3.5 stars rounded up for the strong ending

It was the title and the cover of this book that first caught my attention, and the premise that made me want to read it. Although I had read the description, it didn't occur to me until I started reading that the whole book is like listening to one side of a phone conversation. And at first I was confused trying to figure out what was going on. But then I went back to the beginning and listened to the audio while reading along, and the combination of the audio and the font clues really helped.

This book is Luciana talking to her sister Mari on the phone, telling her about what's going on. But sometimes it's just Luciana's voice and then her response to what Mari must be responding. But other times she's quoting something that her Abue or her mother said, and Mari may or may not respond to it, but you don't hear Mari even if she does respond. It sounds a bit confusing, but the big thing is that when Luciana is quoting someone or a conversation, that part will be in italics. Often that voice will be Abue's, but it's occasionally someone else. The narrator does change her voice for that part and it definitely helps. I didn't always get a chance to read along, so I would occasionally have to backtrack to follow the story. After making my way through most of it with the combination, I would highly recommend that method of reading this book. It's a clever and unique device and it mostly works.

There were times when I got exasperated with Luciana because I felt like she was being overdramatic, but as I thought about the book, I realized that she was a teenager in high school who always struggled with academics, was being told on the one hand to work hard in school, but at the same time being given all these responsibilities for her Abue, being the black sheep for coming out, and having to do all this with her older sister and best friend being away. I honestly felt bad for her.

In the end, the ending was what made this story for me. Luciana did a LOT of growing up, but I believe that her family did as well, as they each accepted her for who she was. I loved her relationship with her Abue, and I totally cheered her on as she fought for her at the end.

Overall, I would recommend this story, but I would recommend reading along with the narration for an extra level of immersion. I thought this was a solid debut and will keep an eye out for another book by this author in the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is such a unique way of writing that exemplified voice in a way I hadn't seen before but showed so much dimension in all the people who don't speak that I was left in awe. Really incredible story, full of heart.

Evacuating in the face of a hurricane isn't unusual for Florida residents, but when your big sister is away at college, your grandmother is refusing to evacuate, and your mother is nostalgic for a life she didn't get to live, it feel like the world is ending—especially when you're trying to get through your senior year.

Mogollon's debut uses an unusual format: one sided phone calls, allowing us to hear only Luciana's end of the tumult. The format requires a little adjusting up front, but it's an effective way to pull the focus to Luciana, allowing us to hear what's important to her while still involving her sister, Mari. Luciana's humor really shines in this format.

As if the hurricane evacuation wasn't dramatic enough, Oye's real story begins when Luciana and her mother stop to check on Abue, her stubborn, stylish grandmother, after the threat of the hurricane has passed. Something is seriously wrong with Abue, and her subsequent health issues lead to a deluge of family secrets being spilled to her closest confidant: Luciana. Luciana is plucked from what should've been the comfort of her senior year and catapulted into generations deep, novella style family drama, leaving only the open phone line to Mari as reprieve.

Oye has a lot going for it. The phone call format does end up being very effective once you're acclimated. Luciana is sharp and funny, and Abue is so unusual and lovable that I could read a whole book focused solely on, well, anything about her. Some of the family dynamic that's so crucial to the story is a little difficult to follow when we only get brief introductions to the various players. Even Luciana and Mari's mother feels a little flat, as she's not the central focus, but she is present enough that she seems to lack something. The pacing of the conclusion also felt a bit on the rushed side, though I did appreciate the focus being on the more interesting midpoint of the story. Overall, a fun debut with a lot of promise.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I really liked this! The only drawback for me was that it was hard to follow at first, as I didn’t realize that the book was essentially a one-sided phone call, but after I went back and reread the synopsis and a couple of reviews, the narration style clicked into place for me and I was able to follow the story much more easily. For a story with some intense subject matter, the phone call style and young narrator actually allowed a lot of humor to shine through. If you enjoy stories with family drama, you might like this one!

