Catalina is the first novel by the author of The Undocumented Americans, a non-fiction/memoir that was one of my best books of the year a few years ago and numbers among my favourite non-fictions ever. Catalina shares some similarities with Villavicencio’s previous work – like its author, its main character grew up as an undocumented child in the US and went to a prestigious university. The story follows Catalina as she recounts her childhood with her complicated grandparents and continues through her final year at Harvard where her immigration status makes her future uncertain.

On the scale from ‘just plot’ to ‘just vibes’ this book is extrememly vibe heavy. On a sentence level, the writing is beautiful. If I were the type of person who underlines quotes I’m sure this one would be heavily marked up. Personally, though, I’m not sure the overall style really worked for me. It felt like the narrative would switch focus every few sentences, especially in the first half of the book. It was very tell-not-show and until the end of the book I don’t think I had a very strong idea of who its central character was. If you’re someone who likes a very minimal plot, you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did but for myself I struggle to unequivocally recommend it.

But seriously, go read The Undocumented Americans.

though a novel, i hear Villavicencio’s conversational yet biting & grounding voice in Catalina, just how i remember from the Undocumented Americans. the eponymous main character has a persona that no doubt brings the author to mind, but to say this is an autobiographical novel is perhaps a trite assumption and irrelevant since i am invested in the story that Villavicencio wants to tell, and not what i’d be fantasizing turning the author into a celebrity or something, a mythical figure who is in fact like me, someone with much needed boundaries.

anyway, i digress… here are some lines (oh, the nostalgic detail & resonant sarcasm (dissociation) i’ve underlined along the way~

“They got on the phone and had loud fights with my aunt and uncle, using a calling card until time ran out and the call dropped, a built-in dramatic slam of the receiver. But mostly, t they pet me and cried. At night, ! locked myself in the bathroom but who was I kidding? I was five years old. I didn’t know how to kill myself.”

“I was a spoiled princess. I hadn’t even had to cross the border. I came on a plane.”

“The smell of my childhood is bleach and mulling spices…”

“It’s hard to stop thinking like a prey animal. Best to never start, really.”

“There is only one photograph of them on their wedding day and they both look sad.

There’s something about the faces of everyone in my family and in mine. I think you can see in our eyes the kind of sadness, which is in two places at once mourning the past, grieving the future. Sad in a historically significant and visually satisfying way. Looking sad like it’s your job.”

***

i feel selfish saying this, but i wish Catalina was longer. but it was *that* good & swept me off my feet & made me wish we could be together for at least another couple hundred pages.

the novel’s protagonist & narrator, Catalina, is so self-aware she tricks me into thinking that that’s it, that was the end of that, (the novel), but as a reader, i could feel there was more beneath the clever lines and nonchalant / clean & cut & cleverly comforting yet flighty / avoidant & terse epilogue. though the climax “ended” less painfully / tragically than i had been anticipating, it felt like the author had more to say but ran out of time, will, agency? energy, or all of the above. it’s like someone said, shhh hurry up, and she did. nonetheless, i would read Villavicencio’s novel again if only because Catalina is a joy as much as it / she is a pain in the ass, in the sense that Catalina could fall into the unreliable character trope but her #grit makes her a leader of some kind, a pioneer in normalizing being a fuck up / human / & being a model undocumented citizen / human at the same time (instead of just one or the other.) she said it best after all..

“… The world was my oyster. I had been abandoned, sure, I could do nothing about the fact that I had been abandoned, but I could turn this ship around, make lemonade out of lemons, I could become the most famous abandoned girl in the world. Out of all the abandoned girls in the world, I could be their valedictorian.” - epilogue; last sentence.

& maybe i could be Catalina’s teddy bear. ugh lol

thank you again to @oneworldbooks for this advance reader’s edition & to Karla Cornejo Villavicencio for sharing Catalina as a novel; your words are echoes of love for self saboteurs trying to make sense of their worth. thank you for not letting us forget we are more than just objects & commodities but we are actually life itself and we don’t belong in museums. or maybe we do…

“Anyway, the gold was here now, just like the khipu and just like me. We could have been anywhere in the world but tonight we were here, for you.” - part three, winter break

Disclaimer: I did not finish the book.

Despite that the story was impactful in its honest protagonist. This story reads like a journal in parts and the mind of Catalina is fascinating. She has interesting, uncommon motivations for personal social things but common motivations for professional social things, like her interactions in her internship/employment. The secret struggles she endures inflict her to the point they affect how quickly she needs to adjust a situation but she always remains in control.

