From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—Mila, the daughter of an ex-hippie diplomat, has settled into her Washington, DC, high school very nicely after stints in Asia, Europe, and South America. She's a straight-A cheerleader heading into her senior year in 1993 when her mother drops the bomb: she has been reassigned to Mexico City. Although intrigued by the possibility of discovering her mysteriously anonymous father, Mila is resistant and resentful of the move. Feeling insecure when faced with the ultrarich cliques of her international high school and reeling from a date rape, her good-girl, preppy self disappears as pot, Ecstasy, acid, cocaine, and peyote become part of her routine; much of the narrative is taken up with drinking in nightclubs, procuring drugs, and bribing policemen. The famously corrupt political arena becomes personal in more ways than one. The prose is dense, full of details about daily life, and the teen packs a lot of living into her senior year (yet still manages to get into Harvard). The Mila that narrates from a later date is sometimes a little too wise and philosophical, and her attitude toward the drugs and sex that punctuate the teens' lives goes quickly from shocked innocence to world-weary nonchalance. Teens who enjoy reading about the exploits of the young, rich, and virtually parentless (think "Gossip Girl") will enjoy this book.—
Jenny Gasset, Orange County Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Milagro "Mila" Marquez, "nationless" after spending her youth in seven countries, is furious when her single mother, Maggie, a U.S. Foreign Service agent, uproots their lives again, this time from Washington, D.C., to Mexico City, where Mila will spend her senior year at ISM, the International School of Mexico. Mila's arrival is traumatic: a date rapes her and then covers his crime by spreading ugly rumors at school. Some free-spirited, drug-using students offer her escape, and gradually she finds acceptance, and even love, amid ISM's cliquish, filthy-rich student body. Like Mona Simpson's classic novel, Anywhere but Here (1987), Monroy's debut explores with insight and rich detail a young woman's struggle for independence and her tangled, volatile relationship with her peripatetic, husband-hunting mother. Maggie has never revealed the identity of Mila's father, and Mila's private search for him parallels her reach for belonging and self-determination. Monroy's absorbing view of jet-setting Mexican teens raises the deepest questions about how young people piece together their cultural and personal identities and move with confidence into the adult world.
-- Gillian Engberg --Booklist, May 1, 2008
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