An affecting debut novel explores intersecting challenges in the lives of two teenage girls. Ever since Pa left, taking the family’s savings with him, Mexican American Belén has been struggling both in school—she’s flunking—and at home. Her mom is either absent or, if she’s home, crying; her older sister, Ava, works constantly to help support them. Belén conceives of her own depression as a physical, suffocating pressure. Hooking up with Alexis, a college guy who’s clearly using Belén, provides temporary relief but long-term heartache. Belén feels her life trajectory has stalled, and she struggles with a deep-seated fear that she not only looks like her father but will someday behave like him, too. And then a new complication arises: Belén’s best friend, Leti, an ambitious AP student, is pregnant. Although Leti’s Catholic parents know she’s pregnant, Leti is terrified to reveal the identity of the baby’s father; her boyfriend, Quentin, is Black, and Leti knows her Mexican immigrant parents—who often lament that Leti’s skin is so dark—will never approve. There are no simple fixes for these Oakland teens, and their lives may not look exactly as they had planned, but neither is the outlook bleak; by the end, both Belén and Leti take steps toward a more promising future. (Ages 14-18)