What a special book this is! The style of writing - a one sided phone conversation - threw me off in the beginning but once I settled into the style, it was beautiful and unique and all things in between.

Luciana is the youngest daughter of a Colombian family, initially running from Hurricane Irma, but then struggling save her family from the loss of their matriarch. Her conversations with her sister go from angry to sad, confused, to frustrated, to acceptance of all the events happening around her. Luciana is the teenage girl we feel we are, unsure of ourselves, relying on the opinions and reactions of others, but wanting more from our life. She ultimately finds it through her heartache.

Oye is a coming of age, finding yourself story that crosses generations and cultures.

the overall premise of this read caught my attention right off the bat, especially as a latina I'm always so happy to see a book that I can pick up and have the chance to feel seen by! this was an enjoyable and slightly different than what I'm normally used to and cannot wait for more readers to pick this up once it's released!

I have never read anything by this author so I actually didn’t know what to expect. At first, I had a hard time getting into the format, but by the end, I felt like I was on a phone call with my sister. As a Chicana, we talk on the phone a lot with our family and often so every time I picked up this book, I felt like I was picking up my phone! The story was fantastic and it was an amazing read! Please finish it if you are like me and had a hard time with the formatting at first—it’s worth it!

I thoroughly enjoyed the unique story telling of this novel, which is told completely from a one-sided phone conversation that Luciana has with her older (away at college) sister, Mari. As Luciana struggles to finish out high school, she also has the weight of juggling her unique family dynamics, missing her sister, discovering long buried family secrets, keeping secrets of her own, and a diagnosis of her beloved grandmother that will shake everything up.

I cannot express enough the beauty and richness of the story telling in Oye. Through only Luciana's voice (and some flashbacks of conversations that she has with others), Magollon made all of the characters so vibrant and multidimensional. I'm always looking for novels that have unique ways of telling a story, and this one definitely checks that box.

In addition to the stellar narrative, the relationship that Luciana and her Abue have is so heart warming. The juxtaposition of their stories - both beginning and both ending in different and unique ways, was perfection.

My favorite book of 2023 may just be this gem that will hit the shelves in 2024! Be sure to look for a copy in the Spring!


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy!

This was just stunning. I truly can't believe the premise of this book even exists!? I truly believe this might be the book of the year 2024. Truly a phenomenal book that everyone needs to read, regardless of the usual genres they lean towards.

I think that this will make for an amazing audio book and should it become available on PRHAudio I will definitely try it and my review will be updated based on that format.

However, for the e-arc version, I can't get into it. The writing style doesn't lend itself to my enjoyment. I wanted to become immersed in the conversational tone that the author tried to write in, but it just didn't work and I ended up annoyed. I did DNF this book because it was not a style that I could see myself sticking with for 300+ pages.

Thank you to the publisher for this copy. I do hope it becomes an audio though, it would be perfect!

This was hard to read. The writing style did not click with me. Seems to be an interesting story, but I just could not get into a rhythm reading it.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I was really interested to read it based on early reviews. Unfortunately the writing style of it being phone dialogue and texts maybe was just annoying to me. I read the first couple chapters and the last couple of chapters and it just didn't make me want to get involved. As an introvert myself, I think it was just too much talking. It was telling me instead of showing me. I did think it had a sense of humor.

I thought that I would like this book and maybe I would, but the style of writing to tell the story is way too annoying to read. Frankly, I don’t care enough to find out if it has merit just because of the way Ms. Mogollon is telling the story.

There may be an audience for this and I’m guessing it’s one that is younger than me.

Conceptually, the writing style is really interesting. It feels very experimental, in a good way. The closest I’ve come to it before in my own reading has been slam poetry, although this doesn’t fall into that category. I wasn’t particularly gripped by the story and stopped after chapter 1 (6%), but I'd be open to reading other works from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

The premise of the book is what caught my attention and the writing style was certainly unique. However it fell flat for me, I kept hoping for more of those juicy bits and what we were given was a little lackluster.

This book was very confusing. I am not sure if it was just my copy or how it downloaded to Kindle, but the lack of punctuation made it hard to follow.

This book was written as a phone conversation which was hard to get used to. It also uses very teenage language and a lot of Spanish which could be hard to many adult readers. Despite these two things, I did find this enjoyable to learn the story of the grandma unfold. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Fantastic book! Were we ever that young? Wasn't that the best time ever? I loved this. Great debut filled with family, friends, and life lessons. Don't miss this one.


Thanks to NetGalley and Random House, Hogarth for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

Who doesn’t love eavesdropping on interesting conversations? With Melissa Mongollon’s incredible novel, Oye, you can immerse yourself in some scandalous family history (and present), without fear of being caught.

In Oye, Melissa Mongollon has created a vivid, fascinating, and emotional world through several one-sided phone conversations between Luciana and her older sister, Mari. Mari has gone to college, leaving Luciana to navigate the drama of her Colombian American family.

Luciana’s Abuela, Abue, receives devastating health news, sending the family into a spiral. Abue heavily resists a visit from her sister, provoking Luciana’s interest in her family’s history. Years of heartache unfold, and Luciana reports back to an indifferent Mari. And at the same time, Luciana is dealing with her health-conscious mother’s jabs at her weight, and a crush on a cute bartender.

Once I started reading Oye, I could not stop. Luciana is a wonderful character, and the story keeps unfolding in a gorgeous way. It was like sitting down with one of my particularly animated friends. I can imagine the audiobook of Oye will be amazing. The ending made me weep; it is just perfect.

Oye is an utterly unique, incredibly special novel that brought me so much joy. I look forward to revisiting this one as often as I can.

This was my first book to read by this author but it won't be my last! This was a beautifully written novel that evokes so many emotions. Don't miss out on this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC. I really wanted to like this book since the premise was so interesting, but the tone fell flat for me. The constant frantic voice of the main character, Luciana was cloying by the end of the book. Luciana had such potential, too! She definitely has the opportunity to come of age, in multiple ways, but her voice stays consistently infantile throughout the text. I was also discouraged that the entirety of the book was in voicemails to her sister, but we never end up really getting much of the older sister's voice, everything is filtered through Luciana. For me, it was too one note.

“A coming-of-age comedy. A telenovela-worthy drama. A moving family saga. All in one phone call you won’t want to hang up on…”

Oye might be the most creatively structured novel I have come across yet! While the concept of a coming-of-age story isn’t new, Melissa Mogollon certainly figured out how to make it her own.

As the blurb says, this book really does read like a telenovela! Mogollon did an excellent job of writing a hilariously believable conversation between sisters; I even found myself laughing out loud at times. Oye’s plot and structure flowed so nicely that it truly felt like I was in on the conversation.

While the uniqueness of the format paid off in certain regards, I do think it worked against the plot just a tiny bit. Because everything was explained by one person in past tense, it distanced me from the characters little too much. Especially towards the end of the book, I just didn’t feel invested in the characters enough to be deeply affected by their experiences.

Overall, I gave Oye a solid 4/5 rating and highly recommend y’all pick it up when it releases on May 14, 2024! As always, don’t forget to check the content warnings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC of Oye!

Family dynamics, trust, and the aftermath of decisions are all accounted for in this book. I appreciate that the author explores these topics in the way that they are. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

The format of this book was unique, but to be honest it was really hard to follow. The juicy bits of story that I was able to pick up were tantalizing, but the "overhearing a conversation" needed to be balanced with a bit more substance.