A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
An Indies Introduce and Next List selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book
A School Library Journal Best Book
A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction
An Americas Award Commended Title
An ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project selection
An In the Margins Book Award Top Ten selection
An NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book
A News & Observer Best Book for Kids
A Gotham Book Prize finalist
Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.