First published 2022
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner, haunted by his brother's imprisonment. But when he meets Dante, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. As they grow closer, Ari begins to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his troubled family that he's never dared to ask before. Through their bond, Ari slowly opens up, discovering new parts of himself and reckoning with the complexities of identity, belonging, and what it means to be a family.
Genres: family, literary-fiction, friendship, coming-of-age, contemporary, adolescence, 21st-century, lgbt
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, self-discovery
Setting: Tejas, El Paso (Tex.), Texas
384 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers