The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. YA)Ī Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart. Its shimmering clarity transfixes the reader, candling both damaging and redemptive familial forces. An unlikely final twist does not dilute Nelson’s incandescent writing. Readers also see what happens to the tragic players after cameras stop clicking. With sensationalized news everywhere, teens will be fascinated by Frances’s childhood at the center of a media-crazed tragedy.

Vivid, unnerving scenes from Fireless break up Frances’s present-day journey, jolting readers and placing them inside her psyche. Nelson’s teen characters emerge as unique, fully realized people with accents, physical features and emotional dimensions that distinguish them from familiar young-adult caricatures. Her boyfriend, Nix, drives, offering empathy and humor. To end these nightmarish visitations, Frances embarks on a secret road trip to face her mother. Two small sisters lie lifeless on a bed sick games turn giggles into shrieks and a mother’s saucer eyes terrify. Frances left Fireless, her mother’s dark imaginary world, years ago and found comfort in an adoptive family, but when she receives a letter from a psychiatric hospital saying “finish it,” horrific memories surface.

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson