I am a sucker for a great story set in NYC. Growing up as a Latina in the city at this time (I was in my 20s) in 1999, I am very familiar with the diaspora of Latinos at the time and in this place. Although, I am Puerto Rican, I am especially familiar with the Dominican diaspora having attended a high school where the primary Latino population is Dominican, and having Dominican family.

Reading this book was like returning home for me. Sal and Charo are reminders of the friends and family I grew up with and their story is truly representative of many I have know. The author accuracy with NYC atmosphere is amazingly accurate for the time.

Those who enjoyed books like How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water or Dominica by Angie Cruz and interested in the Urban Latino Diaspora, specifically diaspora I strongly recommend this book.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I really enjoyed this and the characters. I would recommend reading this book. I rated it a 4 stars.

Sal and Charo, the main characters of LOCA, are followed as they deal with relationships, abandonment, and a need for belonging over time. Very thoughtful at the sentence level and refreshingly non-linear!Every character in Heredia's work is meticulously nuanced; they are strong, imperfect, courageous, self-centered, inquisitive, afraid, humorous, tragic, honest, and they seem just as real as you and I do. The way that LOCA manipulates time enables the reader to appreciate this subtlety in every character.I found myself appreciating their growth, such as Charo's path and eventual realization of the type of woman she wished to be.When characters would do the very human thing of going against their inclinations, like Sal calling Vance for a follow-up interview even though he knew he would love the job, I was also annoyed (in the BEST way possible). I often feel this mixture of adoration and resentment for both myself and the individuals I care about the most. Because of this, I see LOCA as an essential mirror, and I'm so happy that I've had the experience!

i absolutely LOVED the characters but found the book sorta slipped as it went on. at the start, the characters were interesting and the story was cool, but near the end some new characters were underdeveloped. 4 stars. tysm for thea rc.

This book is an endearing and often painful look into the lives of two immigrants at the end of the second millennium, exploring identities of what it means to be gay, black, a woman, and an immigrant in 1999 New York City.

This book follows Sal and Charo, two immigrants from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic who are making their way in a world that often times works against them. I thought the characterization was phenomenal in this book. I really felt I had a great grasp of who they were and I couldn’t help but to root for them, despite all their mistakes.

In my opinion, this book doesn’t really have much of a solid plan and is more “slice of life” in nature, which doesn’t bother me. That being said, be prepared for slower pacing in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC!

Heredia presents rich characters and perfectly imaginable setting.

I struggled a bit at the beginning - you're tossed right into a group of lives so you're growing with the characters, and if it's not a world you're familiar with, prepare yourself to really take note of every word - you've just entered into a world where immigration, gender, acculturation, assimilation, queerness, and coming of age all collide. It doesn't take too long until you're fully immersed in these characters' lives.

It's important to remember, too, that this takes place in the 1990s - just out of an AIDS epidemic and not entirely (even in New York) the easiest time to be gay or trans. When people found their families and safe places, it got deep quickly, just like this book did.

I have a degree in American Studies (that includes ALL of the Americas) - this is a text that, if I were a professor, I'd be recommending to students or even using as a text. It really touches on so much - time, place, history, culture, and being young in New York (which really is an experience all on its own, no matter what your story is).

This is a GREAT debut! There should be a lot of buzz surrounding this book. It was beautiful and raw. Excited to share this with my friends.

Wow, this book feels like home. As someone who grew up and spent time in and near the areas covered during that time period, I'm so grateful this book was written. It captured what it was like to be part of the diaspora in the 90's. In this book I see myself, my parent's friends, my cousins, and others I crossed paths with.

Loca follows Sal and Charo's lives from childhood in the Dominican Republic to their adulthood in the Bronx and beyond. All of the characters are so well written, these feel like people from my past and present in so many ways. The writing drew me in right away. This book tackles big questions and tackles them well. What is it like to be queer? To love a queer person? To try to make a living in a world that isn't what you grew up with? What is it like to be a lover? A friend? A mother? To be oneself?

This really brings together the spirit of a Junot Diaz writing and the tv show Pose. This has been exactly what I have been needing, it was beautiful. I loved it not just because I relate to it, but because it was well written. I felt all the characters served their purpose well and the stories told were at a rhythm and organization that I liked. These are compelling human stories mirrored in book forms. Excellent and I can't wait for my loved ones to read this book.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC for review.
#SimonBooks @SimonBooks

sal & charo's friendship is the heart of this novel, and i couldn’t get enough of it. they’ve been through so much together and some tough shit since high school in the DR, and we meet them in this book in their mid-twenties, now navigating life in the Bronx. sal is a lonely gay man struggling to rebuild his life after an incredibly painful exit from the island, while charo is a young mom, still trying to figure out who she is beyond the roles life has given her. their bond is everything — raw, messy, and so beautiful. Watching them grow, evolve, and support each other felt so real and grounding. itt was like seeing two people truly find themselves, with each other’s love and trust as their anchor.

the side characters also felt incredibly fleshed out, each one bringing something important to the story. even when they weren’t front and center, they all felt like they had lives and stories of their own — and that’s a testament to Alejandro Heredia’s talent. i especially loved how we got little glimpses into some of their lives, like Don Julio. it added so much depth and richness. i am completely biased because i'm obsessed with Latinx authors and stories and i promise myself i am going to read more of them this year, but Alejandro's debut hit me in all the right ways.

i really can’t wait to see what he does next. this book left me feeling seen and full of emotion, and i'm excited to read more books from him.

