3.5 stars, rounded up.

When 13-year-old Ruthy Ramirez goes missing, half of Staten Island thinks she is dead, the other half thinks she ran away. But what happens to those left behind by missing girls? This was an emotional story of the scars left behind by Ruthy's disappearance and a look into how different people grieve that loss.

Twelve years later, when watching TV, the oldest Ramirez sister sees a ghost - a woman who looks exactly like her long-lost sister. She instantly calls her youngest sister into action, and they hatch a plan to confront this Ruthy-look-a-like to see if it is really their sister.

What follows is a multi-perspective story of loss and hope and how a community seems to forget about missing girls of color all too quickly.

I enjoyed reading about the sibling relationship between Nina and Jessica - it felt real in a way I don't often see. Through ups and downs, these sisters fight, tease and support each other in their own way - even when the other sister does not appreciate their methods.

Coming out in March, this is a quick read about family dynamics and healing from loss. The family will have you laughing, crying and relating.

Thank you @netgalley and @grandcentralpub for the eARC!

This was one of those books that's a lot of fun, even as it's pretty sad. There's a lot of commentary about growing up as they children of immigrants, LatinX culture and of course, the effects of colonialism. The younger characters were super engaging and relatable (their mother aside - I did not love her chapters lol). As much as something can be a bildungsroman for a family, that's what this book is. Recommended to folks who like character development. 4 stars - I really liked it!

3.5/5

In What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez we follow three women, Nina, Jessica and Dolores years after the disappearance of their sister/daughter Ruthy. At 13 years old Ruthy never came home after track practice. Several years later her two sisters Nina and Jessica, find a woman name Ruby on a reality TV show called 'Catfight' who has an uncanny resemblance to Ruthy. Could this be their sister? Nina, Jessica and their mom set out to find Ruby/Ruthy and bring her home.

I really enjoyed reading this book. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is Claire Jimenez's debut novel. She does such a great job portraying sibiling dynamics and the complex nature between mother/daughter relationships. My millennial self loved all the 2000s references, the references to Boricua culture and how latina women were centered.

The writing is extremely casual. Claire did an amazing job capturing the voices of teenage Boricua girls.

The book is a bit rough around the edges. The pacing was a little off. Some parts were addictive to read while others felt slow yet also moving. There were several plot details that disappeared or weren't wrapped up by the end of the novel giving it a slightly unfinished feel. I wish the book would've been longer.

All and all a really great debut and I will definitely be picking up more books by this author.

TW: rape, molestation

DNF at 45%. You lost me at the blow -by- blow of an asinine reality show. I really don't care enough about What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez to suffer anymore to find out.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a question that runs throughout the book but is actually a statement not just about one girl but about a pressing social issue - the fate of missing Brown and Black girls. Claire Jimenez's debut novel about a girl who goes missing at thirteen years old and the family who years later spot her on a late night reality tv show is a powerful ode to the young girls and their families who live out of sight of their white counterparts.
I find it interesting to see the word hilarious being used in the descriptions of this book. For me, there were moments that could make me smile and laugh but it felt like they came from a place of sadness due to the gravity of the situation the characters were in. I found it hard to read this book from any other place and yet I remained just as hopeful as Ruthy's sisters did as they fought to get their sister back. This is a book that will take readers on a rollercoaster of emotions, one that I believe different readers will have different emotions over and yet every reader will come away from with the same necessary emotions over the treatment of missing Brown and Black girls in America.
This book is sure to be talked about throughout 2023 and beyond.

This is quite a debut. This author can write! She's written characters that break your heart, frustrate you, and make you laugh. I will read more from this author. I just didn't love this particular story. But I would like to read more from this author in the future.

I had high hopes for What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez as a debut novel with such a beautiful cover. However, I had to take several pauses from the book in frustration as a few chapters started with “to understand what happened to Ruthy…” I found myself just wanting to get to the point but understanding I needed to know the background. Parts reminded me of a friend telling me about their day but stopping to tell all the side stories that may or may not even be relevant. I read this book on my kindle which I recommend so you can have the Spanish to English dictionary handy for a few phrases. The characters are well developed as each chapter is from a different point of view but I found the story lacking in how it came together. BUT when it finally came together I couldn’t put it down.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #NetGalley #RuthyRamirez

Staten Island 1996: 13 year old Ruthy has gone missing without a trace. Her unexplained disappearance leaves behind a devastated family- her 15 year old sister Jessica, her 8 year old sister Nina, and her parents.

