This is the Year

Munoz Gloria,

This is the year. Yes, Ofe, on this gloomy first day of my last year of high school, I swear before your grave, Hermana, this is the year I am getting out of here.

So swears Julieta Villareal, a seventeen-year-old wannabe writer whose twin sister died in a hit-and-run a few months ago. Juli’s Florida home is crumbling in the face of climate disaster, and with Ofelia gone, Juli can’t stand to stay any longer in a place that doesn’t seem to have room for her. She’s not sure how she’s going to do it—everyone knows brown-skinned, poverty-stricken New Americans like Juli have no options—but she’s getting out.