes a semester long class on James Joyce’s incomprehensible novel, finnegans wake. These linguistic devices are woven into the plot of the fast moving and compelling story of Catalina, her family, her friends, her professors, and her lovers.

Thank you to One World, an imprint of Random House, and NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy.

As a professional academic and a recovering capital-R Romantic, I have a soft spot in my heart for lost undergraduates with artistic souls. Catalina found that soft spot. Catalina lives with her Cuban grandparents in Queens, all of them undocumented immigrants who fled to the US. She loves to write Tumblr posts, listens to 90s alternative music (I told you I liked her), and makes it into Harvard only to find the extra challenges of not being able to work legally in the States. Villavicencio humanizes the precarious position of folks in the country without the means to enter through the tedious immigration process. This is not a soapbox political statement but the story of people who love, are angry, fail to do basic work but make fantastic food and feel deeply within themselves. Catalina skips class, falls for the wrong boy, travels back and forth between Seventh Day Adventism and Catholicism and precocious undergraduate agnosticism. To be with her is to learn to see the Other in ourselves - and vice versa. The ending is abruptly shocking and heartbreaking and a little bewildering, but the journey is worth it.

Karla Cornejo’s protagonist shares many similarities with her—an undocumented woman from Ecuador, raised in New York, attending Harvard ca. 2011. Catalina has a constant internal monologue that is always entertaining and usually just this side of unhinged, and is fixated on getting her love interest to sleep with her. Cornejo puts the campus novel form—midcentury, male, obsessed with whether the female undergrads will sleep with the brooding protagonist—through the looking-glass as Catalina navigates the absurdly privileged spaces of Harvard, the extracurriculars and secret societies and being surrounded by the rich children of famous people, along with the exams and the academic pressure and the gaping uncertainty about her future because she’s not work-authorized in the US.

I appreciated the portrait of campus life in the late aughts (writing a thesis about 2666 in 2011 is so historically accurate), and especially the oblique way she illustrated Catalina navigating all this, and suffering, against the backdrop of the (spoiler, failed) DREAM Act negotiations in Congress. The romp, the outrageous, ironic, always entertaining patter of internal monologue, is also necessary to make the reader swallow the tragedy that permeates the book. In the end, it’s devastating.

Thanks @netgalley @oneworldbooks for the e-ARC. This is out in July.

Our heroine is Catalina Ituralde, who is a young Ecuadorian undocumented women who finds herself in the US after her parents die and her aunt and uncle give her to her grandparents in the states, also undocumented. She lives in Queens in an apartment with them and then goes off to Harvard. She is quirky, entitled in her own way, and likes to write as she aspires to be a literary star.

Catalina whines a lot and doesn’t seem to be happy as her undocumented status hangs over her head. At school she is blessed with a job, a room to herself, and a boyfriend from of course a well-off family that can help her. She even has friends that care for her but everything in her favor she takes for granted.

The writing is good and perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the entitled Catalina. She has little empathy for others and is mostly self-absorbed, but does help her grandmother when she is called, however she of course resents having to be involved.

I finished the book, but I didn’t enjoy it. If Catalina didn’t like her life then why didn’t she work to change it? She is smart, has loads of access that most people would never ever get, and yet she is still unhappy. Life after school is hard for so many people who do not have the privilege or the connections from Harvard. I got bored with her poor me attitude and there is no big payoff at the end.


I got bored with her poor me attitude and there is no big payoff at the end.

~ I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of Catalina ~

While Catalina promises an enticing tale, the reality is a more confusing stream of consciousness that never really goes in depth on any of the concepts addressed. Cornejo Villavicencio presents themes of immigration, family life, dabbling in class differences, higher education, and even sexuality. However, while the book briefly touches those matters, the ready has no actual idea of what Catalina actually feels or her place in these matters. Very little endears the reader to the title character, and while she goes through struggles that should elicit sympathy, as a reader, it's not really easy to care about her. Her supporting characters, primarily the grandparents are much more interesting characters, but their lives, motivations and realities are also glazed over.

Catalina hints at promise but doesn't deliver and alienates the reader in the process.

Catalina is the first novel by the author of The Undocumented Americans, a non-fiction/memoir that was one of my best books of the year a few years ago and numbers among my favourite non-fictions ever. Catalina shares some similarities with Villavicencio’s previous work – like its author, its main character grew up as an undocumented child in the US and went to a prestigious university. The story follows Catalina as she recounts her childhood with her complicated grandparents and continues through her final year at Harvard where her immigration status makes her future uncertain.

