A beautifully written coming-of-age novel! While reading it I was continuously rooting for Catalina, but some points in the book did fall short for me. I think it was maybe a bit chaotic, but I think there are certain people who would love this book.

Villavicencio's book The Undocumented
Americans was one of the most impactful and important books I read last year so I was beyond excited to get my hands on her debut fiction novel! Coming-of-age stories are my favorite and this is like one l've never read before!

Catalina is an undocumented student's coming-of-age story that was so dramatic and chaotic that it held all of my attention from beginning to end! The stream of consciousness style felt like a whiplash of emotions, in the best way!! I was equal parts heartbroken for her experience and also laughing out loud at so much of her absurdity and randomness! And I loved it!! As fun as it was, the novel also covers the raw and real side of an undocumented family and the tough choices and sacrifices they face daily. I invite you to pick up this novel when it comes out next week! You are in for a chaotic, messy, thrilling but resilient and insightful experience!

Catalina is the story of a 'dreamer', a child of undocumented immigrants living in the US. Being raised by her grandparents (also undocumented), she attends Harvard but will be unable to gain employment upon graduation. She thinks about this all the time while struggling with typical coming-of-age issues and that is the focus of this book. For me, the story was rambling and disjointed--I had trouble following the narrative and had to reread sections to reorient myself. The novel did give me lots to think about and I plan to pick up the author's first book, The Undocumented Americans<, for perspective.

Catalina is an excellent fiction debut by Villavicencio. The novel tracks as year in the life of Catalina, a brilliant undocumented immigrant at Harvard, Catalina navigates love and heartbreak through her experience as an immigrant with her grandparents in America. The story is told against the backdrop of the DREAMER movement and DACA and the tension and anxiety about deportation is palpable throughout Catalina’s journey. Catalina is a singular voice and many parts of this novel made me laugh with her observations. At its heart, this is a coming-of-age tale for a modern generation and Catalina is similar to Holden Caufield.
I loved this book and would recommend it if you like coming-of-age stories or multi-cultural fiction. An exciting new voice to fiction!

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After her parents tragic death, Catalina Ituralde was sent to live with her grandparents in Queens NY. When Harvard selects Catalina as one of their golden children, she is happy but still plagued by her curious and probing mind.

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicenicio is one of those special books that everyone should read. Covering her four-years at Harvard, we meet interesting characters, have awkward romances and failed interactions, all while staying perfectly Catalina.

It's a hopeful and deeply funny story about one woman trying to be everything, including what SHE wants.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a short book that was hard to connect to. I do like a lot of autobiographical novels, but this felt too thinly veiled. Maybe I'm misinterpreting that. I loved Villlavicencio's first book, so i'll likely still look out for her writing in the future.

Catalina, the fiction debut of Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, follows the titular narrator on a stream of consciousness year in the life at Harvard while she tackles the big questions of her role in the world, what to do with her life post-college, who to spend her time with, and how to consider these constructs as an undocumented person with an undocumented family, where everything is more layered and carries greater risk.

Sometimes we describe books as all plot, sometimes we describe them as no plot just vibes, and Catalina is forging its own path with what I’m hereby calling no plot all voice. This book is biting, smart, meandering, and vulnerable, with an almost anthropological commentary from a narrator who is pulling no punches. Many will compare this book to The Idiot and of course they will, but they are very different reads, though maybe for a similar audience. (also, can we talk about this cover!)

I found Catalina to be a character full of heart, no filters, insecurity, and sass... the good girl with a secret badness that leads her astray but on her own terms. It is an interesting dreamer perspective that begs to be heard more, a way of young American life that is as isolating as it is free. She is a contradiction of terms as a character and the millions of dreamers she represents. This book will stay with me awhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | One World for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Catalina takes the reader on a journey of an undocumented Harvard student. Catalina’s parents were killed in an accident when she was only a baby. She was raised by her aunt and uncle for a few years until she was sent from Ecuador to the US, where her grandparents were living with undocumented status. Her grandparents gave her the best they could, as is evidenced by her attendance at Harvard.

