Saint Death

May 1, 2017
Sedgwick (Blood Red Snow White) transports readers to the border city of Juarez in this grim study of the repercussions of U.S. policies and the market for narcotics on Mexico and its citizens. Arturo cobbles together a life in Anapra, “a little less than a shanty town,” where he is visited by childhood friend Faustino, who has gotten mixed up with the deadly local gangs and is in desperate need of money. Arturo reluctantly agrees to put his gambling talents to the test in order to help his old friend, but it’s a dangerous game, and it doesn’t end well. Sedgwick interweaves the cruel realities of day-to-day existence in a desert landscape plagued by gang warfare—where people vanish without notice and brutalized corpses appear just as suddenly—with interspersed passages that address NAFTA and other relevant social context, as well as musings that revolve around Santa Muerte, “a folk saint, a rebel angel, a powerful divinity excommunicated from the Orthodox,” to whom Arturo devotes himself. The novel’s many tragedies feel all but inexorable, and Arturo’s story will linger with readers. Ages 14–up.

February 15, 2017
A timely but unflinching look at the distressing impact of drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border. Arturo is a teenager living in Colonia de Anapra, a poor neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez. He gets by doing odd jobs and hustling small amounts of cash with the card game calavera. Faustino, an old friend and now a member of a drug gang, has stolen a large sum of money from the gang, so he begs Arturo to help him replace it. Seeing Eva, Faustino's girlfriend, and her baby, Arturo agrees to help. Santa Muerte, the titular St. Death, looms large over the plot, invoked in italicized passages between chapters that act as a Greek chorus. Arturo is reluctant to believe in Santa Muerte, but he lights a candle anyway. Over the course of the night that follows, Arturo plays a desperate game of calavera to redeem the debt, and as the stakes rise, so does Arturo's faith in Santa Muerte. And as Arturo's game inevitably fails him, Santa Muerte watches him closely. Printz winner Sedgwick (Midwinterblood, 2013) makes great use of unitalicized Spanish throughout the story, with an English translation following most of the Spanish. His third-person, present-tense narrative combines his characteristic precision of English prose with Spanish punctuation conventions in his dialogue. The use of em dashes instead of quotation marks and surrounding questions and exclamations in the Spanish fashion ("--What? No way"), while initially distancing for readers unfamiliar with the convention, ultimately creates a dizzyingly immersive experience. Readers will be both devastated and inspired by Arturo's devotion to Faustino and his faith in Santa Muerte. (Fiction. 14-adult)

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Starred review from March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Arturo is scraping by, living in Anapra, on the outskirts of Juarez, Mexico. He can see El Norte from his small shack, but America feels distant compared with his reality spent hauling things at the auto shop and trying to avoid the notice of gang members and the cartel, who have carved up Juarez into their own sections of territory. Arturo's childhood friend Faustino reenters his life, preparing to use stolen money to send his girlfriend Eva and their son illegally across the border. With his gang boss on the verge of discovering the theft, Faustino is desperate for help to replace the $1,000 he has taken. Arturo reluctantly agrees to try to win the money playing Calavera. