Follows one year in the life of Catalina, an undocumented citizen and Harvard student who is constantly confronted with the vast differences in her life vs those of her peers. This is told in a very stream of consciousness way that left me hard pressed to remember many specifics about the story, although I did love Catalina as a character.

This is a really interesting book, what a cool fiction debut! I had a bit of a hard time staying focused because this book is mostly stream of consciousness and kind of roams all over the place but that’s also part of the charm. It’s very no plot, just vibes. A great addition to the campus coming-of-age canon, and a welcome Latin American voice.

How Much Are You Allowed to Dream

Graduate from Harvard and you have it made. The world is your oyster– your future’s so bright you gotta wear shades. You are seen as the cream of the crop, the brightest of the bright.

Catalina Ituralde is in her last year at Harvard. She is not your typical undergraduate, though– there is very little typical about her. She is an orphan from Ecuador, undocumented, and being raised by her undocumented grandparents. Having arrived here at a very young age, she has always felt an outsider, seen as an “other.” Her grades have propelled her into Harvard, but an uncertain future beyond graduation has her overwhelmed at times. From outside it seems she has won life’s lottery; a Cinderella story of a poor immigrant girl who is living the American dream. Inside, she often feels immobilized by the high expectations everyone has set for her.

Catalina does not remain a victim. She understands she is living with the ultra-privileged and refuses to be intimidated. She is attracted to the good-looking Nathaniel Wheeler, the son of a famous film director. She even fantasizes about a life with him, that people will say she found “a good man.” She quickly rejects this trap at their romantic peak. “He fell asleep on top of me. I was too young to have men fall asleep on top of me.” She kisses him and sneaks across to a Denny’s, “desperate to do something I could not take back.”

The sudden threat of the deportation of her grandparents abruptly brings Catalina’s focus beyond campus walls. Even as she makes a stand to save her family, she finds herself being used as a liberal cause, a curiosity. This will not stand.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is one of Harvard’s first undocumented graduates. This is her first novel, following the success of her nonfiction “The Undocumented Americans.” There is obviously a lot drawn from her life experiences, but she has succeeded in creating a bold, fearless woman who refuses to be confined by the expectations of others.

Thank you to Random House / One World and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Catalina #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Catalina Ituralde, born in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, is finishing her senior year at Harvard as Congress debates the Dream Act (2010 - 2011). Beneath her high-achievement and assimilation, Catalina is hiding fear and loneliness. After her parents were killed in a car wreck when she was an infant, she lived with an aunt and uncle before settling with her grandparents in New York City. Becoming a "dreamer" would allow Catalina so many opportunities - the ability to visit Ecuador, be employed, and stop worrying about her grandfather's immigration status.

Catalina is struggling with her mental health while meeting all the social expectations of attending Harvard, including dating a white man whose family studies South American culture. Her criticism of elite education, colonialism, and immigration policy are biting and enjoyable. When Catalina is overtaken by depression and fear and anxiety, it feels both inevitable and heartbreaking.

I was first introduced to Cornejo Villavicencio in her nonfiction - The Undocumented Americans. Her compassion, empathy, and social activism transferred well into Catalina's fictional world.

A heartbreaking coming-of-age novel, Catalina follows the titular character as she navigates her senior year at an Ivy League school while facing the reality of what she may or may not be able to do next as an undocumented American.

Catalina is strong, smart, quick-witted, funny, and increasingly jaded in this Pre-DACA novel. This short novel dives into not only the financial and political toll around being undocumented, but the mental and emotional toll. The stream-of-consciousness style of the writing made it so eye-opening and understandable what life can be like for undocumented Americans.

Catalina is a senior at Harvard, preparing to graduate to a world of uncertainty - she's undocumented. The Dream Act keeps losing. She's both excited and terrified about her future.