4.5 stars.
thank you Simon & Schuster for my copy!

Central characters Sal & Charo have been friends since high school in the DR and we meet them in their mid-twenties in the Bronx - Sal a lonely gay man struggling to find his footing after an incredibly traumatic exit from the island and Charo a young Mom also searching for her own identity. There is a ton of character development in this story as these two grow alongside one another and I loved how their relationship and trust anchors each other - it felt very true to me and I found their relationship beautiful. There are plenty of other compelling minor characters in this novel which I really enjoyed as well - every character seems so real and fleshed out, no matter how much time they receive in the overall novel/plot. I loved this debut - the characters all felt so well embodied and real to me. I loved how we got to do little deep dives into some of the minor characters (Don Julio!). I am biased because I LOVE Latinx authors and stories, but I'm thrilled with Alejandro Heredia's first novel and will be excited to follow his career!!

Gripping book about the search for love and friendship in the challenging worlds of immigrant and gay America. Heartbreaking and pessimistic, but sadly realistic.

Childhood friends Sal and Charo relive their chaotic Dominican early years as they navigate life as young adult immigrants in New York City. The many friends and acquaintances each meets along their journeys are colorful, troubled, and caring in their own fractured ways. I found their stories sad but filled with hopes for better things in their futures and the fortitude to finally examine themselves to find what they truly want and need to move forward.

Their struggles growing up - poverty, sexual identity, violence, and family issues - follow them throughout their lives, but help them grow and accept themselves, identify their own wants and needs, and play a role in their adult relationships.

At times the book was hard to follow as the transitions between present and past were difficult to navigate, much like the lives of Sal and Charo. Overall, a great novel written from the heart.

"Wasn’t that the point of leaving everything behind to come to this country? To live entirely unlike who they might have been on the island?”

These thoughts of Charo, one of the main characters of Alejandro Heredia's forthcoming book, Loca (Simon & Schuster, February 2025), encapsulate the novel’s narrative thread. In it, readers follow two young people, Charo and Sal, growing up in the Dominican Republic and struggling to be their authentic selves – Charo because she chafes against the limits of the traditional role of wife and mother, and Sal because he is eager to live as a gay man fully and without fear. They see a new life in the United States as a fresh start, where they can be the people they want to be. However, their pasts are not easily left behind and, ultimately, they learn that they won’t find themselves by running away, but by running back.

For me, Loca represents everything I love about literature: that I, a middle-aged white woman in the upper Midwest, can open a book and drop into a world I would otherwise never experience. Suddenly, I’m sitting in an apartment in the Bronx or walking in a park in the Dominican, in a body very different than my own. Heredia maintained this feeling of embodiment through the use of Spanish throughout. Sometimes I knew the words, sometimes looked them up, sometimes I gleaned meaning from context, and sometimes I left the Spanish phrases unknown and let myself sit with the reminder that I am from outside this community.

One of my favorite passages was when Sal and his friend, Yadiel, someone much more at ease with his queerness, are drinking coffee at La Cafetería Colonial. Though male, they refer to each other as loca: “They’ve been doing this new thing where they refer to each other in feminine pronouns, and it feels good. Simple. Like seeing each other better.” I loved the idea of them taking a language structured around the binary of male and female and carving out a space for themselves inside it.

There were times as I read, particularly in Sal’s point of view, where he didn’t seem emotionally connected to the events in the book, some extremely violent and terrifying, and so I didn’t either. Sal ruminates about them (the word “think(s)” is used 220 times in the book – thanks Kindle! – and usually associated with Sal.) There are benefits and disadvantages to Sal’s thoughtfulness – readers have direct access to the thoughts of a person they might not under other circumstance have access to, but because the events and experiences are screened through Sal’s thoughts, they remain distant.

To me, Charo was more present on the page, more actionable. While Sal was thinking, she was doing: working, cleaning, partying, writing, driving. She also tried to get other characters to do things: Sal to make phone calls; Ella to sing. I felt more connected to her and invested in her story as the book unfolded.

In the end, neither Sal nor Charo has left everything behind, and neither lives entirely unlike who they might have been in Santo Domingo. But they’ve learned that their identities are rooted within themselves rather than in the place where they live. I was glad to go on the journey with them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy. The cover art drew me in and the sentences made me stay.

