Diversity has long been an issue in publishing, and particularly in the children’s space, we’re finally seeing quite a few stories written by BIPOC authors about their experiences emerge. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is one such book, written by author Erika Sánchez and charting the story of Julia, a young first generation American girl dealing with her grief over her sister’s recent death.
Julia is not your typical protagonist. Not only overcome by grief, Julia also grapples with undiagnosed depression and anxiety throughout the narrative. This is not an “issues book” per se, but it does explore many of the milestones confronted by today’s teens, including suicidal ideation, feeling misunderstood by one’s parents, learning to see those parents as people, first love, first heartache, and growing apart from friends. As a guide through these murky waters, Julia is a headstrong, occasionally antagonistic narrator, and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her.
My main criticism of this book was that it tried to do too much. Too many seeds of storylines were sowed without adequate follow-through, which sometimes made the emotional journey of the narrator feel a bit… all over the map. Roadblocks to resolution felt clumsy, drawing the tension out in ways that felt manufactured. And while it’s lovely to see Julia blossom and bloom by the end of the story, some of the milestones unique to her Mexican ancestry – her quinceañera, learning to make tortillas with her mom, a quick trip back to her ancestral home of Los Ojos – felt shoehorned into the story in a way that almost felt false. Some of Julia’s struggles – with her own American identity in contrast with that of her immigrant parents; with her imperfect Spanish; with her status as a possible first-generation college student – rang true and felt earned. But some elements felt as though they were barely given lip service. At over 300 pages, that’s no surprise: my only thought is that perhaps this book should have tried to do less.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is an imperfect novel, but I’m glad it exists, and the prose and narrator will certainly carry you through this novel – the author’s first in the YA space.