Catalina, the book and the character, are both very funny. She has a wry sense of humor and the book is full of pop cultural references from learning "about American electoral politics...from what Jon Stewart explained on The Daily Show" to musing about her potential boyfriend: "If I made my eyes glaze over, like really glaze over, he looked like the drummer from the Strokes".

The humor and self-awareness make Catalina and her plight real. As a reader, you care about her, and this is the genius to Villavicencio's novel - making the stories you hear about in the news come alive with a seemingly real character. She knows what she's writing about, as she's one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard. It makes me want to read "The Undocumented Americans", her non-fiction work published in 2020.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the digital ARC.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Random House | One World for allowing me to read and review Catalina on NetGalley.

Published: 07/23/24

Stars: 2

A complete miss and waste of my time. I didn't like any of the characters. I didn't see a story. I did see profanity and shock sex scene. Absolutely not for me.

A powerful and evocative novel that delves into the complexities of identity, family, and the search for belonging. The story follows Catalina, a young woman navigating the challenges of her life while grappling with her heritage and personal struggles. Villavicencio's writing is both lyrical and raw, bringing Catalina’s experiences to life with emotional depth. The book stands out for its honest and introspective look at personal and cultural identity. Villavicencio’s storytelling is engaging, and the characters feel vividly real, making it a compelling read.

Catalina is a DACA student attending Harvard University and living with her undocumented grandparents. The fears and uncertainty about her future drive the story. Catalina's inner dialog, at times, is hard to keep up with, but her panic about what the future may hold for her is clear. I found myself understanding and empathizing with the story of the dreamers through Catalina's stream of consciousness. Although the character is fictional, the story is as real as it gets for countless people. The book is short amd reads fast. Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Catalina in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC of Catalina. I am usually skeptical of coming of age novels but Catalina was refreshing and I found that the chaos with which the author navigates this story to be pretty in line with what this book is about, which is Catalina navigating life at Harvard as an Ecuadorian immigrant. It's pretty unhinged and will keep you reeling, and while I am telling myself that was the point, I'm not entirely sure if it actually was.

Villavicencio always has a really unique way of balancing the content and style of her stories, and her debut novel is no exception. She delivers observations about the world—pop culture, university life, the government, whatever—with precise, concise judgments; she also waxes poetic on (random?) tangents, like a two page daydream about an imagined life with a male friend. I can't say it bothers me, but it's certainly a choice, and one that keeps the story moving along but also keeps the reader on their toes.

Having read Villavicencio's nonfiction before, I can't say that this novel makes me want to rush out to buy whatever she comes up with next, but I think I'll be thinking about Catalina (both the character and the book) for quite a while. I think it would be a good fit for readers of Win Me Something or Real Life.

Thank you to Random House/One World for the opportunity to read and review!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read this in one sitting on an airplane and not once did I feel like putting it down. Throughout the novel I was waiting for some big twist or crisis to happen, and while plenty goes down, this felt more like a snapshot in our main character’s life. Each character felt real and microagressions and outright racism was shown in such a realistic way that I truly felt like I have met a few of these people before. It left me with plenty to think about - as did Undocumented Americans - and I can’t wait to see what this author continues to create. Thank you NetGalley!

A wonderful fiction debut by the author of The Undocumented Americans. This was a wonderful (fictionalized) account of the year in the life of an undocumented woman who came to live with her also undocumented grandparents. I didn't love the stream of consciousness format of the novel, but the author's beautiful writing and compelling story was enough to make me overlook that.

I am not typically someone who likes character-driven books and I was really worried to see that this book was for people who liked Sally Rooney and/or "My Year of Rest and Relaxation." HOWEVER, this book greatly exceeded all my expectations.

Catalina is a wonderful character study of a DREAMER raised in NYC who is in her third year at Harvard. It was sad, complex, and incomplete. Catalina is a messy character who wants to be loved but doesn't really seem to love anything herself. It also deals with the really uncomfortable feelings associated with white Americans studying your culture and acting like they're the experts. And of course, the fact that the "artifacts" were things stolen from burial sites, etc. If that wasn't enough, it talks about being undocumented in the late aughts and being raised by your grandparents while the rest of your family, who you'll never get to see, are back home in Ecuador.

