America, Let Me In is written and narrated by Felipe Torres Medina. I listened to the audio version and I recommend this version. I also enjoyed that Felipe's lawyer cut in occasionally with some "legal-ese".

Even though this (audio)book has a publication date of March 2025, I believe that most of it was written in 2024. So a lot of the current immigration horrors in the news are not included in this edition.

Felipe Torres Medina was born in Columbia and is a comedian and many of his own experiences are loosely used in this book.

Even though the book has intended comedic content, I honestly feel that I learned somethings about immigration.

I though the format of this book was very interesting; situations are provided and you pick a) go to this chapter/track or b) go to another chapter/track. I listened to the audiobook from beginning to end. I was a little worried that I might not be able to keep track, or that it would be confusing/weird. But it wasn't.

The audio is not super long, approx 4 hours. But very entertaining. Felipe Torres Medina did a great job narrating.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for approving my request to listen to the advance listen copy of America, Let Me In.

The author clearly tried to create a satiric book with a touch of gamification, but for me this concept just didn’t work. The challenges, tracks, difficulties felt extremely distracting and they constantly interrupted the story leaving a lot of frustration. Perhaps that exact sense was the attempt to make you also feel how difficult migration can be, but as a reader I couldn’t enjoy the my time spending with this book.

What bothered me more, though, was the way the author mocked people of certain European nationalities. Using tired, offensive stereotypes and saying that it’s okay to laugh at the French because of their colonial past is unnecessarily rude and intolerant. As a migrant myself, I was also put off by the negativity toward migration to countries other than USA. I truly believe that there are so many wonderful places to live around the world and it’s absolutely okay for that place to be not in america.

I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy book outlining the American immigration system.

Felipe Torres Medina a writer for Stephen Colbert and he uses his own experience as well as his comedy writing chops to spread awareness in a way that people can laugh and learn at the same time.

🎭Highly entertaining
🎭Concise - you can finish this audio in one day, easily.
🎭Great writing
🎭Audio is read by Torres Medina and is fantastic

I really wanted to like this book but, I could not get onboard with the ‘choose your own adventure’. I did not take the title literal and didn’t realize there would be options to skip to different chapters and create your own story. I found it to be annoying and kept taking me out of the story.

While I did like the humor and found the author funny. The format of the book was too distracting for me to really get into it. I think the author felt this would hold the readers attention more so than a regular format - and looks like many readers liked it from the reviews. However, as a personal preference, I just really didn’t like the way the story unfolded.

Thank you to #netgalley and #medina for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a very funny book. You should read it.

I actually listened to an excellent audio of it (read by the author, which I think often helps with humorous books).

America, Let Me In provides a look at the immigration system in the US. I'd say quite a lot of this will need to be re-written during the next few years. It'll probably just boil down to you're in if you're rich but not if you're poor. It certainly seems to be the way the rest of the world works, which makes me fear for humanity- and our lack of it.

Politics aside, Mr Medina uses personal experience and a lot of research to provide an extremely amusing way to navigate (or not) the visa route for immigrants. It's complicated. No, I mean, really complicated. Except when it's a lottery. Yes, an actual lottery, which you may win predicated on nothing other than your name in the draw. Or it's neither of those, and it could just be the decision of one person sitting in an office who may have had a fight with his parents that morning. It's insane.

Don't get me wrong, I do not doubt that other countries have similar nonsensical rules and regulations. I've no intention of finding out. Too much stress.

(I knocked a star off for purely personal reasons, i.e., that Mr Medina has some kind of beef against the UK. And I'm from Yorkshire. It's not explained, but he keeps mentioning it. There's also the quaint idea that is perpetuated by any American I've ever seen interviewed, that everyone is desperate to live in the US. It's really not true. Lots of us in Europe really don't.)

Otherwise, it's funny, irreverent, crazily sarcastic and I'd highly recommend it.

I knew I was going to love this right away from the hilarious narration and the accents. I'm a lawyer and honestly, I find immigration law to be so complicated and confusing, but Medina has broken down so much information here in an easy-to-understand format. Medina also treats the book as a "Choose your own adventure" where you can skip to different sections based on your personal circumstances.
This is so much fun it shouldn't be nonfiction. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lmaoooo

It's important first of all to read the subtitle of this amazing book to get part of why it's the most entertaining and complete explanation of a complex area of law I've ever seen. Throughout, Medina uses every lawyer's classic explanation to clients that we call, "on the one hand (blah, blah, blah). Buuuttt, On the other hand."

So, the name of this book is, "America Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story."

Somehow, in just over 200 pages or just under four hours if you don't speed up the audio, Medina explains, with story examples and the impact of various choices along the way all the different ways people looking to live in the USA can secure documentation. A good example of one of the "choose your own adventures," gives the different endings for Melania Trump if she did not choose to date and marry Donald Trump versus what she did do. The thing is, Medina pours out information that seems to cover the topic really well but that is totally accessible and very funny. He isn't funny in a sick way over things that are too serious, except to point out the outrageousness of some aspects of the system. Like, the only question people entering the USA in many of our ancestors' time had to answer was, "Do you have lice?" (Obviously there's more to that but this is not a book about Ellis Island.) He makes sense of things but does not ignore the nonsense. He points out, among other things, why people choose to come in undocumented in modern times.

Medina is a success story, ultimately getting his green card because he is a writer. In fact, he writes for The Late Show. According to LinkedIn he teaches as well. He narrates the audio version, which was so good I listened to it straight through. I admit I'm a lawyer but I truly believe a person planning to try to become documented or to work in an area related to immigration law and becoming documented needs to read this! Also, at the end, there is a glossary for all the acronyms and specialized language used. I don't know if it's going to be translated to other languages, but it should be. I loved it and I've been very off nonfiction for a long, long time. Thanks so much! It was a blast to read and incredibly informative.

A funny and biting satire of the US immigration policy as it existed at the end of the Biden administration. TBD how much worse it will get for those wanting to live in this racist, divided country. The book is non-fiction in that the types of forms and procedures are factual. Yet the author, a humor writer on late-night television, draws sly and funny examples to illustrate the process.
Best of all, it is structured like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. For example, if you (the reader) are a wealthy white male from France, skip to section 39: Immigration will be much easier for you! The author (and another voice pretending to be the publisher’s lawyer) narrate the book with great results. I kept finding myself snickering (and occasionally snorting) with suppressed laughter. A must-read for anyone who wants to better understand the immigration process or who just wants to laugh at its complexities and the author’s clever wordplay.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @DreamscapeMedia, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook of #AmericaLetMeIn for review purposes. This book is currently available.

I knew immigration was an expensive mess, but this gave me a more precise idea of how much of an expensive mess. Also I am going to be pointing so many people to this book.

America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story by Felipe Torres Medina, is exactly like is sounds. Written in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure interactive books of my childhood, at the end of each chapter, the reader makes a decision on which path they will choose for their story.

In this book, the author and narrator Felipe Torres Medina, purposely choose to focus on the easier paths of citizenship that is experienced by those of privilege so that he does not diminish the experience of those who struggle to gain citizenship because they are escaping violence and poverty in their countries.

While the author gives us a humorous and engaging narration, the structure of the book, requiring the listener to choose the next track, often without little time before the following track starts, makes this a challenging experience on audio. I feel that it will be much easier in a print book.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to the ALC. All opinions are my own.

Audible book Rating: 3 stars
Pub Date: Mar 11 2025

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