The Grief Keeper

April 15, 2019
A Salvadoran teen joins a grief transference experiment in exchange for asylum for herself and her family. Fearing their asylum request will be denied and they'll be deported back to a life threatened by gang violence, 17-year-old Marisol Morales escapes with her 12-year-old sister, Gabi, from an immigration detention center. The sisters attempt to trek to New York in search of Mrs. Rosen, an American woman their mother used to work for back in El Salvador. When discovered by Indranie Patel, an Indian immigrant working for the government, Marisol agrees to join a trial that will guarantee her and her family approval for their asylum applications. The catch? She must become a "grief keeper" for people with PTSD. Her first task is to convince Rey, the white girl for whom she's supposed to be a grief keeper (and who offers her a second chance at love), to wear the grief-transmitting cuff. Flashbacks provide snippets of the sisters' lives in El Salvador and the anti-LGBTQ environment they escaped and slowly chip away at the true reason for their flight. In her debut, Villasante captures the pressures of internalized racism in immigrants, for example, as Marisol worries people believe her to be stupid because she doesn't have perfect command of English. However, shifting the focus from loss and the complexities of immigration to the romantic relationship risks implying that relationships can remove grief. Will grip readers and provoke empathy. (Science fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 29, 2019
Villasante’s engrossing debut about two Salvadoran sisters recently arrived in the U.S. opens with plenty of tension: 17-year-old Marisol is being interviewed about the siblings’ request for asylum. They fled because their father disappeared, their brother was murdered by a fellow gang member, and both Marisol’s and 12-year-old Gabi’s lives were threatened, as well as their mother’s. Eventually, Marisol is offered the opportunity for asylum through participation in an ethically questionable medical trial to help relieve PTSD—by receiving and holding another person’s grief. The grief she takes on belongs to teenage Rey, who is devastated after her twin brother’s death, and to whom Marisol is immediately attracted. The girls bond over an American soap opera that Marisol loved to watch in El Salvador, but as Marisol absorbs Rey’s grief, both the experiment and their relationship unfold in unexpected ways. Though Marisol doesn’t initially reveal that others’ homophobia was a key reason for her persecution in El Salvador, her sexual identity gradually becomes clear to readers, and a closing flashback reveals a deeper truth behind the sisters’ flight. Villasante builds her novel about undocumented immigrants into a suspenseful story with credible relationships, satisfying character development, and elements of science fiction. Ages 12–up. Agent: Barbara Poelle, the Irene Goodman Agency.

June 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-What happens when an undocumented immigrant gets caught? With nowhere else to go, Marisol, who is denied asylum, gets pulled into being a psychological test subject for the U.S. government. Marisol becomes the vessel in which the CTS (corticotropin transfer system) takes place, otherwise known as the grief keeper, an experimental study on how one can take on another's shame, regret, anxiety, and grief-a useful tool for the military soldiers coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder. This hauntingly beautiful story is written in first person and dives into the themes of love and heartbreak. It deals with social issues revolving around female/female love and flawed immigration policies. Although the novel is written with simple language, every topic is tastefully handled and woven into the story. The straightforward style gives younger readers a foot in the door into the themes discussed. In the end it's truly about a girl coming to terms with her life and the pain she has gone through, learning not to be ashamed, and discovering how to love. VERDICT This book will attract those looking for a sci-fi read incorporating all types of love.-Gilly Yildiz, Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, IL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 This is a story about love and inner strength. When the lives of 17-year-old Marisol and her younger sister, Gabi, become endangered in El Salvador, they embark on a treacherous journey to America and request asylum. However, their adventure truly begins at the border, after they are caught and sent to a detention center. In an unusual turn of events that allows them both to stay safely in America, Marisol is asked to undergo an experimental procedure to become a Grief Keeper, someone who takes the grief of someone else?in this instance, a bereft teen girl named Rey. Unfortunately, Rey isn't interested in getting past the loss of her twin brother. As Marisol begins winning over Rey by earning her trust, they become friends and finally something more. Villasante writes of first love with an authentic voice, beautifully capturing its nervousness, excitement, and awe. Though the final chapters feel disappointingly rushed, this is truly a story worth reading for anyone looking for a novel dealing in PTSD, depression, immigration, LGBTQ themes, or unusual romances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)