The Secret Side of Empty

Gr 9 Up—Monserrat Thalia, known as M. T., describes herself as pale white with blondish hair. It's easy for her to hide the fact that she's an undocumented immigrant whose family came from Argentina to New Jersey. M. T. keeps this secret from everyone, including her best friend and her eventual boyfriend. She excels in school and by all logic should be applying to colleges, but knows that her immigration status makes that an impossibility. As she watches her friends prepare for the next steps of their lives, the teen grows increasingly hopeless, uncertain how anything positive will come of her life as long as she remains in the country illegally. She doesn't fit anywhere—too American for her parents, but removed from the American culture around her. She begins to skip school, quits soccer, and stops tutoring other teens as her misery grows. Her father's physical and verbal abuse increases as she begins to lash out at her family and withdraw from her friends. It takes interventions from various people as well as finally sharing the truth for her to begin to see a way forward. M. T.'s narration is candid and at times heartbreaking. Told over the course of her senior year, the story reveals a captivating look at the life of one young immigrant and the challenges so many like her face. Andreu deftly captures the protagonist's desires, despair, and determination in this peek at a side of American life not often seen in YA literature.—Amanda MacGregor, formerly at Apollo High School Library, St. Cloud, MN