TW: homophobia, family member in poor health, cancer, family abuse

The entire novel takes place as a one-sided phone conversation over about a year between Luciana and her older sister Mari. During this time the reader is taken through a family crisis through Luciana’s eyes; both sisters are members of a Colombian immigrant family living in Miami. Mari is away at school and Luciana is trying to live her true self as a gay teen in a conservative family when her beloved grandmother falls ill and she feels that Mari is avoiding the family and therefore not supporting Luciana when she needs her most. As the only voice of reason at home, Luciana is required to step up and in doing so, also learns the somewhat strange family history and shares what she knows with Mari through these phone calls.

I am very torn on this novel; I really did not enjoy the format, it was written in this new angry yelling genre that I just cannot get into. That being said, if you pull out the yelling and the anger, there was a beautiful family drama/story underneath. I always appreciate a new type of literary mechanism and had it been done without this patent anger I could have enjoyed the narrative and format but there is this wave of storytelling recently and personally, and yes this is a personal preference, I don’t want to be yelled at while I read a book. If you are ok with this (and I am sure many people will love the creativity), you will enjoy it because I did love the family history part and the relationship between Luciana and her grandmother (and the grandmother character was wonderful) - it was the format that I just couldn’t get past.

3.5 stars

Oye tells the story of Luciana and her family, via her phone calls to her absent sister, Mari. When her grandmother faces new health problems, Luciana processes it (along with some newly discovered information about her family) by way of phone calls to Mari.

I liked the idea behind the mode of storytelling; however, the "phone calls" read more like casual but overly descriptive first-person narration. There was no space left for the reader to fill in what the person on the other end of the line would have said. I got a feel for Luciana, her abuela, and to some extent her mother; I don't really have any idea who Mari is beyond a college student who isn't home.

Overall, this book was decent, but didn't quite hit the spot for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth Books/Random House for the ARC.

It took me a little while to acclimate to the structure of the narrative - the entire story is told via a one-sided phone call between a high school senior and her absent older sister. Once I got used to the format I was able to sink into the story a little better and really enjoyed it. It's the story of a family, specifically the women centering on the relationship between a grandmother and her the granddaughter telling the tales. The family is Colombian-American and the grandmother emigrated from a hard life in Colombia. As the story unfolds both granddaughters, present and from afar learn more about their grandmother and what circumstances made her who she was and both learn somethings about themselves along the way. This family is vibrant and funny and feel so real! You will laugh, cry, and possibly want to punch certain characters a times.
I think given the style of storytelling this could be really well done on audio.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in return for a fair and honest review.

If you are in need of an audiobook, Oye should be on your radar. Listening to Oye is like listening to one very long, very dramatic, very endearing, sometimes very sad, but heartwarming voicemail. We listen to Luciana call her older sister for 336 pages or 9 hours and wow did I love this format choice. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but this coming of age family saga with telenovela vibes grabbed me from the jump.

To me, this is perfect summer reading. Engaging, quick, light, but also emotionally resonant. A fantastic debut I hope many of you add to your TBRs, but do note this does deal with a family membering going through a serious illness, so it is not all rainbows and sunshine. Thank you to @jcgren for sharing your love widely of this, and inspiring me to pick it up.

I liked the idea of this novel, told through one side of a cell phone conversation while the main character drove through Florida with her grandmother on the run from a hurricane. While it had many funny moments, in practice I found the story was a bit hard to follow.

Overall, this book had a great cast of characters and was laugh out loud funny in parts. I also loved the Spanish that was sprinkled throughout the book.

I'd recommend this for folks who like stories that you have to work a bit to understand. And people who love to laugh.

I loved this book! The story telling format was really interesting (through the phone call) and I loved the sweeping family novel and in depth characters.

This was so funny. I loved the Latina aspect of this story, I felt like I was watching a telenovela comedy series. Luciana and her abuela but heads a lot but her abuela get a serious medical diagnosis and it brings the two closer. loved it!

I loved the story of a large Columbian/American family. Very unusual presentation of the story in lots of phone calls. Story of a grandmother and granddaughter and their amazing bond.

Oye is one of those rare combinations of interesting non-traditional style plus amazing execution. It's written as a one sided phone call which is such a unique idea, but also really hard to pull off while actually telling a well developed story and Mongollon nailed it. Oye feels like being instantly transported into someone else's life. It's so personal and urgent without being overly internal or self indulgent. This combination of style and premise work so well and I couldn't put it down. I read on my e-reader but I can imagine it would also be great as an audiobook.