12 years later, Nina is newly graduated from college and back home. It’s the Great Recession of 2008 and with no career prospects, she’s forced to take a minimum wage job and move back in with her widowed mother, Dolores.

One night Jessica, up at night with her young daughter, is watching TV and spots who she believes to be their long lost sister Ruthy on a reality tv show, reopening multiple wounds that hadn’t truly healed, and sparking hope that Ruthy is alive.

Convinced Ruthy is alive and well, they make a desperate plan to find her and bring her back home.

This debut novel is ostensibly about the mystery of what happened to Ruthy, and though we get an answer at the very end, at it’s heart, it’s a story about women’s lives, the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York, and family dynamics.

Told from the alternating points of view of 4 women, mom Dolores, oldest sister Jessica, youngest sister Nina, and Ruthy herself, this debut novel is heartbreaking, smart and humorous.

Claire Jimenez’s writing is empathetic and engaging. She creates authentic and relatable voices and storylines that layer and resonate.

3.5 different then what I thought and stilted in writing. Maybe I’m not in the right headspace will possibly pick it up again in the future

This book really hooked me from the first page. Don't expect a fuzzy little Hallmark type of book. It' shows life at its worse and how it makes people over. None of the women are particularly likeable but it's understandable from what happened. Great ending.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez is a Family Fiction Story!

Thirteen-year-old Ruthy disappeared without a trace in 1996.

Twelve years later her two sisters, Jessica and Nina, are watching "Catfight", a trashy reality TV show, and see a woman called 'Ruby' who looks just like Ruthy right down to the red hair and beauty mark under her left eye.

Convinced this woman who calls herself 'Ruby' could be Ruthy, they make plans for a road trip to where the show is being filmed to take a closer look...

Reading the premise, I was excited for this one but it wasn't what I expected. I was looking for humor but it wasn't there. What I did find was an excess use of expletives and a pace that slowly rehashed the family backstory, chapter after chapter. I did continue to read because I was actually curious about what happened to Ruthy. It's what originally drew me in to this story.

As I continued, I didn't connect with any of the characters, who didn't seem to connect with each other. The characters felt mean-spirited, from Ruthy and her middle-school friends, to her sisters and her mother, and even her mother's friend. The constant conflicts felt over-the-top and impacted my overall reading experience.

I am, admittedly, an emotional reader. How I feel about a book relates back to how the book makes me feel. There was an underlying essence of 'anger' in this story that was unsettling to me. I felt a sense of relief when I finished.

There are many positive reviews and ratings of What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez and I'm glad it has found an audience.

Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, and Claire Jimenez for an ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

How can I sob at the end of book that cracked me up so much? Thank you to the publishers at Grand Central Publishers for an eARC ahead of the novel’s release in exchange for an honest review!

What Happened to Ruth’s Ramirez is a book that takes head-on the messiness of family, being in-between cultures, and the wide scope of generational trauma. It’s also a book that features a Puerto Rican auntie cutting the line at a club with her bestie from church; a No Sabo kid trying to mime to communicate with a customer despite having told her boss that she spoke Spanish; and even more hilarious scenarios courtesy of the women of the Ramirez household.

The book’s humor offers a humanizing touch to the awful things and circumstances that these characters face, and more importantly gives the narrative around missing girls back to both the girl herself and the women who are still looking for her.

Ruthy is more than a just another missing brown girl, but the book’s point is that all of these missing black and brown girls are so much more than a picture under a “Lost Child” poster.

What a powerful debut! I was all-in on the Ramirez family and its rotating quad of perspectives from the get-go; Claire Jimenez did a precise, poignant job crafting entirely different voices, circumstances, and stakes for all four women's separate points of view. (And whew, that ending!)

