narrated by Marisa Blake
Unabridged audio (9:31)
2020
326 pgs.
Adult/YA CRF
Finished 10/15/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.56 - 1060 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary migration from Guatemala to US
First line/s: "When you live in a place like this you're always planning your escape."
What I posted on Goodreads: Horrifying story of three young people (12, 14, and 16) who make the arduous, perilous journey from their barrio in Guatemala to the U.S.
My comments: What a horrifying story! Three young people (12, 14, 16) make the arduous journey from their barrio in Guatemala to the United States. Their dreams are huge but reality is more than harsh. One loses their life, the other two come very close. Fleeing horrors like we can't imagine into different horrors that are just as fatal and terrifying. It shows, with what I am sure is harsh accuracy, what happens to children that are caught on the border and detained in cages. This was an extremely difficult book to read. After living in southern Arizona for so many years, I can feel the heat of the desert and now that if I still lived there I would get up in the morning and go find an agency where I could physically actually do something to help the plight of these incredibly brave people. A hard book to get through and finish. What a story.
Goodreads synopsis: A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of desperation, escape, and survival across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña have no false illusions about the town they've grown up in and the dangers that surround them. Though their families--both biological and found--create a warm community for them, threats lurk around every corner. And when those threats become all too real, the three teens know they have no choice but to run: for the border, for the hope of freedom, and for their very lives.
Crossing from Guatemala through Mexico with their eyes on the U.S. border, they follow the route of La Bestia, a system of trains that promise the hope of freedom--if they are lucky enough to survive the harrowing journey. With nothing but the bags on their backs and the desperation that courses through their very veins, Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña know that there's no turning back, dangerous though the road ahead might be.
In this powerful story inspired by real--and current--events, the plight at our southern border is brought to painful, poignant life.
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