The writing is delicious in its blunt amusement, like glimmering reality and it is simultaneously insightful, sharing descriptions and analyses we don't normally receive from characters with the dilemma Catalina faces if the dichotomy of her worlds.

Look, am I going to be the first person to call this book “My Year of Debt and Deportation”? Yes, yes I am. I am a horrible person. But I bet you wanna read this book now.

It’s difficult to describe “Catalina,” a fictional narrative of woes, hardships, and discrimination by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. With no logical transitions, this reads like a depressive and complaining pontification about illegal immigrants in the US and the difficulties they face as being undocumented residents.

“Catalina,” provides, possibly, anthropological insight Into the human condition of these individuals and the psychological, emotional, and economic pressures that they face.

When I chose this book, I thought that it was an adventure novel, not an all-over-the-place, mishmash, train of consciousness outpouring that reads like a personal diary in the life of many woe-begotten souls.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and OneWorld Publishing for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read this ARC and give my review.
What I really enjoyed about this book was the chance to learn more about the undocumented in this country, particularly the DREAMERS. I have a much better understanding of what these terms mean and the terrible burden placed on individuals making it very difficult to achieve a contented, mentally healthy life. For this reason I feel this is an important work.
Catalina is a young woman brought to America from Ecuador when her parents died to live with her grandparents who had imigrated to America. I liked the Ecuadorian perspective as this is a country one hears less about immigrants from. The book is to tell about her time at Harvard University but we also learn much about the back story of her childhood.
I did not enjoy the style of the writing, - stream of consciousness carried to extreme. It made it very hard for me as a reader to bond with Catalina though I very much wanted to. It made a relatively short book a long arduous read for me.
In summary I wanted to like this book more than I did but would be interested in this author going forward and definitely interested in seeking out more stories about undocumented immigrant experiences.

YES! YES! YES!

I loved this story so much. Was it chaotic? Yes, but that's one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it. We get to know Catalina's inner thoughts as she goes through her senior year as an undocumented student at Harvard. We also experience all the turmoil and emotions that Catalina confronts and hides from. This story is multilayered, and I enjoyed how much the author compacted into the short story—I could've read 200+ more pages of Catalina and still want more.

Stories like this make me want to read other books that explore the same topics. As a Latina, I found it relatable and made me feel seen. I look forward to reading more from Karla Cornejo-Villavicencio.

I will post my full review on my page closer to pub day.

Thank you to Netgalley and One World (Random House Publishing) for allowing me to read the ARC.

I didn't connect with this book as I had hoped I would. I found myself skimming over parts because it was super heavy with details. I love the idea of Catalina, though. It has a beautiful cover as well. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Catalina feels like a friend who is going through so much and finally letting it all out over 3am pancakes. You're sitting across from her at the Denny's like this has been happening the whole time? Girl, why didn't you say anything?

She is a romantic and she is messy and she wants so much but she is also so aware of how much she wants and how much she can't get. A real pragmatic romantic. She is so familiar and I see so much of myself in her and yet we are also nothing alike.

I just wish this book were longer - it felt like it was cut short. Rather than breezing through graduation and post-graduation in a two page epilogue, I wanted to live it with her. It felt like someone grabbed the author's work mid-writing session and brought it to the editor. But in some ways, that tonal / pace shift felt right. The way you immediately lose touch with people after graduation and receive a cliffnotes summary of their life felt equally realistic. I just wanted more time with her 😭.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Catalina is born in Ecuador and goes to live with her grandparents in the U.S. when her parents are killed in a car crash. She's very bright and gets into Harvard but doesn't seem to fit in everywhere and worries that because she's still an immigrant she won't have the same opportunities. She has many experiences--both good and bad--but I got bogged down by all the details and didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Brimming with a relentless and immaculate ennui, this one gives big "reckless intelligence in blue-grey light" vibes.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Catalina.

Catalina's narrative felt real, chaotic and honest. She attempted to be the typical twenty year old but circumstances didn't allow this. The story started off strong but bounced all over the place, the build up fell flat in the end. The cover is absolutely stunning.

I give the book 4.5 stars. I received a free ebook from Netgalley in return for a fair review. I had never heard of the author before. I am a genX Ashkenazi Jew. I really liked this book.