On the scale from ‘just plot’ to ‘just vibes’ this book is extrememly vibe heavy. On a sentence level, the writing is beautiful. If I were the type of person who underlines quotes I’m sure this one would be heavily marked up. Personally, though, I’m not sure the overall style really worked for me. It felt like the narrative would switch focus every few sentences, especially in the first half of the book. It was very tell-not-show and until the end of the book I don’t think I had a very strong idea of who its central character was. If you’re someone who likes a very minimal plot, you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did but for myself I struggle to unequivocally recommend it.

But seriously, go read The Undocumented Americans.

though a novel, i hear Villavicencio’s conversational yet biting & grounding voice in Catalina, just how i remember from the Undocumented Americans. the eponymous main character has a persona that no doubt brings the author to mind, but to say this is an autobiographical novel is perhaps a trite assumption and irrelevant since i am invested in the story that Villavicencio wants to tell, and not what i’d be fantasizing turning the author into a celebrity or something, a mythical figure who is in fact like me, someone with much needed boundaries.

anyway, i digress… here are some lines (oh, the nostalgic detail & resonant sarcasm (dissociation) i’ve underlined along the way~

“They got on the phone and had loud fights with my aunt and uncle, using a calling card until time ran out and the call dropped, a built-in dramatic slam of the receiver. But mostly, t they pet me and cried. At night, ! locked myself in the bathroom but who was I kidding? I was five years old. I didn’t know how to kill myself.”

“I was a spoiled princess. I hadn’t even had to cross the border. I came on a plane.”

“The smell of my childhood is bleach and mulling spices…”

“It’s hard to stop thinking like a prey animal. Best to never start, really.”

“There is only one photograph of them on their wedding day and they both look sad.

There’s something about the faces of everyone in my family and in mine. I think you can see in our eyes the kind of sadness, which is in two places at once mourning the past, grieving the future. Sad in a historically significant and visually satisfying way. Looking sad like it’s your job.”

***

i feel selfish saying this, but i wish Catalina was longer. but it was *that* good & swept me off my feet & made me wish we could be together for at least another couple hundred pages.

the novel’s protagonist & narrator, Catalina, is so self-aware she tricks me into thinking that that’s it, that was the end of that, (the novel), but as a reader, i could feel there was more beneath the clever lines and nonchalant / clean & cut & cleverly comforting yet flighty / avoidant & terse epilogue. though the climax “ended” less painfully / tragically than i had been anticipating, it felt like the author had more to say but ran out of time, will, agency? energy, or all of the above. it’s like someone said, shhh hurry up, and she did. nonetheless, i would read Villavicencio’s novel again if only because Catalina is a joy as much as it / she is a pain in the ass, in the sense that Catalina could fall into the unreliable character trope but her #grit makes her a leader of some kind, a pioneer in normalizing being a fuck up / human / & being a model undocumented citizen / human at the same time (instead of just one or the other.) she said it best after all..

“… The world was my oyster. I had been abandoned, sure, I could do nothing about the fact that I had been abandoned, but I could turn this ship around, make lemonade out of lemons, I could become the most famous abandoned girl in the world. Out of all the abandoned girls in the world, I could be their valedictorian.” - epilogue; last sentence.

& maybe i could be Catalina’s teddy bear. ugh lol

thank you again to @oneworldbooks for this advance reader’s edition & to Karla Cornejo Villavicencio for sharing Catalina as a novel; your words are echoes of love for self saboteurs trying to make sense of their worth. thank you for not letting us forget we are more than just objects & commodities but we are actually life itself and we don’t belong in museums. or maybe we do…

“Anyway, the gold was here now, just like the khipu and just like me. We could have been anywhere in the world but tonight we were here, for you.” - part three, winter break

Disclaimer: I did not finish the book.

Despite that the story was impactful in its honest protagonist. This story reads like a journal in parts and the mind of Catalina is fascinating. She has interesting, uncommon motivations for personal social things but common motivations for professional social things, like her interactions in her internship/employment. The secret struggles she endures inflict her to the point they affect how quickly she needs to adjust a situation but she always remains in control.

The writing is delicious in its blunt amusement, like glimmering reality and it is simultaneously insightful, sharing descriptions and analyses we don't normally receive from characters with the dilemma Catalina faces if the dichotomy of her worlds.

Look, am I going to be the first person to call this book “My Year of Debt and Deportation”? Yes, yes I am. I am a horrible person. But I bet you wanna read this book now.