It was such a sad book but so beautifully told and I just wanted to give Catalina a hug.

I loved this author’s memoir, but I had a hard time with this book.it felt very ya, but it was a coming of age college story so that could be why. Good writing

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for this advance copy.

Catalina is a fascinating novel about a year in the life of a Dreamer. Catalina is not a legal resident in the US but gets into Harvard, navigating the precariousness of her life while navigating her feelings about being at Harvard and spending time with people who don't have the same stresses in life. I appreciated how this novel was succinct yet full of life and depth. Catalina is naturally all over the place, pulled to her family while still trying to be independent.
I thought this was an interesting portrait and hope others will enjoy it as I did.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House/One World for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This story seems to be a bit of autofiction following Catalina as she attends an Ivy League college, is undocumented and navigates life. She came from Central America, was raised by her undocumented grandparents in Queens and seemed to achieve the pinnacle by going to Harvard. Overall, the writing and voice of Catalina She's on the brink of graduating, has been quite successful but is confronted by a world that provides so many an obstacles and challenges that most graduates from Harvard don't face. I found the way the story was written and the voice of Catalina to be a bit grating and to a certain extent whiny. I didn't find much compelling, new or interesting in the story that hasn't been written about in other novels that deal with similar topics. This was a bit of a disappointment.

I have a lot of feelings about this book and it is one that stays with you and keeps you thinking after you are finished. You really feel like you get to know Catalina. She is complex and Villavicencio does an amazing job showing the conflicting thoughts and feelings Catalina sometimes has as she makes her way as an undocumented American. Catalina was orphaned as a young girl and came to live in America with her grandparents. I love the different relationships Catalina has with each of her grandparents. It isn't always cozy, but is full of affection. Catalina is now a student at Harvard and there is the backdrop of America trying to get the DREAM Act passed. Catalina as a character is often messy and conflicted but comes across as wholly authentic. There is interesting commentary on academia and museums - preservation and colonization. All issues are raised in a way that deals with complexities and isn't just a diatribe. The pasts of the book dealing with deportation and the lengths that people are willing or not willing to go through with our immigration system were my favorites. Overall this is a thought-provoking book with layers.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC for review purposes.

An oh so uncomfortable campus novel from the point of view of Catalina--Harvard student and DREAMer. You can recognize types of people you know in the characters. The language here is lovely but I didn't connect with the story itself as much as I hoped to given how much I adored her nonfiction work The Undocumented Americans. I'll continue reading her fiction though.

ARC received from NetGalley

This book was all over the place. The premise of this novel is essentially about an Ecuadorian immigrant as she navigates her life as a first-generation student at Harvard, living with her immigrant grandparents who raised her, and everything else that comes when growing up. At first, I really liked Catalina as a main character. She was smart, dedicated, and loved her family and everything they did for her. But there was so many times as I was reading where she would talk about one thing, and then the story would take me to something so odd and out of place. Especially towards the end, where she would daydream about a man she didn't really like, I thought we had a sudden time skip happen because it changed topics way too quickly. And then the story shifted to her grandfather getting a deportation notice and she just pulled a season 4 Rory Gilmore. She threw herself out of a car (this I thought was another daydream of hers until she actually did it), she slept with her "love interest" than later went to a Dennys and sat at a booth with a random man who she let finger her (????). And the end wasn't worth it either. The topic of deportation, especially if it's a parental figure, is a very sensitive topic for me when I'm reading, so the ending being the way that it was was absolutely not it for me.

Overall, I didn't always like our main character, the formatting of the story was too sporadic for me to follow along, and the ending was absolutely not for me. I really wanted to love this book because the cover is absolutely stunning:(((