This novel starts at the beginning of her last year at Harvard where she is struggling on how to secure a job without “papers” after she graduates. She wins awards and gets job offers but then what? Add to it her grandfather’s immigration woes and her entanglement with a wealthy Harvard boy (who wants to teach her about her Latin roots) and his father (a Harvard Alum) and you get a glimpse into the life of this one young woman, a dreamer, hoping for a way to save herself, her family and build a life of stability.

However you feel about illegal immigration, it is heartbreaking to read about the challenges of the kids who come here and have no other home than that of the US. Deportation isn’t the answer for these kids. But limitless immigration is also not feasible. I appreciate that this is one woman’s story and there are so many others with different stories and different circumstances.

Many thanks to @oneworldbooks and @netgalley for a digital review copy of this novel.

It was mostly vibes but good vibes. This book felt so real like I was sitting down to hear one’s life story. While the subject matter is not an upbeat one, it still felt very comforting and easy to relate to being Ecuadorian as well. I think we need more stories like this one in mainstream media and I would definitely read more from this author.

Thank you to Random House and PRH audio for free review copies of Catalina.
This is an excellent book, the writing style and character exploration invited me to step back, think in more expansive and nuanced ways about first gen students where I teach, the ones I advise, the ones feeling alienated... ones trying to have a voice heard. My connection with this book is indeed influenced by work and my desire to be a better advisor and educator, this book matters. I think it will be a welcome addition to a course I teach in diversity and adolescence/early adulthood.

A few notes, despite my thoughts that overall this book is bold and brave, and needed... It can also be a hard read in places with the narrative style, some shifts in pacing near the end (it works but pacing shifts can be distracting), and also that at times not being able to fully connect with a character can feel difficult. And yet... I think of this as being what is is like to be first gen, to feel out of sync, hard to connect with the world around you, having a pace that may not be one that is familiar; I think the author in her way enables those feelings to come through and that is impressive.

Imagine a world in which talented voices don't have to fight to have access, the voices we haven't heard from yet/won't hear from because of deferred or unavailable dreams.

I wanted to love this book because I enjoyed the author’s debut novel, The Undocumented Americans, but this was not for me.

Catalina follows undocumented immigrant Catalina through her senior year at Harvard as she awaits the political decision of what’s to happen to the DREAMERS and as she steps into adulthood.

My main issue with this book was the ending. It felt out of place and weird (?) for the book and didn’t really help close the story out. When I finished, I thought to myself, really? That’s it?

I was also not very drawn to any of the characters as we are simultaneously given both nothing about them and everything that’s the matter with them.

I think I would have liked this book more if it wasn’t so obviously tied to the author’s personal life (the main character feels to be the author just in a made up scenario this time) and if there was more of a point/conclusion/closure to the book at the end.

DNF @14%

I didn't like the writing style. It was a stream of consciousness story being told by the main character.

I really Enjoyed this book! I went In blind having no idea what the story was about but was pleasantly surprised by the writing and the heart I felt towards Catalina. I’d read this author again for sure. Thank you for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Villavicencio’s nonfiction debut, “The Undocumented Americans,” was a sensitive depiction of undocumented Latinx people. Her eagerly anticipated first novel follows Catalina Ituralde, an undocumented immigrant in her final year at Harvard. Catalina recognizes that she cannot be legally employed upon graduation and her current job is an unpaid internship in media. “Usually, the only people who could afford to do that sort of thing — move to New York for at least three months and live there without making an income — came from some kind of money, which kept that world small.”

But Catalina is not wealthy. Her parents were killed in a car crash when she was a baby and, after living with her aunt and uncle in Ecuador, she now lives in Queens with her undocumented and underemployed grandparents, Catholics, who renounced the Catholic Church when “they no longer wanted the blood and gore,” and became Jehovah’s Witnesses.

For her first three years at Harvard, Catalina sought to remain invisible but, as a senior, “There was catching up to do. I felt like I was emerging whole and without a backstory, like Athena born from Zeus’s forehead fully formed.” Disheartened by her inability to obtain legal post-grad employment, Harvard had sent Catalina to the best immigration lawyer in New York who advised her that her only options were marriage or legislation. She has routinely followed the dismal path through Congress of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. She has thoughts about everything from the indignities of being undocumented and not being able to “do what we want to do,” like travel home when a close family member dies, to the limited career options available to the poor (“What Goldman Sachs was to Harvard seniors is what the U.S. Army was to me and my high school classmates”).

