I would normally go the opposite way from historical fiction, but then I saw this also featured Latinx characters AND it was a classic retelling and that was enough for me. And let me tell you, if I had missed this I would have been livid.

Ok so the characters were good, but I just couldn’t relate. The way they met and then immediately fell in love? I was so scared for them, I knew where that was heading. And I especially couldn’t relate to the way they “loved” each other so much they were willing to die for it? Because come on? Rosa warned them something like this would happen. I knew it was coming and I still was terrified for him. I loved Rosa and I really wished she could have gotten through to them. It was such a tragic thing.

I don’t usually navigate toward historical fiction, but there were a few things that called out to me with this one, so I hurried and picked it up. As a Black woman I have mostly looked at social justice and civil rights through the Black lens. I’ve read the court cases and essays etc. But I’ve never really delved into any other minority groups and how they reacted toward things back in the day. And this book brought all of this to light. And for that, I loved this even more. Any time I read a book and can learn something, then I call it amazing. And that’s what this was to me. I went and did a deep dive on what I got from this book and if you don’t know, that’s how you know I loved a book.

The romance that wasn’t a romance was ok too. I loved to see them fell into what they were. Them as enemies was the best. He was just so mean for nothing lol And then there was his little nickname for her lol I thought it was cute even though they didn’t like each other. I was disappointed by her parents because they judged him because he wasn’t like his brother. And I was mad af at him because what do you mean you ghosted her after one of the most tragic events in her life so far? But they redeemed themselves by being there for each other when they started taking everyone on. They needed each other after that, and I was glad they had each other. I don’t think they were trauma bonding either. If you paid attention throughout the story you saw it happening from the beginning.

As far as the retelling part of this, at first I was confused. I wasn’t sure where the retelling fell into play. But then I finished it and thought, ok so maybe it was told through the POV of one of the other characters, but nope. Just another love story that wasn’t supposed to be that ended badly. This only made me mad because it’s the thing that made me read this. I’ve read countless Romeo and Juliet retellings, but none that have Latinx characters, so this had the leg up. But in my opinion, it fell short on that side.

This was so freaking good. I do wish I could change some things, but overall, this was amazing. Definitely amazing enough for me to offer this up to my co-workers as one of our picks for Tournament of Books lol I can’t wait to get this in the hands of both my co-workers and the kiddos.

I really loved this Romeo and Juliet retelling. I loved hearing some new history of the Mexican people during the time of segregation. There are things that are never taught in school, so it was very interesting to learn via a fictional story. This story had me feeling all the emotions. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

Wow I honestly did not expect this book to be the way it was. It definitely started off slow, but this book resonated with me so much especially with what is happening in the US this week. And towards Mexicans none the less, it was a very good hopeful story of how things changed from the 1960s to now, but it is also a good reflection of what hasn’t changed. I really enjoyed this book and it broke my heart reading it, but it was definitely a necessary read.

Set in 1955, we follow Rosa Capistrano as she attends an all white high school. Rosa is lighter in skin tone than her family and so she is white passing, at school she goes by Rosie. Her best friend Julianne doesn't know Rosa isn't white like her, but Rosa's childhood friend Ramon knows she's going to that school to better her chances at getting into Arizona State University and achieve her dream of being a writer. One day while she's waiting for Julianne, Ramon walks up and starts talking to Rosa and tells her of the law that was recently passed to desegregated schools. She becomes nervous that her secret will be exposed, but when Julianne meets Ramon she doesn't seem to have a problem with him being different. Actually they get along great and secretly start dating. Rosa worries for her friends because she knows how cruel society can be, but Julianne and Ramon want her to help them go to prom together. On the night of prom, tragedy strikes when Julianne tells her father, the local sheriff that Ramon is her date to the dance. The aftermath is something Rosa has to deal with, her and Ramon's brother Marco work with a local group fighting for change.

The author did her research on this time period and also the history of Arizona, her home state. Throughout the novel she discusses the topics of desegregation, repatriation and the use of operation wetback that Eisenhower set in motion in 1954.

I really appreciated the author's dedication to the research and I enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet reimagining to tell an important part of history. I highly recommend this one if you're looking for a historical YA novel.


Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Teen for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This new young adult novel was powerful, engaging, and thought provoking. It is set in 1950s Arizona and follows a Mexican American girl who has been passing as white while attending a high school that will help her follow her dreams for college. When tragedy strikes she must decide what is most important to her. It has been pitched as West Side Story meets The Hate U Give and that felt very accurate to me.

I am a historical fiction lover and I really appreciated how this book captured a piece of history that we don’t often see depicted in stories. Stories about the Civil Rights Era don’t usually come from this perspective or are set in this part of the country. There is a great author’s note at the end with additional information on the historical context.

This story brought up so many different questions and things to contemplate. It didn’t attempt to answer those questions in a neat little package, but opens the way for personal reflection and discussion. I think it would make a great classroom read or bookclub discussion. I found the main character very relatable as she was not the type of activist that found it easy to speak up and be bold. She is used to not making waves and doesn’t like being the center of attention, but when things take a tragic turn she has to decide if she will keep collecting others words or if she is ready to speak up with her own words.

Trigger/content notes: racism, grief. A small amount of strong language and some racial slurs. Spice level is kissing.

This book should be required reading for all HS students. A captivating and poignant story. This book is beyond its historical context, it’s relevant today! The author has done something amazing and important with this book. Not to mention the amazing writing and story telling. She managed to weave romance and hope into such a tragic story without detracting from the main plot. The characters were well written and multifaceted. BRAVO-standing ovation. I HIGHLY recommend!

Rating: 5/5
I received an ARC for my honest opinion

Wow, this book was so raw with emotions, powerful with its words and heart breaking, yet so beautiful. In this book you will meet Rosa, she is the protagonist and the narrator of her own story and the struggles that Mexican Americans have faced with segregation and racism in US history. In this book you will see how Alcaraz uses words that just flow and bring light to what it was living in 1955. You will find Rosa’s challenges she had to overcome, the insecurities (being lighter skin color than her family and friends), her fears, her dreams, and all the normal teenage girl feelings.

This book was one of the most beautifully written books that I have had the chance to read this year. I cried, I laughed, I cried more, and I cheered. I cannot express how real Alcaraz makes Rosa feel to me, I didn’t see her as being a fictional character, but someone really tells their story. I found the pace of the book to have been fast and perfect for every moment of the book. It’s not just the events that take place in this book that kept me reading, but the main character and the choices/actions that she would take, her questioning everything and wanting to understand why and then finding a way that would bring them all together and setting up something better for the future. You will find Rosa to be a smart, relatable teenager, she has a lot of courage and strength to handle the journey that she made, and I loved that you got to see the community as a whole (all the ugly and the good). She had great growth in the book and even the side characters you will see their growth throughout the book. I loved that Rosa could have handled everything differently, but she chose to educate everyone instead. I can’t really say too much more about this book and its plot because I will spoil it.

I do have to say being a half Spaniard and half Hispanic woman that I have dealt with my own share of things like in this book. I want to thank Alcaraz for taking her time to write this very raw book, I love that the feeling from this book at the end was YOUR VOICE MATTERS.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for the opportunity to review this book.

*YA Historical Fiction at its finest*
Rosa by Any Other name is set during the 1950 Civil rights movement, and explores how to find and use your voice when you've been forced into the background by society, circumstance, and personal preference.
This book is described as a Romeo and Juliet inspired retelling, but puts an interesting twist on it, by focusing more on what happens after the tragedy.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters. This book feels like a must read for both adults and teens.

I was not expecting to be bowled over by this one, so it was a delightful surprise. This is another book to add to your lineup of twists on Romeo and Juliet, but it's got a lot more going on than many. It's set in mid-50's Arizona, amidst movements to desegregate schools, not only for Black and white students, but for Latinx students.
This brought me a lot of history I was ignorant of, including the forced deportation of Latinx Americans to Mexico in the of the 1929 stock market crash. @alcarazbooks beautifully captures the code-switching required by Rosa, as she navigates "passing" at a white school in hopes of a better future, while also very much being committed to her family and community. When an interracial relationship between two of her friends comes to a traumatic end, she has to decide whether to accept the whitewash of the events or fight for the truth.
This is about so much that continues to be relevant - intersectionality and identity in a world that works to "other" people. Grab this one for your readers Grade 8 and up , especially those who see themselves as "outsiders" .

Genuinely, remarkably good. Heartbreaking and infuriating and also so filled with hope and conviction and love! The sense of family and community was pervasive in this—it made me want to reach out and hug Rosa (and Tim!!!).

I will have so much more to say when I’m not in the “stayed up too late for one more chapter” exhaustion phase, but I wish this book was required reading, and I was so moved by this portrayal of my home state and a part of its history my high school textbooks certainly never included.

Rosa by Any Other Name by Hailey Alcaraz is an engaging Romeo and Juliet-inspired retelling set during the civil rights era, a Mexican American girl is driven to join a movement for justice after her white classmate and best friend from the barrio are tragically murdered.

A well written coming-of-age tale with characters that stood out and held me captive.
I am so happy I had the opportunity to read this book.
It brought to light real life issues. About racial and social justice.
A heart breaking but inspiring novel.

Thank You NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

There are so many rewrites of Romeo and Juliet, but Hailey Alcaraz has done something truly special with this book. I love that she centered her story more on social justice and explored a time period that I haven't seen many books written about. I am always working with our English teachers to revitalize their Romeo and Juliet units, and I think this novel would be a great addition. Not only does Alcaraz keep to the themes of the original play, but she crafts characters that readers can root for and become invested in.

You might think this is just another Romeo and Juliet rewrite — but it’s so much more than that. It’s a raw look at how Mexican Americans didn’t, and still don’t, fit into a racial category in the US and the messy prejudice it leads to. It’s a story about the bravery of young people fighting for more than the life they’re told to be grateful for. Hope everyone Latine person read this 💕

I read an uncorrected ARC of this book and did find some things that could be improved. The beginning was slow, but halfway through I couldn’t put it down and finished it in a day. If Julianne knew her dad was still racist and pretending not to be, she shouldn’t have risked anyone’s life. Being Mexican is referred to as being a different race throughout the book, and today it’d be called an ethnicity, but it does make sense for the time to not have that terminology. Another qualm, even if a Mexican has lighter skin, they can have other features that make them a POC and not white, which does come up later in the book as Rosa having to force her hair into submission. She’s never described as having light hair or eyes or any distinctly white features, but I do appreciate her acknowledging her privilege and proximity to whiteness.

Thank you to Penguin Group for providing a free ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hailey Alcaraz breathed power into the pages of ROSA BY ANY OTHER NAME. It's a girl's journey from observer to participant. It's a portrait of family and community held together by love, hope, and resilience. It's a shout of frustration. A cry for justice. A call to action.

ROSA is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, set in 1950s Arizona at the onset of the civil rights movement. Alcaraz's fair Verona is Phoenix. Her Montagues and Capulets -- Montoyas and Callihans. Romeo to Ramón. Juliet, Julianne. Will's houses "both alike in dignity." ROSA's? They are on opposite sides of the prejudiced "separate but equal" construct.

The tragedy is, sadly, inescapable in both. There is no fairytale ending. No retconning American history. Will's houses, "Go hence to have more talk of these sad things." amd exit the stage with nothing more than a slap on the wrist for driving their children to kill themselves for love. Alcaraz instead writes organization. Mobilization. Radicalization. Her story is the refusal to accept systemic racism and violence perpetrated against marginalized communities, specifically here Mexican-Americans. It's a challenge to stay under the stage lights, get uncomfortable, and face reality with open eyes.

The greatest departure from the play is ROSA's greatest strength - Rosa, herself. She is a brilliant main character with relatable doubts and inspiring courage. Rosa's journey from head down assimilation to community advocate is what kept me turning pages. Her growth is our encouragement. She questions authority. She speaks up. Marches. Chooses love. She becomes the oppressors greatest fear - educated. Oh the good trouble I imagine she gets up to long after that final page.

ROSA BY ANY OTHER NAME is the book I recommend you read right now. With your family. With your teenagers. With book club or reading buddy. Right now when injustice is rampant in our communities. Your voice matters.

On a personal note ...

My parents are childhood sweethearts. They met in kindergarten. Had crushes on each other as they grew up. Dated in high school. Married shortly after. My dad is a Ramón. My mom is a Julianne. They are four years younger than Ruby Bridges. Loving v.Virginia was law for only twelve year before they got married. I read ROSA BY ANY OTHER NAME with a brick in my hand and hope in my heart. For them.

Thank you Penguin | Viking Books for the advance digital copy to read and review.

very well done work about racial and social justice in the context of the environment and figuring out yourself and everyone else. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

I've been looking forward to reading this book for months now and I think the tears in my eyes when I turned the last page are a testament to how much it exceeded my expectations.

It wasn't difficult to resonate with Rosa's fear and frustration and exhaustion as I read on, especially given the historical context and the eerily similar events that parallel those occurring presently. Perhaps Rosa's story is set during 1950s Arizona, but those same microaggression and outright racial attacks are still being experienced by the Latinx community today and I think that was the most hard-hittting of it all.

Still, the ending of this story left me feeling hopeful. Things were not wrapped up in a pretty little bow, as things in life are often not, but it leaves the characters - and the reader - with a goal in mind. To keep fighting. To accept that there will be challenges and obstacles but to keep moving forward anyway.

I loved this book and it only solidified Hailey Alcaraz as one of my favorite authors.

Thank you @netgalley, @penguinteen, and @penguinrandomhouse for the e-arc!

Reasons you'll love Rosa By Any Other Name:
🌹 beautiful and impactful writing
🌹 the FMC finds her voice
🌹 Romeo & Juliet inspired
🌹 there's a surly best friend's older brother
🌹 explores themes of privilege, racism, prejudice, and injustice
🌹 short chapters

This was a really great surprise. Like some other reviewers, I think I was expecting a lighter book than I got (mostly from the cover and a quick skim of the description.) However, it's not a light romance (I'd argue it's not really a romance at all!) and I really appreciated that it dives deeper into concerns of racism, colorism, assimilation, group identity, collective memory, grief, and police brutality. I liked Rosa and found her easy to root for, and appreciated that her narration does not shy away from the nitty-gritty of her experiences as a white-passing Mexican American in integration-era Phoenix, AZ.

This all said, I'm not sure ROSA BY ANY OTHER NAME needed to lean quite as far into the Shakespeare inspiration as it did, and that's bringing it down a bit for me. The names of the "star-crossed lover" characters (Julianne Callihan and Ramón Montoya) immediately call towards Romeo & Juliet and Rosa(line?) and even Marco (Mercutio?) and Tim (Tybalt?) are nods. These and even Verón (Mexican radio show host, in large part the voice of the community, nodding to Verona) were nice touches... but ultimately I don't feel that Julianne and Ramón's story had enough in common with Romeo & Juliet to justify such heavy-handed references. As far as I can tell, the resemblances between their stories are that they fall in love quickly, it leads to their untimely and tragic deaths, there is a scene set outside a 2nd floor window, and that the R&Js are from vastly different and "warring" families/cultural groups. I think their story would have been stronger - or at least, felt more grounded in the historical reality - outside of the constraints of the Shakespearean influence.

Other reviewers have mentioned not loving the writing style and I can see that, but it really worked for me. I even found the bite-size chapters to keep momentum going for me which doesn't usually happen to me with chapters of that length. I also thought the newspaper clippings, though of course edited, were really useful insights into what the rhetoric actually was at the time. All said, I'll highly recommend this one, but I probably won't present it as a Shakespeare retelling.

This Romeo and Juliet retelling is fantastic historical fiction. Set against the civil rights era, it show the overlooked and often unknown moments of history.

I thought this book was enlightening and heartbreaking. I loved this book so much, even though Romeo and Juliet is probably my least favorite shakespearean story to read. Retellings-especially ones written around historical aspects and moments always make it better.

I look forward to reading more of this author, and I will definitely be getting a copy for my library when it releases.

DNF at 40%. I appreciate the concepts here, but not so much the execution, The characters are flat and uninteresting, and the prose style and short chapters made the story feel choppy,

If you loved reading Esperanza Rising when you were a kid (and I know you did from all the comments anytime I talk about it), I have your next five star read. Rosa by Any Other Name by Haley Alcaraz is a historical novel with some romance. Obviously from the title, some of the romance is of a Romeo and Juliette variety.
The novel is set in Phoenix during the civil rights era. Mexican Americans were classified as “white” under the law, so it was argued that and Brown v. Board of Education ruling did not apply to them. The separation continued. The Mexican School’s course work prepared students for homemaking and labor while the white schools included a college track.

In the novel, Rosa is trying to get through her senior year and admitted to a college journalism program by “passing” at an all white high school. A tragedy exposes her identity and forces her into activism.

There is so much to unpack in this book. Assimilation, racism, privilege, colorism, racial injustice and the “best” way to fight against it.

I will definitely be rereading this when it comes out Aug. 5th.
Thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the early peak at the e-arc.