Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Danger closes in on a young fashionista. Maya Silva goes to Salomé Fashion Institute, Guatemala’s most prestigious fashion school. Though she lives in a small house with her mom in a neighborhood where it’s been increasingly dangerous lately, at school Maya can focus only on fashion, which gives her a sense of purpose. And she’s promising, too—talented enough to have a scholarship at age 16 and to rank in the top 10. However, when Lisbeth, her best friend, starts dating Oscar, a guy Maya has a bad feeling about, things become worrying and confusing. Then Maya gets romantically involved with Oscar’s cousin Sebastian. As gang violence closes in, Mama decides they should move back to her hometown, San Marcos, but Maya isn’t ready to give up her life in Guatemala City. They agree to stay put until the fashion show is over as long as Maya focuses exclusively on her preparations. But that is hard; Maya fears she’s losing her dreams for the future. Then she discovers something dark about Oscar that means leaving behind everything she’s known as she and her mother try to flee to the U.S. The book illustrates the violent consequences of structural poverty, as readers are introduced to characters trying to do the best they can with what they’ve been handed. Their desperation is communicated vividly as well as their determination to keep their loved ones safe. An engrossing exploration of youths and gang violence. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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In this heart-wrenching tale by De Leon (Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From), gang violence forces a teen from her neighborhood in Guatemala. Sixteen-year-old Maya’s love of trashion—incorporating repurposed and recycled materials into clothing—earns her a scholarship to Salomé Fashion Institute, an elite local academy. After showcasing her talents at school, she even makes a list of the year’s top 10 designers, granting her entrance to design for Salomé’s annual spring fashion show. But when her mother reveals her plan to move them from Guatemala City, and away from increasing gang violence, to San Marcos, Maya fears giving up everything she’s worked so hard to achieve. The move will require her to withdraw from the fashion show, preventing her from obtaining the winner’s prize money and opportunity to sell her designs to a boutique, and her budding romance with the cousin of a gang member is also on the line. Things get more complicated when Maya witnesses a murder, prompting Maya and her mom to flee to the U.S. Characters navigating conflicting loyalties imbue the narrative with an intense, edge-of-the-seat tone, but De Leon’s strength lies in the novel’s intimate and immediate prose, which sheds light on harsh realities surrounding structural financial precarity and forced migration. Ages 14–up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (Apr.)