A compelling coming-of-age novel that captures the struggles and triumphs of a young woman determined to find her place in the world. Estela Morales faces eviction, cultural disconnection, and public defeat—but she refuses to let setbacks define her. With honesty and resilience, she navigates hardship, identity, and love. A moving and empowering read that celebrates perseverance and self-discovery.

Why It Stands Out:
Voice and Form: The blend of poetic verse and prose enriches Estela’s emotional landscape.
Timely Themes: It engages thoughtfully with issues around race, identity, privilege, and community.
Character Depth: Estela’s internal struggle to balance ambition, belonging, and self-expression feels both intimate and universal.

Estela, Undrowning is a compelling and lyrical YA novel that speaks to the heart of what it means to seek voice and stability in a fractured world. Peña-Govea delivers a debut that’s both beautiful and timely—perfect for readers drawn to layered, emotionally honest storytelling.

4.25 stars.
Give me all of the latine (x,o) coming-of-age stories forever. Growing up, these types of books weren't mainstream and it makes my heart so happy that there are more options now.
Estela was a character that I didn't love at first but the more I read, the more I recognized that she was a kid who had been shaped by microaggressions and racism in her school/ community. Estela's character growth through the novel felt realistic for her age but there were a few things that felt a little too "easy" for them to be believable (ie. how was every single adult besides the Spanish teacher so progressive and supportive?). Overall, I loved the mix of Spanish and English as well as poetry and prose and can't wait to see more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and the author, Rene Peña-Govea for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is for fans of YA books like, “The Education of Margo Sanchez” and “With the Fire on High,” but with a west coast setting. Estela is a high school senior at the prestigious public school, Robert Frost High School. Not only is Estela “Steli” high-achieving and hyper-focused on getting into college, she’s a talented poet. At the encouragement of her AP English teacher, Ms. Álvarez, and lured by prize money she can use to pay for AP exams, Steli enters the Latine Heritage month Poetry contest. But, when an Asian American student enters the contest and wins first place, Frost and its students have to grapple with the racism and lack of support Black and Brown students face. This means Steli also has to address her own internalized racism and classism. The author adeptly tackles issues of gentrification and eviction, mental health, and racism and classism within communities of color. The romance and friendships feel authentic and Steli is relatable, complicated and has a satisfying character arc. At points, the pacing feels a bit too quick..Other enjoyable things: chino- latino and black latina representation, complicated female characters, queer side characters, conchas, and beautiful poems. I’m definitely looking forward to the author’s next work and will definitely recommend this one to my library teens. Thank you to netgalley for the e arc!

This one was a difficult read for me. The writing is engaging and the plot moves at a good pace, but the main character is incredibly difficult to either like or really understand. She is deeply suspicious of pretty much everyone, steeped in bias, seems to hate her fellow Latinx community even as she derives so much of her identity from it, and uses her education as a club with which to beat others senseless. The author absolutely addresses these issues and does so really well, but it is nonetheless unsettling and jarring to be in the head of an MC who is so consistently selfish for most of the book. There are also a few quite explicit sex scenes that seem, honestly, unnecessary as the romance plot adds little to the overarching plot and which will absolutely trigger at least some library complaints/book challenges. But maybe that's what the new adult audience wants these days?

This book is a love letter to who many of us were at 15. It presents us with the biases in our own community and it does so in a beautiful coming of age tale.
The main characters biases towards Latine ((lotto) kids who she presumes don’t study as hard as she does or care as much as she does is fueled by our parents, our teachers, our communities. They tell us you must work hard, you must work harder than anyone else, don’t let yourself rest you are here because of the sacrifices of your parents and now you must make sure those sacrifices were worth it. And when they see kids that don’t fit that they judge and so do we. But through her lens we get to see her realization, that the many stereotypes she was fighting she was also holding up by alienating the lotto kids, assuming they don’t work as hard as her, and even judging them for their use of spanish in a club flyer. When first faced with the characters biases I was frankly taken aback. Until I realized I held many of the same biases at that age. We have to learn to see past the stereotypes. Past the hot cheeto girl and see the person who’s been facing the same struggles we have all of our lives. We have to learn to not undermine anyone based on race.
We have to learn to not put others down for fighting, for caring, for speaking out.