In terms of this book's genre and tone, I'd categorize What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez as leaning towards literary fiction with a mystery in it rather than anything thriller-related. It's certainly more of a character-driven novel than a plot-driven one, which I personally loved. On that note, I think this is a great book for those who are looking to go a little more literary with their reading but don't want to commit to something that's a billion pages long.

I also saw some reviews saying there was too much cursing in this. To be honest, I basically didn't notice the cursing at all; I'm not sure what that says about me (or the amount of time I've spent living in New York City), but personally, I thought that aspect was totally fine.

This one was a miss for me. The premise sounded so promising: claiming to be equally hilarious and haunting, a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island discovers that their sister, who went missing at thirteen (twelve years ago), may have just been spotted on a reality TV show and they devise a plan to find her and bring her home.

The violence, anger, and expletives throughout the book were so jarring that I almost DNF. The story is told through the different points of view of the three sisters and the mother. I usually find a character I can relate to or find interesting, but I didn’t like any of these women. No redeeming qualities whatsoever in my opinion. You might think, well this underlying tone of anger is a result of the tragedy they endured twelve years ago. But I don’t think so, they seem to be the same angry women, always arguing and fighting (literally) as they were when they were children. And the reality show was the worst kind of trashy reality show, which is maybe the reality show one ends up on after running away at thirteen and lives a hard life on the streets… I stuck with this one because I did want to find out what happened to Ruthy Ramirez, but even that reveal was anticlimactic. Thank you to @netgalley and @grandcentralpub for this early copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book captured my attention at the start. I was interested in learning more about the mystery and getting to know the characters .

However, I found most of the book slow going. While I could appreciate what the characters lived through., i never felt invested in their stories. The plot and chaaracter deveopment dragged.

The book came to life toward the end when the sadistic and exploitative nature of reality tv was given full rein.

I appreciate having the chance to read this ARC. This is my honest review.

thank you to the publishers for the e-copy. that opening page had me hooked since the start, if you want a fast read, with lots of depth in it, this is a good pick for you.
oh how much I wanted more from all the sisters and mother.
very much recommend.

The story is told from the perspectives of sisters Nina and Jessica, their mom Delores, and surprisingly, Ruthy; with chapters switching between them. The writer does a good job of having three distinct voices for the sisters. She also captures the crass essence of New Yorkers, which will be jarring for people not used to it. There’s a lot of cursing and slang. The beginning and the end are both very interesting and intense while the middle drags on. The writing gets sloppy, including the tenses, especially when Ruthy starts talking in third person. I was lured because I thought this book was true crime, but it’s not. It’s about generational trauma, the search for something (and someone) more, hope, denial, and the underserved. It’s clear why this is an anticipated debut novel in 2023, you just have to power through the low moments in the middle. I was genuinely shocked by the ending.

2.5 stars

Set on Staten Island and features three sisters. The middle child, Ruthy, disappears at age 13, and the Ramirez family is never quite the same. Fast-forward 12 years and Jessica is flipping through the channels when she lands on a reality tv show and it seems like she’s found Ruthy.

Jessica, now with a baby, is working at the hospital, and helps take care of her mother. Nina graduated from college but didn’t make it to medical school. Jessica asks her to move back home to do her part with their mother. She ends up with a mostly miserable job at a lingerie store at the mall.

Once they spot Ruthy, the sisters feel they have to go get her and bring her home. They plot a weekend trip to where the show is filming.

This family story never quite hooked me. I was curious enough to keep reading, but not really invested in the characters. There’s quite a bit of profanity and I liken it to a comedy show. Is that necessary to make it funny? In this case, to make it authentic?

There are some fantastic reviews for this book, so don’t let mine dissuade you if you like this type of raw family story.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is an instantly engaging story, filled with compelling characters. At its core, it's a story of a child gone missing and the women left to pick up the rubble while attempting to survive on their own. It examines familial trauma, identity, and deep pain while maintaining laugh-out-loud moments ("his corny ass' is still one of my favorites!), and reading like a group of friends telling their sides of the story. A must-read for 2023!

Damn. I am not one that solves a mystery along the way, I am typically surprised at the end. While that is true for What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez too, the story is no less gut-punching as a result. A beautiful narrative of growing up Puerto Rican in NYC and what it really means to fight for your family and fight to survive. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.