It’s difficult to describe “Catalina,” a fictional narrative of woes, hardships, and discrimination by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. With no logical transitions, this reads like a depressive and complaining pontification about illegal immigrants in the US and the difficulties they face as being undocumented residents.

“Catalina,” provides, possibly, anthropological insight Into the human condition of these individuals and the psychological, emotional, and economic pressures that they face.

When I chose this book, I thought that it was an adventure novel, not an all-over-the-place, mishmash, train of consciousness outpouring that reads like a personal diary in the life of many woe-begotten souls.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and OneWorld Publishing for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read this ARC and give my review.
What I really enjoyed about this book was the chance to learn more about the undocumented in this country, particularly the DREAMERS. I have a much better understanding of what these terms mean and the terrible burden placed on individuals making it very difficult to achieve a contented, mentally healthy life. For this reason I feel this is an important work.
Catalina is a young woman brought to America from Ecuador when her parents died to live with her grandparents who had imigrated to America. I liked the Ecuadorian perspective as this is a country one hears less about immigrants from. The book is to tell about her time at Harvard University but we also learn much about the back story of her childhood.
I did not enjoy the style of the writing, - stream of consciousness carried to extreme. It made it very hard for me as a reader to bond with Catalina though I very much wanted to. It made a relatively short book a long arduous read for me.
In summary I wanted to like this book more than I did but would be interested in this author going forward and definitely interested in seeking out more stories about undocumented immigrant experiences.

YES! YES! YES!

I loved this story so much. Was it chaotic? Yes, but that's one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it. We get to know Catalina's inner thoughts as she goes through her senior year as an undocumented student at Harvard. We also experience all the turmoil and emotions that Catalina confronts and hides from. This story is multilayered, and I enjoyed how much the author compacted into the short story—I could've read 200+ more pages of Catalina and still want more.

Stories like this make me want to read other books that explore the same topics. As a Latina, I found it relatable and made me feel seen. I look forward to reading more from Karla Cornejo-Villavicencio.

I will post my full review on my page closer to pub day.

Thank you to Netgalley and One World (Random House Publishing) for allowing me to read the ARC.

I didn't connect with this book as I had hoped I would. I found myself skimming over parts because it was super heavy with details. I love the idea of Catalina, though. It has a beautiful cover as well. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Catalina feels like a friend who is going through so much and finally letting it all out over 3am pancakes. You're sitting across from her at the Denny's like this has been happening the whole time? Girl, why didn't you say anything?

She is a romantic and she is messy and she wants so much but she is also so aware of how much she wants and how much she can't get. A real pragmatic romantic. She is so familiar and I see so much of myself in her and yet we are also nothing alike.

I just wish this book were longer - it felt like it was cut short. Rather than breezing through graduation and post-graduation in a two page epilogue, I wanted to live it with her. It felt like someone grabbed the author's work mid-writing session and brought it to the editor. But in some ways, that tonal / pace shift felt right. The way you immediately lose touch with people after graduation and receive a cliffnotes summary of their life felt equally realistic. I just wanted more time with her 😭.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Catalina is born in Ecuador and goes to live with her grandparents in the U.S. when her parents are killed in a car crash. She's very bright and gets into Harvard but doesn't seem to fit in everywhere and worries that because she's still an immigrant she won't have the same opportunities. She has many experiences--both good and bad--but I got bogged down by all the details and didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Brimming with a relentless and immaculate ennui, this one gives big "reckless intelligence in blue-grey light" vibes.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Catalina.

Catalina's narrative felt real, chaotic and honest. She attempted to be the typical twenty year old but circumstances didn't allow this. The story started off strong but bounced all over the place, the build up fell flat in the end. The cover is absolutely stunning.

I give the book 4.5 stars. I received a free ebook from Netgalley in return for a fair review. I had never heard of the author before. I am a genX Ashkenazi Jew. I really liked this book.

I finished the book in less than 3 days. I haven't read anything like this before. The chapters were long. It wasn't easy breezy fiction. I really liked the book and the characters.

The characters were multi dimensional. This is what I like when I read fiction (honestly non-fiction too). The characters were flawed but likeable. For fiction, it has a lot of politics, history, geography, and other facts.

It's a book that will make you think. There is a subtle hint of mental health issues in the book. It's very rare to read fiction, where characters deal with depression or anything like that.

The book didn't end with a neat and tidy ending. The book wasn't predictable. It was really good.

I look forward to reading more from the author. Thank you to Karla and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.