I received an advance e-copy of this book thanks to the publisher. All opinions are my own. Available for purchase now.
After Helen loses her teenage son in a tragic accident, she struggles to find purpose in her life. She begins to volunteer at a local community house and is paired with Mia, an undocumented Mexican teenager. She begins to help Mia with her English, with her school work, and the two quickly develop a bond. Mia’s home life is troubled and unstable. Helen pushes Mia toward a different sort of life and eventually moves her into her own home.
The story alternates chapters between Helen’s perspective and Mia’s. We see Helen’s comfortable, upper middle class life and her increasing sense of driftlessness after her son’s death. She sees potential in Mia and thinks all the girl lacks are resources and some motivation. Mia’s sections take us back to her childhood in Mexico, raised by her grandparents after her mother left for the United States. When Mia is 10-years-old, her mother returns and brings Mia back to the USA with her. But this turns out to be more because she needs someone to care for Mia’s younger half-sisters than because she truly wants Mia to be with her. Mia is sent to school with no English and they share their various homes with a variety of others, some safer for the young girl than others.
When Helen brings Mia into her home, she pushes her to apply for colleges, she takes her on tours, she encourages her to apply to universities on the other side of the country, never really stopping to ask Mia what she herself wants. At this point, Mia is estranged from her mother and her family but still feels strongly drawn to her community, particularly a young boy named Diego. Helen and her husband Don are strict with Mia, holding her to a high standard. I was appalled when they send her away to family she barely knows so that they can go visit their other son for Christmas. Mia is clearly unhappy about this and yet they do it again months later, sending her away for the summer so that they can go sailing. They bring Mia in as if they are going to treat her like their child and yet they do not include her in their family. They push her to apply for colleges but never help her deal with the emotional damage her childhood has surely inflicted on her.
The sections narrated by Helen show regret, particularly over the fact that Mia eventually runs away and it is years before the two even speak again. Helen seems to recognize that she should have acted differently but doesn’t seem to know how she could have. At no point does she make an effort to engage with Mia’s own likes, desires, or culture. She won’t even let Mia listen to Mexican music on car rides, claiming it gives her a headache.
In Mia’s chapters we follow her in the years after she leaves Helen’s home. She returns to her boyfriend, who is in a gang and eventually ends up in prison, though Mia has a baby with him first. She is surrounded by violence and very little support. Having run away from Helen, she does not feel that she can return there and she never finishes high school. While the story does eventually have a happy ending with Mia finding stability and happiness, it felt like her path could have been much smoother if Helen had actually met this young girl where she was.
Overall, the book has the feel more of a memoir than a novel and the author’s note suggests this to be heavily influence by Welch’s own experiences. Adding to this is that a lot of the story is simply told rather than shown or described. The story covers a lot of years and moves forward quickly so that we are often told about things that happened rather than seeing them unfold on the page. This creates a sense of distance and probably added to my lack of sympathy, especially for Helen. I can see why you might not want to tell such a story as a true-to-life memoir but I think it would have been better for it.
