4.25 stars. The beginning had me a bit worried, with way too many pop culture references and a romance subplot that started out way too corny but as it went along the story got better and more serious. The constant references to Latin American history and literature made be happy as that's exactly what I've been studying for the past 7 semesters.

I gave this book 4 stars only because I wish it was longer! Karla delves into incredibly relevant / pertinent topics surrounding immigration reform in this novel that follows Catalina - an undocumented college student at Harvard University during the senior year college. I didn't give this 5 stars only because I felt like with more pages, we could've dug even deeper into Catalina's story.

I will continue to read anything that Karla writes, her voice and storytelling are incredible. If you're a fan of The Idiot by Elif Batuman, I highly recommend picking this up too.

Catalina is an Ivy League college student and a writer, but there is one problem that continuously haunts her past, her present, and what could be a bright future: she is undocumented. The narrator takes us through four semesters (four chapters and an epilogue) of her academic and personal life where she shows the reader how every single second of her life is affected by her status. Due to the main topic, this could very well be a sad novel, but it is quite the contrary. It is funny, witty, yes sad, but still joyful and the reader gets a full sense of her complex human condition. Since at any moment Catalina could be deported to a place she long ago forgot, the emotions she goes through make sense: she feels cornered, scared, depressed, amazed, maybe even a little bit crazy, but she does not let this tarnish her dreams.
Her family, professors and she, are well aware that Catalina is smart and can do something to change her reality. At moments though, she self-sabotages, as her friend points out, because she has absolutely no idea if she will be able to survive. This book portrays the whirlwind of emotions that any human being would go through if they were faced with these circumstances. The narrator even includes the reader in her book, by asking a direct question and providing the lines for us to answer a very difficult question. The reader becomes active in the author’s narrative, which is one of the points of her book, to get across to people in her similar situation to tell them to react, to act, and to do something to change their circumstances.
Another interesting characteristic of the narrator's voice is that sometimes she references other literature books, both American and Latin American, but she does not do it for the sake of name-dropping. She speaks in the first person to let the reader meet her up close and by adding literary references, she simply makes sincere connections between her life and what she has read, she is in an academic world after all. I also appreciate her mentioning her musical references, which are varied and very Latin-influenced because this contrasts a bit with her literary knowledge and allows her to play with pop culture and canon literature.
After reading The Undocumented Americans, I was eager to read Cornejo Villavicencios' fiction and I was not let down. This is just as amazing as her non-fiction. I am looking forward to reading it on the printed version. I cannot wait to read the following years of Catalina's graduate school experience.
Thank you so much for the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this eARC!

The writing style of this book is very stream of consciousness; the plot isn't linear but rather the MC reflecting on her current and past self.

Ended up DNF'ing at 37%, it just didn't grip me like I wanted to.
I was extremely drawn to the plot synopsis, but I couldn't stick with it based on how the plot was woven. It reminded me a lot of The Idiot by Elif Batuman which I also couldn't get into, but I know a lot of people LOVE that book.

I think this is a strong debut novel, just not for me.

"We knew this was coming, it happens to every undocumented person in America. It is simply a matter of time. A close family member back home dies. You are unable to leave this country, unable to travel home, to say goodbye, to bury your dead. You can afford a calling card but, try as you might to influence the funeral arrangements, you're not there. You're in one of those nightmares where you scream and scream and nobody can hear you. It was our turn now."

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's fictional debut, Catalina, seems quite based on her own life, that which she so eloquently described in her first book, The Undocumented Americans. In Catalina, we meet the protagonist, who was born in Ecuador but sent to live with her grandparents at a young age. They are an undocumented family who lives in Queens. Karla's grandparents subject her first to the Catholic church and later became members of Jehovah's Witnesses. Catalina remembers nothing of Ecuador, and tries to learn what she can, although this sometimes comes at the cost of men's using their relationship with her to do so. Catalina attends Harvard and spends most of the book waiting for the DREAM act to pass.

One of the themes of this book was the Khipu, knotted chord devices used to record information from prehistoric times in the Andes. I may have missed the symbolism, but I did not find that this added much to the plot. Maybe it was the plot, and I missed it.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. And I wanted to love it, because I really loved The Undocumented Americans and respect the work that Cornejo Villavicencio has done and how she has used her voice to uplift the undocumented community in the USA.

