"Catalina" is a beautifully written and captivating novel from the start. It tells the coming-of-age story of an immigrant Latina and her complex relationships with her grandparents, her home country, and the experience of being undocumented in America. This heart-wrenching tale will have you rooting for Catalina every step of the way.

The description for Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s upcoming novel Catalina promised a lot of drama and humor and while both were present, it wasn’t exactly in the manner I was expecting and it’s left me a little up in the air as far as what to make of it. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped but it wasn’t bad by any means. The stream-of-conscious approach to the narrative allowed for a lot of flexibility for things to flip between drama and humor as well as for the development of the narrator’s personality. But that stream-of-conscious approach also meant there was a bit less structure in terms of elements like the timeline which – at least based on the description – I’d thought would play a larger role in the story and am kind of disappointed it didn’t. It left me feeling a bit “That’s it? That’s all?” by the novel’s conclusion.

Catalina was raised by her grandparents in New York after the deaths of her parents in a car crash when she was an infant. She miraculously survived the crash and has excelled in academics, attending Harvard. The problem is that she and her grandparents are all undocumented. Catalina was born in Ecuador and her aunt and uncle sent her to live in New York when she was a few years old, long after her grandparents’ visas had expired and as she prepares to graduate Harvard, her own visa has long expired as well. Though there are constant rumors about legislation that will create a pathway to citizenship for those who were brought to the country as children, her future is full of uncertainty. Following her through her senior year, Catalina explores her shifting emotional mindset as she must plan for the unknown.

I think the element of the novel that left me the most dissatisfied was that there wasn’t more of a coherent overarching plot. From the description, I thought there would be more structure and more weight to a lot of things, but that ended up not really being the point. The stream-of-conscious approach to the narrative was much more reflective and expressive of the uncertainty of her situation. It also did a fantastic job of capturing her vivacious personality and her playfulness. Catalina’s narrative voice was engaging, entertaining, and kept things moving along at a nice clip… it just wasn’t really going to a settled destination. Which is actually pretty reflective of her situation and the inherent uncertainty she lives with every day. It’s clever and creative and certainly a choice… I just didn’t personally enjoy it as much as I would have something that balanced character with plot a little better. And it isn’t the ambiguity of the ending that bothers me (ambiguous endings are possibly my favorite types of endings and that aspect of this novel’s conclusion actually helped my enjoyment, though only to a degree). It’s more the fact that there weren’t clearer (or maybe more engaging) plot threads throughout.

In amongst Catalina’s musings are a multitude of thematic gems. She brings to light the ways that immigrants – particularly undocumented immigrants – are stereotyped and exoticized. Telling their personal situations and stories can be both a necessary part of the process for improving the immigration system but can also become twisted to fit specific narratives that is more about the listeners than those living them. It highlights the fact that those who are undocumented are imperfect people who break the molds of those stereotypes, but that that fact doesn’t mean they’re less deserving of the most basic elements of life. The relationships Catalina has throughout the novel often play into these themes as well… which can sometimes leave those relationships feeling flatter than I’d like.

Ultimately, for all that is included and addressed in Catalina, I was expecting it to feel more satisfying and to have enjoyed it more.

Catalina will be available July 23, 2024.

I really tried to like this one but I found myself incredibly annoyed early on. Maybe it’s because I work at an Ivy League institution, but it just did not work for me. I love coming of age stories, but something about this screamed My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I am so glad others are enjoying this book but it was just too whiney and long winded for me.

A near perfect depiction of the life of a bright undocumented young woman as she navigates the uncertainty of post-college life only complicated by her status in the US. I enjoyed getting to know Catalina, her wit, and instantly related to the trials and travails of working in the publishing industry.

Catalina's final year at Harvard pulls all the stresses of her life as an undocumented immigrant to the forefront of her mind. She was raised by her grandparents-now aging and in need of her help-after the death of her parents. This is very much a stream of consciousness novel that will make the reader feel her pain and fear, as well as spots of exhilaration, as she heads toward an uncertain future, It's a short novel which could have been longer and expanded not only on Catalina's character but also those around her. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

catalina is a campus novel that follows our titular character throughout her journey at harvard. reminiscent of selin from elif batuman’s the idiot, catalina navigates her college experience with both humor and skepticism. failed romances and awkward situations ensue (her jumping out of the car, hello?!) my favorite thing about the book was catalina’s narrative voice and her descriptions of the people and situations around her. some of the situations she found herself in verged on bizarre, and her commentary felt very vulnerable and real. also, the thread of the story with her undocumented grandparents was quite compelling, and it’s not a perspective that i’ve read from before. seeing her do everything in her power to change the situation they were in was really touching. i think the author did a great job of incorporating historical and cultural information into the story, which i’m sure isn’t easy to do.

writing this review a bit over a week out from finishing the book, i’m finding that not many specifics stuck with me. part of that’s on me as i was traveling when i read most of it, on top of dealing with not-fun life stuff. i do, however, remember that it was an entertaining distraction! easy to sink into and get carried along with catalina’s antics.