I finished the book in less than 3 days. I haven't read anything like this before. The chapters were long. It wasn't easy breezy fiction. I really liked the book and the characters.

The characters were multi dimensional. This is what I like when I read fiction (honestly non-fiction too). The characters were flawed but likeable. For fiction, it has a lot of politics, history, geography, and other facts.

It's a book that will make you think. There is a subtle hint of mental health issues in the book. It's very rare to read fiction, where characters deal with depression or anything like that.

The book didn't end with a neat and tidy ending. The book wasn't predictable. It was really good.

I look forward to reading more from the author. Thank you to Karla and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance. Unfortunately DNF at 16%. The style was - as other reviewers have mentioned - very much stream of conscious and chaotic. Transitions and more chapters to break up the novel would have made the writing more digestible in my opinion.

I was blown away by this author's nonfiction book, "The Undocumented Americans", so was thrilled to get an ARC from Random House/One World and Net Galley. The book did not disappoint! Villavicencio's wry prose mixes cultural commentary on Ivy League elitism with the story of a young woman navigating typical university drama at Harvard, but as an undocumented immigrant. Catalina was orphaned in Ecuador at a young age, then raised by her grandparents in New York, and the family's immigration status adds tension to many of Catalina's relationships and opportunities. The protagonist is willing to speak her mind, and weaves in obscure and popular references to how she judges the world around her. The meandering thoughts of Catalina occasionally distracted from my ability to follow the plot, but was usually a pleasant enough tangent. Highly recommend this quick and compelling read!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

This book is written in a distinct way that is often found in Latin American literature but is definitely a style that I don't like. I find it off-putting, chaotic, and uninteresting. The chaotic spoke well to the tone of a lost and undocumented young adult trying to find herself in a very confusing time, but it was all over the place. I didn't enjoy it and I found that disappointing because if it was written in another style the story would have been spectacular.

The blurb doesn't do a great job of telling you what the story is about either. In fact, you'll pick up the book expecting one thing and will end up reading something entirely different.

All-in-all this book wasn't for me. I'm sure there will be many people who appreciate this style, particularly as the story has so much potential. I probably will not be reading anything from this author again.

1 1/2 stars

In a string of tangents and stream of consciousness, Catalina tells the story of a young woman in her last year at Harvard, while also exploring her relationship with her grandparents, religion and with herself. Being undocumented means Catalina’s future after university is up in the air.
Catalina is quite a chaotic but vulnerable main character and it’s her characterization and the way she views her life and the things around her that made it impossible for me to put this book down. Being coined as a miracle child by her grandparents Catalina sets out to be exactly that.
Set under the backdrop of 2011, this book provides commentary on being undocumented, generalizations about culture, and academia—topics that can be heavy—and yet I found that it was still funny at times. It’s hard to put into words how much I enjoyed this book and how it made me feel (nostalgic and sad and hopeful). At the end of my reading experience, it felt like I had just ended a long conversation with a friend but I was left with wanting so much more, especially with the ending but I think that is all to personal preference.
Full detailed review to come at a later time once the book is out!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for sending me the ARC.
Catalina is a chaotic look into an Ecuadorian immigrant, her experience at Harvard and largely America. She has a rocky up bringing and it largely affects her life down the line. Catalina’s story is told in a stream of consciousness way that makes it hard to follow at times. One moment she’ll be in her dorm in a depressive fugue over her lack of motivation and the next she talks about her dead parents. The romance b plot didn’t quite work for me, but one of the best parts was when Catalina jumps out of the moving car.
Some moments, I found the prose lyrical and effective. For most of the book, it felt longwinded and meandering. The book was less than 200 pages, but it took me a long while to actually finish.

This book looks at the world through the mind of a young Catalina as she navigates being an undocumented student at Harvard. As she tries to fit into a world that wasn't made with people like her in mind, we get to follow along with her experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
At times it did feel hard to follow along, but then I thought to myself that if someone was reading MY thoughts, it would be very similar. Once I was able to get into the rhythm of the story and how Catalina thought and expressed herself, it all fell into place. Being able to delve into deeper topics while being able to keep things light made this such an enjoyable read.

I had some mixed feelings about this. I did not get a feel for the places in the book at all which made the book feel kind of flat to me. Events were not described in much detail either. Feelings are great and the book did coast on vibes for a long time but eventually, I was hoping for something more real and concrete from it and it never delivered. The writing wasn't bad but there was an odd lack of connection that made it hard for me to heartily recommend the book.