Set against the backdrop of the political climate in 1999, Loca tells a powerful story about two Dominican best friends, Sal and Charro, who are navigating their new lives in the United States. Charro is a bold, strong-willed young woman, recently a mother, stuck in a relationship with an overly controlling boyfriend. She’s struggling to accept that her life isn’t turning out the way she imagined when she first left the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Sal, her best friend, is dealing with his own set of challenges. As a new immigrant and a gay man of color, he’s weighed down by fear and doubts about his future. Add to that a painful past he’s trying to escape, and it’s clear that both of them are at a crossroads. They have to figure out who they want to become, despite the expectations their society and families have for them.

The characters are messy, complicated, and full of life, each of them trying to make sense of what they thought their dreams would look like in America. Some of the central themes in Loca include race, queer identity, motherhood, familial duty, and friendship. While Sal and Charro are flawed, their growth throughout the story is both honest and moving. I really enjoyed reading this novel by Latinx author Alejandro Heredia—it’s an authentic portrayal of the immigrant and Dominican-American experience, and you can feel the heart and struggle in every page.

This one was so good! It's a very brutal book that's sometimes hard to swallow or read about what's going on but that's what makes it so worth it. It really demonstrates the torn-ness of Sal and Charo and makes you question your own ideals about friendships and general relationships. Definitely worth picking up and reading!

Loca tells the story of Sal and Charro, best friends since their school days in the Dominican Republic. Both come to New York City in search of a fresh start. Sal, a gay science enthusiast, is trying to escape the haunting memories of his best friend’s violent death while stuck in a dead-end job. Charro, free-spirited and full of hope, dreams of new opportunities but ends up trapped in a controlling relationship, working at a supermarket and unexpectedly becoming a mother.

One night, while out together, Sal finds love at a gay nightclub, and this relationship introduces both him and Charro to new circles of people. As Sal navigates the tension between his desires and self-identity, Charro embarks on her own journey of self-discovery, figuring out what kind of woman she wants to be.

The novel talks about relationships, friendships, abandonment, and the longing for belonging. It shows us how friends can become family, especially when traditional identity groups fail to provide the support one needs.

Overall, I enjoyed Loca but felt that the secondary characters didn’t add much to the story. I would have preferred more depth from Sal and Charro, as their individual journeys were the most compelling parts of the book.

Loca was one of those books that crept up on me. Usually when I start reading ARCs, I read the first 50 pages or so and then put down my rating of the intrigue, and that's how I figure out what order I'll read things in. If I like them the most, I'll try to finish them before the IndieNext deadline, things like that. But with Loca, I found myself blazing past the first 50 pages. I fell in love with Sal and Charo, mostly because they were so complex and real. I felt like I was making new friends, watching their lives and rooting for them to succeed, despite their flawed choices and setbacks. This book is a snapshot of two lives, with the friendship between the two at the heart of it all.

A dynamic portrayal of the complexities and importance of even the most flawed relationships, friendships, and families.

This book was good, but the ending was a bit abrupt for my liking. I like a little bit more resolution in my favorite books, this just didn’t have that. Apart from that, it was a pretty great book. I adored the characters, they seemed so real to me. All of the issues that they dealt with are still occurring in the US even now, so it was timely. Great story, but hopefully the next one will have a more fully explored ending.

We get to read how the characters want to belong. They do what must of us do, deny our desires/wants and then wonder why things do not work out as we hoped. As we get to know each character we get to learn how selfish, tough, strong, honest, brave and honest they are. The main characters are Sal and Charo; with Sal we see how hard it is for him to make decisions, we get to see how Charo decides to make a very hard decision of trying to learn what make her happy and the Woman she wants to be. Must Read and recommend.
Thank you Simon & Schuster for the ARC through Netgalley.

Elegant, brutal, blunt. Loca is a book that, at its very center, is asking: What would you do to hold on to your tiny corner of the world? Your job, your reputation, your ambition—the expectations of your family. When it’s been beaten into you that what you’ve managed to accrue has, and never will, simply boil down to hard work and determination… what would you be willing to give up?

Would you tame your mannerisms, make sure to only show affection to your romantic partner behind a closed door? Would you bury yourself under the many layers of an identity that doesn’t represent you; wearing a suit instead of a dress, a tie instead of earrings, tailored pants instead of sheer tights? Would you work to hide your accent, not speak out of fear that your pronunciation of certain words or phrases would be judged? Would you shun yourself from a community that you identify with, as to not be lumped in with them? And, if you did this, would it be worth it? Would you be protected? Would the armor this performance offers be enough?

Passing—presenting yourself as anything else than the dreaded other—comes with a cost. Physical and monetary safety, broader opportunities, a placid and surface-level acceptance; this weighed against dignity, pride, sense of self. Would it be worth it?

Loca is at its strongest when it poses these questions. The initial main cast of characters are tangible; well-drawn as actualized people. Their wants, needs, and fears are all clearly, brilliantly—and, most times, brutally—communicated. It’s when the novel enters its third act, introducing an entirely new supporting cast—that are not nearly as well explored, only with a few exceptions—that Loca falters. This is where, unfortunately, it went from a five star to a four star read, at least for me.

The ending, still, is poignant. Sal, specifically, is a character who will stay with me for a long time.

(Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster for the arc, allowing me the opportunity to preview this title before its release.)