Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Ander and Santi Were Here

A beautifully written love story with gut-wrenching commentary about xenophobia and deportation with an unexpected ending. I loved and cherished everyone in the book (except for the ICE agents of course).

Content Warnings

skudiklier's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was beautiful; I loved nearly everything about it. I loved the characters and their relationships, having a nonbinary main character, all the art, the way the book doesn't shy away from the really hard parts. This so perfectly captured the best version of falling in love for the first time.

This story is such a necessary depiction of how awful the United States's immigration system is, and it accurately and fairly villainizes ICE. It's heartbreaking and amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone. It made me cry but was still so joyful and hopeful in so much of it.

Also I saw a different review talking about how the gen z slang was too much, but I thought it felt pretty natural and realistic. Just to offer a different point of view with regard to that!

My only complaint is sooo small and I'm only bringing it up because I can't find any other reviews mentioning it and I just want anyone looking for this to know if this matters to them (but I'm also spoilering it because it's kind of a spoiler and also I don't want people to see me talking about this lmao):

I was a bit confused by how closed door it was? Not that I expected it to be open door from the start, but there were several little comments/lines that pointed towards it being more open door throughout the first third of the book or so. Like usually I feel like there are hints toward what will happen that help manage expectations, and this book kind of did the opposite--hinted at being open door then was closed door in the end. Which again, is fine, but I'd rather just not have had all those little comments at the beginning that made me think that. It was a little annoying. But overall not at all a huge thing in the scope of the book, and I still would absolutely recommend it and rate it 5 stars.

Content Warnings

cielosiluminado's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

the mexican-american and immigrant community were represented well, which was nice ~~and refreshing~~ to read. and while the two mcs were cute together, the pacing was too slow and the plot overall was too predictable.

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reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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beesjess's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

hobbithopeful's review

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

As beautiful as it is heartbreaking, Ander & Santi Were Here is a masterful romance about belonging, immigration, and fighting against a system not built to actually help people.
Ander is fairly content painting murals, and working at their family's' taquería. New waiter Santi immediately catches their eye, and the two become inexplicably close. But Santi is undocumented, and ICE agents aren't just a looming distant threat, they are a very present and very real one.
This is now one of my favorite books of all time. If you ever want to read any books I rec, please make this one of them.
I spent so much of the book on edge, worried about ICE and what would happen. Every happy moment, every bit of love Ander and Santi experience together just made me more nervous for the inevitable. I do think this is intentionally done by Villa, so the reader gets a small idea of the sense of impending doom that Santi experiences every day. All the racism, how ICE treats people, everything is so on the nose, so much so that it was difficult to read a times. Overall this is a very sweet and loving story, but those moments take you by surprise and hurt. I wish the world could read this, or at least every single Texan because there are so many misunderstandings and stereotypes around the immigration experience. Immigrants are truly held to such a higher and insane standard. Just because someone isn't a doctor or a genius doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to live here and thrive. America has been built on the back of immigrants, and continues to thrive off of exploiting their labor.
There is a lot of español in this book and it is written in so seamlessly and I am so happy to see the inclusion of it. Anyone who wants to complain come meet me in a dark alley...I just want to talk. People who always want to complain about español in books or even calling it spanglish never seem to have a problem with any other language or culture doing it. I spent a lot of time in San Antonio growing up, so reading this felt so nostalgic for me. All the little things I enjoyed about visiting all came flooding back and I felt this homesickness.
If you go into reading this on an empty stomach, beware! All the delicious food descriptions and mouth-watering meals had my stomach grumbling the whole time. I had to make a plan to go get pan dulce because this book made me crave it!
Ander's family is supportive, loving, and such a heart-warming and sweet spot in this. Reading all their interactions and genuine love for eachother is so nice to see. While homophobia is incredibly prevalent in the Hispanic community, it's nice to see a family that isn't like that.
Ander loves painting, and their worries and struggle with worrying about being not Mexican enough or too Mexican with their art is such a reality for so many Mexican American artists. The way their adviser was so racist and all his microaggression to Ander UGH! It made me so mad, and brought me back to my college experience.
I absolutely fell in love with this book. It is one of my new top reads of 2023, and I have found a new favorite author in Jonny Garza Villa. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS, READ IT! Now I'm going to go request Villa's entire collection from the library.
The cover for this is phenomenal. I don't often see that style of font on book covers, but it works so perfectly here. There is so much great depth and lighting in the illustration, it conveys such love and yearning. Often when I see book covers depicting BIPOC characters, especially those of a darker complexion, usually they look like a smudge because the artist doesn't understand how to draw them. I am so glad this isn't the case here. (Also obsessed with Santi's cactus crown!)

Content Warnings

sglance9's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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