#Netgalley

Dazzling, sparking, unprecedented, unforgettable; Catalina is everything which its' titular character aspires to be. I didn't want to put this novel down!

Catalina centers around a Harvard senior, an undocumented Latina, a wanna-be tragedy queen hurdling towards graduation and *dun dun DUN* real life. Our heroine just wants to be tragically beautiful so badly, it hurts--but alas, not enough. Through Fall, Winter, and Spring semester we trail our narrator along her journey to become capital-A Art in a community, a country, that wants to keep her nameless. We see her encounter her life's tragedies, but they aren't the kind anyone is willing to perceive as beauty.

Catalina is a modern girl's The Bell Jar in this propulsive coming-of-age.

This book starts as a campus novel but becomes something much more. Cornejo Villavicencio so accurately depicts the thoughts, emotions, feelings of being at a liberal arts college in the mid-aughts - the awkwardness, the invincibility and how we learn about ourselves. What makes this one to read is the amazing stream of consciousness style that is so engaging, making you feel that Catalina ia real person. We learn so much about Catalina in such a short novel, but gain insights into the unique Dreamer perspective that will have you alternating between laughing and crying. The writing jumped around quite a bit which was a little chaotic, but always came back to the theme and I finished in nearly one sitting.

Highly entertaining and a bit bonkers. Catalina is a lovable, hilarious, and chaotic lead and it was a pleasure to spend time with her.

Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

The story is as complex as it is engaging. The author weaves past and present in an immersive way. I was with Catalina when she told us about her Ecuadorean family and their life in the US, when she interned for a magazine Queens, when she sought love among her classmates at Harvard, when she fought for her family. It was entertaining and compelling. I liked the style because it seemed to realistically portray the mindset of a young Latina.

How can a book be so sad yet so funny! This author has a new fan.

I can’t say this enough, this book was so fun to read. Catalina is the star of this story, her narrative felt so real. She was chaotic, an unreliable narrator, a bit of a hot mess, and I loved it. This book does tackle difficult topics like grief and the immigrant experience in America, yet I found myself chuckling throughout. Well worth the read!

Thank you to NetGalley and One World for this ARC.

When Catalina begins at Harvard, she isn't sure what to expect - I wasn't either, being unfamiliar with Cornejo Villavicencio. A semi-autobiographical story enfolds as we follow the funniest, wittiest and most real college student I ever met! Catalina is undocumented. Her college is aware, but she keeps the secret close. It defines her as she thinks about almost every moment in every interaction of her life. Wouldn't you? She could be deported at any moment.

Living through Catalina's four years at Harvard were a breath of fresh air that I didn't know I needed. I loved her story, her realness and her sometimes crazy interactions. This story is not just about an undocumented and brilliant young woman - this story in many ways is about all undocumented young people as well as all young women! Grab this story, you won't be disappointed. Now to grad the UNAMERICANS next!
#KarlaCornejoVillavicencio #Randomhouse #catalina

A beautiful book with deep insight into the anxieties and daily life of over 11 million people in the USA. This book is a very important reminder that immigrants matter and should be able to life with dignity and justice even if they aren't perfect. Karla managed to translate raw emotion of the frustration of a young person going through seeing the government shut down their opportunity to have one less hoop to jump through.

Catalina explores themes like love, grief, depression, loneliness, perfectionism in a way that i connected to deeply.
i am not an immigrant but i am latina and the family dynamics are very well portrayed and the experiences
the beauty of this book is that she is an unreliable narrator and as a reader there was mystery to the story, she was flawed and sometimes had these trains of thought that went on but they’re so interesting and vulnerable that i just had to keep on reading even sometimes forgetting where in the story i was
it was an emotional book but surprisingly an easy read, the prose was fast paced and well written
there was a sentiment of nostalgia, regret and hope throughout the book that i enjoyed a lot

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is a novel about a young undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who is admitted to Harvard University. The book covers her senior year, a time when she is struggling with the contrast between the elitist ivory tower and her life at home with grandparents who are also undocumented immigrants. This book challenged my thinking and captured my heart in the very best way.

I highly recommend this book. The writing is beautiful and accessible. I enjoyed getting to know Catalina from the first chapter of the book and I really hope that there will be a sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF - I made my way through a decent portion of this book but, ultimately, I wasn't enjoying it. I liked the idea & I have many people to whom I would recommend but, for me it wasn't anything that drew me in or made me hungry to devour it in its entirety. I'm not sure why that is. Parts of the writing felt dry & rather more poised than I think was natural for the character so the story left me feeling as though it was stilted. Again, others will like this but, it just wasn't for me.

I have been excited about this book since I first heard about it. If you know me, you know that my favorite book of all time is The Idiot by Elif Batuman, so Catalina was right up my alley. I really enjoyed the humor and Catalina's strange encounters at Harvard. There are so many generalizations about Latin America and undocumented immigrants that this book subverts, addresses head on, and humorously explores. This book read like a big whirlwind, but slowed down in the third act for me. I wish the end was a bit more fleshed out, but I enjoyed Catalina's voice so much I didn't mind all that much in the end. Overall, I am so glad I read this and I laughed out loud quite a few times.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's "The Undocumented Americans" is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was so thrilled to read her fiction debut, especially since it was a campus novel.
Catalina is one of the most specific, well-developed characters I've read; I could picture her easily. I loved her sense of humor and reading the novel from her perspective. And Cornejo Villavicencio has an incredible sense of setting as the novel moved between Cambridge and Queens. That said, I did sometimes wish that there was more connection between the plot points -- this was a rare book that I felt could be longer because I would have loved to hear more from Catalina.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House, One World via NetGalley for providing me with this ARC! There were many ways I felt connected to this novel, particularly the depiction of how it feels to be a woman of color at an elite academic institution. The author weaved her commentary into the prose beautifully. There were aspects of this book I was more invested in than others, but overall it was a well balanced book that I enjoyed reading, especially from this author whose work I’ve read before.

As a white woman reader, Catalina opened my eyes on the everyday world of others. The heavy baggage and legacies that some carry on a daily basis while we go on with our life. The life changing hurricane that is immigration and the ramifications of the laws. What about those the system forgot?

The story of that young woman of color, from modest origins, making her way through the elitist environment that is Harvard and the empty caring words and actions is eye opening. How often do we just give to a cause to make ourselves feel good and forget about it the next second. The other brings heavy subjects like generational trauma, abandonnent and identity quest.

This book, while short, hits right where it needs to. The journey of Catalina as she discovers her true self and try to break free from her past and the expectations of others was touching. We all go through that phase in life. But who does it when everything is on the line?

There’s a gripping vulnerability to this book that isn’t lost amidst how funny the storytelling frequently is. The main character in this is absolutely chaotic in a way that is incredibly amusing, adds to the plot, but doesn’t distract from the commentary being made. This book felt nostalgic, frequently an amalgam of love, grief, longing, and humor. I don’t share any of the defining experiences that the main character goes through, but reading this book felt like a glimpse into the complicated emotions that such experiences might have brought about. I appreciated how plain the writing makes it that there is nuance to every feeling that Catalina has towards the circumstances of her existence. Every line of this book made me feel something, be it shock, outrage, sadness, amusement, or bewilderment. There were many topics addressed and parts of this book that were very heavy and emotional, and the author did a wonderful job of writing them so that they weren’t jarring or a screeching halt to the tone of the book, but rather simply another part of Catalina and her life for the reader to embrace.

None of the characters were definable by any one thing. They didn’t feel like archetypes and they evoked a multitude of emotions throughout the book. Even characters that I thought would act or respond to a situation in a certain way consistently surprised me. This book’s characters felt like real, unpredictable people, who were at times harsher, less shallow, or more easygoing than expected.

There were times when I felt that the timeline of the story was a bit confusing. Especially at the beginning of the book, things jump around a lot throughout the course of Catalina’s life, and I had a hard time pinning down what year it was when the story being told took place and determining if the story was being told by Catalina while was in her senior year or in retrospect by an older version of herself.

The story told was impressively complex and poignant; the fairly short number of pages it was written in do nothing to lessen its impact. The shifts in the narration take only as much time as necessary for clarity—it is a fast-paced story that I found impossible to be bored with. This is definitely outside of the genres and types of books that I normally read, but I’m genuinely so glad that I read it.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Groups & NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.