A review by readingwithrae
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

3.0

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because i do think this is an important book, but i still can't say i wholly enjoyed it. a good percentage of the time i was bored, and julia was difficult to like. i know that she's fifteen and is going through a lot, but she was so judgemental about literally everyone around her that it was hard to take her seriously at parts. also you don't need to have a likeable main character to have a good story, but in this case i think seeing more character development would've helped a lot. sure, she's a little different at the end, but she still goes into college barely putting in any effort to understanding her mother's perspective and still is so brash about everything? i think if we saw her learn to be more empathetic it would've improved the story a lot.

that said, there were parts i really liked about this book. the mystery of olga's life is what initially drew me in and kept me reading, and i did like that julia does soften up a bit after her trip to mexico and learning her mother's story. however, it just wasn't enough to totally sell me on this.