While I could appreciate the challenges that Catalina faces as she tends to her aging grandparents and navigates an uncertain future, the novel did not engage me. Despite her intention to “catch up” in her senior year, Catalina seems detached from her life, aloof from her friends, with the exception of Delphine, a Puerto Rican who also was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, and her budding romantic relationship with Nathaniel, the son of a famous director and an aspiring anthropologist, bored with her classes, and uninterested in her senior thesis. Perhaps it is her lack of confidence in her future that leaves Catalina seemingly adrift. Thank you One World and Net Galley for an advance copy of this thoughtful novel.

I couldn't help but hear Cornejo Villavicencio's nonfiction voice, with her previous work The Undocumented Americans, pierce through this novel. While certainly on purpose, it somehow made me a bit detached from the fictional aspects of the novel to feel as immersed as I would have liked. However, of those moments, Cornejo Villavicencio does spotlight important themes in the narrative that made me collectively invested in Catalina's relationship with the real world bursting her bubble while at Harvard, whether ICE or deportation of family members always looming. But ultimately, I found this best illustrated in Villavicencio's nonfiction work.

This is great writing but wanders a bit too much and lost me as a reader. Felt it was very similar to her memoir in style

There is much to like about Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's Catalina; the characters are compelling, and the contrast between New York and Harvard is well done.

Stream of consciousness narration runs a risk of getting lost in the sauce, and Catalina occasionally succumbs. Fantastic elements, like Catalina's grappling with her desires, can be overshadowed by belabored prose that feel straight out of an Ivy league creative writing workshop (which, perhaps, they are). It is possible to read this as Catalina's self-editing, demonstrating her desire to fit in at Harvard, but to me it felt like a huge bolder in the stream of consciousness.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Catalina Ituralde's story is a frenetic journey that captures her ups and downs. As a first-time reader of this author, I was initially drawn in by the cover. While not the best book I've read this year, I felt a strong connection to the character.

As someone with DACA, Catalina's worries about her future and navigating a prestigious university while undocumented resonated deeply with me. I remember constantly checking for DACA updates, hoping for positive news.

Villavicencio tells Catalina's story in a stream-of-consciousness style that, while expressive, sometimes distracts from deeper themes. Catalina's thoughts and daydreams give the narrative a vibrant, contemporary feel, though it can be challenging to follow at times. Moments of laughter and deep introspection were well delivered, despite occasional difficulty staying engaged.

The novel excels in depicting Catalina's emotional journey through Harvard, blending humor with harsh realities. While I admired her determination, there were times I found her character a bit unlikable. The characters, including Catalina with her witty insights, felt authentic yet some aspects felt underdeveloped.

Overall, "Catalina" is a poignant exploration of identity and ambition wrapped in an entertaining narrative. Villavicencio's blend of humor and serious themes may not satisfy those seeking a tightly structured plot, but fans of character-driven stories will find Catalina's journey compelling and thought-provoking

Catalina is the golden child, a powerhouse, and a force of nature when it comes to just about anything. Her grandparents raised her after a terrible accident in Ecuador that took her parents' life. Growing up with them in Queens, all she can focus on are the constant immigrant phantom hands pushing her to be more, more and more. She is undocumented and deportation can happen at any second. But she might as well make the most of what she can.

I picked up the book even though it is not my typical genre and I am so glad that I did. Villavicencio's writing style is so rich, decadent, and visceral. It did take me a bit to get used to the staccato of emotions depicted by Catalina in the beginning, but once I was familiar with her stream of consciousness it was impossible to put the book down. Her commentary throughout her experience at Harvard, her love life, and her Latina identity is utterly snarky and hilarious. I also adore the characterizations Villavicencio has created for the characters. Reading their caricatures makes me feel as if I know them in real life.

I would say that the synopsis didn't do the book justice. Romance isn't really the focus of the book. It's much more about the interstitial feelings, the bottomless pit of pursuance, and what it means to love in a foreign language. The book is a shorter read (just under 230 pages) but it did not feel like it's missing anything. And surely I won't be forgetting about Catalina Ituralde.

Thank you NetGalley for the vibrant contemporary ARC!