3.5 rounded up - thank you to one world and netgalley for allowing me to read this early!

I really enjoyed the writing in this book. It flowed so well and coupled with the voice of the character it made for a pleasant reading experience. My only criticism is the very long chapters but that is because of my ADHD brain.

The voice of Catalina pulls you through this stream of consciousness novel. She possesses this duality of both deep care and indifference about how she is perceived, which underlines much of her internal dialogue. Once I started, I was IN, following Catalina through her last year at Harvard and the uncertainty of what comes next as an undocumented student. At its most tender and its most biting, Catalina reflects on how being undocumented affects her ability to engage with the future, creating a temporality that makes her both resilient and crass. It’s a campus novel, a coming into adulthood novel. It’s a what happens when your family is depending on you to create their future novel. Villavicencio doesn’t give into tropes or doesn’t leave us fulfilled; her writing is as insatiable as reality and that’s what makes it important.

"Catalina" offers a compelling glimpse into the life of an undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant navigating her experience at Harvard and in the US more broadly.

Some reviewers have compared this to Elif Bautman’s "The Idiot," and that comparison is spot on. If you enjoyed that book (I didn't much), you'll likely enjoy this one too. It's very much a "no plot, just vibes" kind of read, with a stream-of-consciousness style.

I found Catalina to be more relatable and interesting than Selin from "The Idiot." Despite the minimal plot, Catalina’s journey kept me engaged. The writing is snappy and acerbic, and I laughed out loud several times.

However, I wasn't particularly compelled to pick it up until the last quarter of the book when things start to pick up. Overall, I found it to be just okay.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This one is best read quickly, as a witty campus novel with insights on immigration and some scathing commentary on Ivy League elitism and obliviousness. That way, you may fall under the narrator’s spell. The voice eschews sentimentality for frank acknowledgments of challenging circumstances and with wry observations and erudite references. I think I would enjoy this more on a second reading. I went into it trying to follow plot and character development, but these are secondary concerns in this book. It’s more like gaining access to the racing thoughts of a brilliant mind than it is like reading the carefully composed account of a practiced storyteller. Narrative threads are picked up and followed for a few pages and dropped before they lose steam. Minor characters make their impressions and, but for a few, retreat into the distance.

Catalina’s voice strains with the dissonance that implicates most aspects of her existence: an exemplary achiever with no visa, she becomes adept at the social competitiveness of Harvard but finds her quick wit unappreciated at home. Her academic curiosity is animated by contemporary concerns (with frequent references to the pitiably slow progress of immigration reform legislation), and she is often frustrated by peers and professors who obsess over artifacts that sustain the story of colonial plunder in the Americas.

The scenes that struck me most were Catalina’s encounters with her grandparents. Her struggle to live alongside them between semesters amplified the contradictions she juggles on campus. As adept as she becomes at navigating the social scene at Harvard, her home life in a family of undocumented immigrants thrums with cultural, generational, linguistic, and intellectual differences that reveal how keen an observer and brave a soul Catalina carries. The overall effect is uneven, since the campus scenes never quite rise to this level and the plot tilts heavily to the final third. There’s plenty of interest to hold a reader’s attention until then, but it leaves little time to stick the landing with the emotional oomph it deserves.

I really enjoyed the writing of this. Although I almost quit reading around the mid point because I do feel like it was another book that was just dumping a lot of information and I didn’t know if there was a point to keep reading if it was unimportant to the plot.

It was generally very chaotic because it was diary-style and our main character here is pretty unhinged. I felt like I connected with the characters and got pretty invested in what was going to happen, especially close to the end. Like other reviewers, I wish the end was just — more — but I guess that’s life, not everything gets an ending in a pretty package with a bow on it.

Someone into the contemporary - character based books would enjoy this.

I give it 4 stars.

