Hombrecito is a lyrical memoir tracing Santiago's journey into adulthood, alongside his mother (Luz) and brother (Manuel), after the family relocates from Colombia to Miami in Santiago's youth. The prose is effervescent and poetic, punctuated by occasionally blunt descriptions of yearning and desire, as well as some of the harsher realities of navigating the world as a young queer man. This style produces countless emotionally resonant passages -- even Santiago's most turbulent relationships, like with Leo and his estranged father, are rendered in compassionate terms despite their sharp edges. The tension at the heart of Santiago's journey stems from his need to negotiate the life he leads in the U.S. with the one he and his mother left behind in Colombia. It's a dissonance that comes to a climax when Santiago and Luz return to Colombia to visit Luz's ailing mother -- their relationship is the beating heart of this story and their unified journey results in a transformative moment of clarity. The last few chapters really tugged at the heartstrings. Highly recommend!

As far as queer coming of age stories go, Hombrecito is a wonder and an extraordinary reading experience that I cherished deeply. Anyone who has struggled to understand their place in the world and come to terms with the concept of family and home will see a part of themselves reflected in this book. How do we negotiate between how the people we love see us and the person we truly are? How do our relationships with our families and the things that happen to us in our early lives impact the contours and ultimately the trajectory of our lives?

In the novel, Santiago Jose Sanchez takes us on a journey through various seasons of the protagonist of the same name's life in at times profound and surreal detail. The prose here was remarkable and I was absolutely in awe of Sanchez's craft and style. In each section, we are shown a collection of images and scenes from childhood to adulthood: Santiago's beginnings with their mother and brother in Columbia, their big move to Miami when Santiago was a child, and subsequent moves through time in being a teenager seeking love, to adulthood in New York City, and a visit back to Columbia with their mother.

Each indelible moment in the narrative, both big and seemingly small, builds upon the next to shape and mold Santiago's life. Central to the novel was Santiago's growth as a queer child into a queer adult and how this pulls them in directions through time and distance that are different from Santiago's family - something I felt all too relatable. Here, I was reminded of how the events of our lives are impressed upon us in all of their sharp and at times frightening intensity. It's these events that ultimately effect the ways in which we seek family, belonging, and a sense of home in life and how our vision of these concepts can be simultaneously blurry and presented to us in wide-eyed clarity. Overall, the novel was brilliant and I highly recommend if you're looking for a moving and complex coming of age story! This will definitely be for readers of Ocean Vuong and Justin Torres.

"Hombrecito" by Santiago Jose Sanchez is, to me, the latest addition to a burgeoning subgenre of fiction which sits at the intersection of queerness and the immigrant experience. In reading this, I can't help but think of Nicole Dennis-Benn’s "Here Comes the Sun," Young Park’s "Love in the Big City," and "Countries of Origin" by Javier Fuentes. "Hombrecito" is as powerful and as tender as the human heart itself.