I'm looking forward to reading more from Mongollon in the future. Her storytelling and character development are beautifully done and the managed to feel so real. It was like sitting at cafe and the chisme at the next table is so good you can't imagine getting up to leave. Highly recommended.

While I liked all the Hispanic references and the idea of the story, I didn't love the delivery. A lot of LOL which felt unnecessary. I did like how authentic it felt and the generational stories and relationships.

This one big rambling a teen-age columbian girl, and I struggled with the reading. I basically skimmed majority of the story.

Thank you, Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Hogarth

I really enjoyed the way this book was written through one sided phone conversations the main character has with her sister. Luciana is dealing with a lot of family drama including tornadoes, school, her grandmother being sick, and her big sister Mari being away at college. I appreciated how the author told a whole family's story in a very unique way.

I LOVED this book. It was so funny and heartwarming and dramatic.

The narrator of the audiobook was WONDERFUL. This novel is written like a series of phone conversations between the main character Luciana and her sister Mari.

But while we get snippets from Luciana’s mother, grandmother, father, and aunt, we never hear from Mari, we just sort of guess what her responses are from how Luciana reacts. I found this to be a really interesting approach and I really enjoyed it on the audiobook side. It felt sort of like How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water.

Luciana loves her family so much, so passionately, her feelings are SO big.

All of her family members are a delight, the dialogue is quick and humorous, and I really loved how through this tragic event with her grandmother she learns about her family history, and also learns to take care of herself after having to spend so much time taking care of everyone else.

I’m such a believer of books finding people at the right time, and I think I read this one when I needed it the most.

I highly recommend picking this one up, especially listening to the audiobook if you’re an audiobook listener!

Thank you @netgalley and @hogarthbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters in this book. However, I had a really hard time with the format. I was originally looking forward to the phone call formatting, but the one sidedness of it made it difficult for me to sink into and follow the story.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️💫

Oye is a zany coming of age story, in which our protagonist, Luciana, will stumble into adulthood as she is unexpectantly thrust into the roles of caretaker, translator and secret keeper for her eccentric grandmother, Abue.

Oye is structured so that you feel like you are overhearing a series of conversations, worthy of a tele-novela family drama, between Luciana and her perpetually absent sister Mari. Mari has always been the favorite child in this large Columbian-American family, while Luciana, the baby of the family, seems a mere afterthought. Luciana is a high school senior, and she wants nothing more than to join her friends at the skating rink or to sneak out at night to meet girls. All that changes when Abue refuses to leave her Miami home in the wake of hurricane Irma. Cue family crisis and resulting antics. Will Luciana and her histrionic mother get to Abue in time?

There was much to like in Mogollon debut novel. She manages to cover many relevant issues to immigrants, and their second generation children—from the personal to the socio-political—with cutting sarcasm, humor and heart. If I have any complaint, it is that some readers will tire of the one-sided conversation structure which requires a great deal of repetition and flattens some characters to one-dimension. Altogether, Oye was an entertaining read, but readers are either going to love it or hate it. I look forward to whatever Mogollon dreams up next.

Many thanks to the author @MelissaMogollonWriter, @RandomHouse and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a few minutes to understand how this book is laid out. You are reading (mostly) one side of conversations between Luciana and her sister Mari. Luciana is the baby of the family and the only one left at home to deal with her Colombian immigrant family. Her sister is away at college and doing her best to avoid coming home. Her mom is a force who doesn't quiiiiiiiite understand her own mother. Her grandmother is the subject of 90% of all the conversations between Luciana and Mari. Her dad is simply along for the ride. I enjoyed the brief snippets out of him. Abue, the grandmother, is having some health issues and her daughter is in denial. Luciana knows her grandmother's wishes and tries to be the voice of reason and/or negotiator between the two, while trying to navigate her impending high school graduation and the prospect of losing her fiery, independent abuela. The author does such a good job describing Abue and I could see her clearly in my mind. She's quite spunky! All of these things help Luciana find herself and grow up a little. She gets a glimpse into adult life and how very different we all deal with grief. I'd definitely recommend this book.