Thanks Random House and NetGalley for the arc. ✨

Having previously read the excellent nonfiction The Undocumented Americans, I was so curious to see Karla Cornejo Villavicencio turn to fiction with her first novel, Catalina. She goes in a different direction than the traditional campus novel by following an undocumented Latina student at Harvard, alternatively preoccupied with the near-unfixable reality of her life in America and the messiness of college life: avoiding her thesis, the boy she's flirting with, going to parties, dealing with her grandparents over breaks. The book also spotlights the many ways whiteness dominates in college spaces and the ways Catalina, a bright student, handles them.

A much funnier book than I expected, the titular narrator is sharp and blunt, with a running internal commentary that ranges from jokes and snarky observations to chaotic daydreams to sad rumination about her family. We spend much of the book in Catalina's head, following her through the summer before her senior year to graduation, and not much really happens in the first few sections, until a plot picks up around her grandfather's deportation order. The book is, for lack of a better word, more vibes (and internal monologue) than plot; I didn't mind much, but I found myself wishing for a better balance or consistency, at least. It can feel a bit too meandering at points, with uneven pacing, but Catalina's strong voice keeps the book and reader going.

Catalina Ituralde, an undocumented migrant from Ecuador, being raised by her undocumented grandparents in Queens as her parents were killed in an accident. She is admitted to Harvard--a dream! An achiever, Catalina--"...infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties, and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: She is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation."

There is love, grief, longing, humor, and fear--her grandfather is in danger of being deported. Catalina is caught in between her dreams, DACA, and her undocumented. status. She also torn between loving her grandparents [and their lives and both humorous and depressing] and not--and wanting to get the better of them.

I found this an easy read and was sucked in at the start. A criticism--much jumping around and a huge gap between the start of the book--and then Harvard [most of the book]. Insight into the Harvard culture--the nepotism, privileged, monied elite. I enjoyed the parts dealing with Catalina and her fringe friends--Delphine and Kyle--who were not stereotypical Harvard students,

I mostly liked Catalina [the person] although sometimes I found her challenging.

A phrase I quite liked: "She had a front-row seat to my emotional stte..."

Much stream of consciousness,
3.5 but rounding up, probably because I just finished two books I did not like! [and I liked this book although I didn't care so much for the ending]

NB: The author also has written about her experiences as an undocumented inmigrant fron Ecuador.

I really enjoyed this book! I have enjoyed all of this author’s books. I would love to see this book adapted to film and would love to read more but it’s like this one.

Catalina lost her parents in a car accident and left Ecuador for the United States to live with her grandmother and grandfather. She goes through the worries and anxieties of finding her way in a new world. I wanted to like this book more than I did, but was still interesting.

a new dark academia book has arrived! and it is great and compelling. very well worth your read. go read it asap!!!!

This book had Catcher in The Rye vibes -- a smart wry narrator examines and tells us about her life as much as she's living it, seeking authenticity. Catalina's problems are more complicated than Holden's though, as she navigates Harvard as an undocumented immigrant, so the book carries more heart and heft.

The chaotic style won't work for every reader. The stream-of-consciousness narration felt frenetic sometimes, tedious at others. I was glad I spent the time with it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

This is the story of a young girl who was sent to this country from Ecuador, by her aunt and uncle, after she was orphaned. She comes to New York as a five year old, to live with her grandparents who are undocumented. Like her grandparents, it turns out that she too is undocumented.
We follow Catalina's life through her time at Harvard. But her situation is so tenuous and causes her so much grief that she falls into a deep depression. And this affects every aspect of her life. Catalina's is the story of so many young people, the dreamers, whose lives here are so precarious.
A wonderful look into the life of just one of these young people, Ms. Villacencia has written a very poignant story, told in novel form. Her writing is lovely and one can only hope that one day soon, the Congress will do something to change the situation of these productive people who are here through no fault of their own. I highly recommend it.

I DNF’d this book at 60%. I just wasn’t enjoying it. The characters weren’t likable, nothing seemed to be happening, and I kept finding myself wanting to read anything else. I am not going to review it anywhere but I wanted to provide my feedback here. I think I just wasn’t the audience for this book.

Catalina escapes death in Ecuador and ends up with her undocumented grandparents in Queens. She makes it into Harvard and is approaching graduation, but her status leaves her dealing with unpaid internships and an uncertain future.

In many ways, Catalina is a typical college student: Experimenting with a life of independence; learning about consequences; bound to her family but hoping to escape. On the other hand, there are moments that are certainly not typical … a wordless sexual encounter with an unknown diner at Denny’s and throwing herself from a moving car.

I think the chaos might have been just a bit too much like my own undergraduate years some 50+ years ago for me to fully appreciate this novel.