I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L.Sanchez

Publisher: Knopf Books For Young Readers
On Sale Date: October 17th 2017
Pages: 352
Age Range: Young Adult

Julia is a teenager living with her Mexican-American parents in Chicago. Her sister Olga died a year ago when she was hit by a car, and this has had an enormous impact on the family. Because Olga was just the perfect Mexican daughter in any way, which Julia thinks she isn't. Because perfect Mexican daughters don't get good grades and go away from house to go to college, which Julia is planning to do.Julia's parents are broken since Olga's death, but don't seem to notice that Julia is broken too. Mostly her mom projects her grief on her, pointing out everything Julia is failing at in her eyes. And her father just ignores her at all. This leads to some serious depression anxiety issues for Julia, which even lands her in the hospital, and later on, a trip to Mexico to live with her family for a while, there she learns more from her aunt about the struggles of her parents when they crossed the border from Mexico to the USA years ago, and altough all their hard work, they still are undocumented immigrants.


There is something stranger though about Olga's death that Julia can't put her finger on. So with the help of Olga's best friend Angie and her best friend Lorena, she does some serious research to what Olga did the months and days before her death and who she talked to, and investigates on Olga's old computer that only has some bad internet reception from the neighbours.
And then she finds out something really shocking about Olga's secret love life and it seems like her sister wasn't so perfect at all..

This book painted a good picture of a teen that has to deal with many serious things. Julia is dealing with the cultural expectations of her parents, and with loss, grief and anxiety. She is meeting a nice guy Connor, in a secondhand bookshop, so there is also a little love story woven into the story. Further on the book shows what it means to be a Mexican-American teen. The storyline was just very good, and all the characters too, it all felt very realistic and authentic. Julia wasn't the average nice main character, she had quite a sarcastic teen voice and I really liked that. The secret she finds out about Olga was shocking and truly added to the book, as was her trip to Mexico, which for her shown another light on her parents and things about them she didn't know. I also liked the ending, as all her hard work at school pays off and she is accepted at NYU.

Overall it is an entertaining and very good read, recommended!