The Everything I Have Lost by Sylvia Aquilar-Zeleny

 

Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press

Publication date: September 3rd 2019

Pages: 256

I reviewed the ebook provided by the publisher for an honest review

Julia lives with her parents and little brother Willy in Juarez, Mexico. Juarez is known as one of the most violent and dangerous cities in Mexico, and Julia writes in her diary, where the story is build on, about her daily life in Juarez. It all starts to crumble down when their car is stolen when they went to the movies with the family. Everything that Julia left in the car is lost. Little personal belongings that meant a lot to her. During the story, her dad slowly vanishes out of her life as he is always away for his work across the border in El Paso and in Juarez, working for someone unknown named Gringo. Julia visits her aunt someday in El Paso, just over the Mexican-American border. Not knowing that later in the story, her dad dissappears and she has to live with her brother at their aunts place. Her mom stays behind in Mexico and slowly on she feels like she lost her family forever. 

I really liked the gripping story of this book. It portrays a realistic picture of the harsh life in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The author  truly knows what she writes about, and I loved that it was anything but a perfect happily ending story. It was heartbreaking to read everything that happened with everything she lost during the story, and what happened around her dad, who clearly was involved in something shady. It wasn't nice at all, but on the other side this book was very realistic which I love about this book, this counts for the whole storyline and the characters. I truly recommend it!!