Publishers Weekly
01/22/2024
Marie (You Don’t Have a Shot) traces the lasting effects of a teen’s death by suicide in this introspective novel. After spending three years helping to look after his grandfather, Santiago Espinosa returns to his small hometown of Greensville, Vt., for his senior year. He has not spoken with friend Beatriz since the two lost Bryce, their best friend and Bea’s boyfriend, to suicide shortly after Santiago moved away. Bea rebuffs Santiago’s apologies and overtures of friendship, having adopted an icy personality and goth style to mask her lingering pain. As the friends stumble toward reconciliation, Santiago grapples with his obsessive-compulsive disorder and his relationship with his selfish father, who has perennially neglected him to launch his music career, while Bea navigates panic attacks and avoids Bryce’s grieving family members. Though the plot occasionally feels jam-packed, Marie blends prosaic high school concerns over college, dances, and relationships with wrenching depictions of adolescents struggling to cope with a traumatic loss to deliver a tender portrayal of reconnecting after grief. Santiago and Bea are Latinx; supporting characters are racially diverse. Ages 14–up. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
Praise for This is Me Trying:
"An instant coming-of-age classic. In addition to introducing a memorable cast of characters who transcend the pages they live within, this novel explores grief with a tenderness, humor, and nuance that made me feel achingly young again." —Aaron H. Aceves, author of This Is Why They Hate Us
"Grabbed me from the very first page and didn't let go once, and I never want it to. This book does a beautiful job of taking care of the reader while not shying away from the incredibly raw and real topics of grief, mental health, and healing. Many grief books will break your heart. This one will piece it back together." —National Book Award finalist Sonora Reyes
“An honest, heartfelt story of characters who do exactly as the title suggests: try. These characters try, in the most hopeful sense of the word – to be good friends, to treat each other with kindness, to cope as best they can with unimaginable loss . . . a sincere and tender story of an ensemble cast who must learn to live a world without their dear friend and brother, and who tiptoe their way towards their own new joyful beginnings.” —Julia Drake, author of The Last True Poets of the Sea
“A powerful exploration of grief's arbitrary cruelty, enduring destruction, and bittersweet intimacies. Racquel Marie delivers complex characters and never shies away from their big emotions and terrible, beautiful humanity.” —Jen St. Jude, author of If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come
"Marie blends prosaic high school concerns over college, dances, and relationships with wrenching depictions of adolescents struggling to cope with a traumatic loss to deliver a tender portrayal of reconnecting after grief." —Publishers Weekly
Praise for Racquel Marie:
"You Don't Have a Shot has every ingredient that makes rivals-to-lovers such a great trope, but it's also so much more. It's a story of grief and loss, of legacy, of culture, of holding the things and people that bring us joy close. I don't think anyone will be surprised when I say that Racquel Marie has done it again: this is truly young adult contemporary at its best." —Jonny Garza Villa, author of the Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun
"Full of heart, You Don’t Have a Shot perfectly captures the warmth of chosen family alongside the thrill of a will-they-won’t-they rival romance. This is contemporary YA at its finest." —Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times-best selling author of These Violent Delights
"Ophelia may not have a label for her sexuality, but she definitely gives all the delightful disaster bisexual vibes a reader could hope for as she endearingly bumbles through her identity crisis...Deeply relatable." — NPR, on Ophelia After All
"Marie writes Ophelia and her friends through the hurdles and heartaches of senior spring with charm and insight, giving each character complexity and their varied cultural experiences the space, consideration, and depth they deserve. A feel-good and effortlessly inclusive coming-of-age story that deftly captures the aching tension of queer adolescence." —Kirkus, on Ophelia After All
"Look: The banter in this book alone is enough to develop a deep, life-affirming crush on Ophelia After All. But it is in the deep, loving characterization of Ophelia and her friends that Racquel Marie creates a memorable, boundary-breaking story about identity, friendship, and the messy complications between the two. Utterly remarkable." —Mark Oshiro, author of Anger is a Gift
"A sweet and tender ode to love and self-discovery. Racquel Marie's vibrant and insightful prose, and fresh, funny, fearlessly vulnerable characters make for a beautiful debut you won't want to miss. Ophelia After All is utterly lovely." —Courtney Summers, New York Times-bestselling author of Sadie
"Ophelia After All is a marvel—a clever and hilarious coming of age story with a beautifully beating heart. This is the novel you hug to your chest after you read the last page." —Brittany Cavallaro, New York Times-bestselling author of A Study In Charlotte
"Ophelia Rojas is the type of character that leaps off the page and directly into your heart—Ophelia After All is a queer delight through and through." —Leah Johnson, bestselling author of You Should See Me in a Crown
Kirkus Reviews
2024-01-19
A pair of queer small-town teens grapple with the loss of their friend.
As she begins her senior year, Beatriz Doughtery, who’s Irish and Colombian, is still grieving her dead boyfriend, Bryce, who took his own life when they were in ninth grade. His death hangs over Bea and her diverse friend group; to cope, Bea has distanced herself, hiding under her newly adopted goth look. When Santiago Espinosa returns to Vermont from California to look after his abuelo and finish high school, Bea’s furious. While almost everyone else welcomes him back, as far as she’s concerned, Santiago has been MIA since the funeral, leaving her to make sense of things without her childhood best friend. But Santi has been struggling, too: When he left town, he wasn’t on speaking terms with Bryce, and in the wake of Bryce’s suicide, that’s been an unbearable weight. Now, he’s seeking the connection with Bea that he’s lost. The story is told from both their perspectives, allowing readers further insight into Santi’s and Bea’s broken hearts. But the will-they, won’t-they drama of forgiveness drags as Beatriz and Santiago circle around each other, their collective guilt and formidable lies gnawing at them. The impact of Bryce’s suicide is prevalent throughout this novel, whose characters desperately try to reconcile themselves with their memories of a friend and urgently attempt to live in the moment.
An overly introspective dive into the murky landscape of lies, love, and forgiveness. (content warning, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)
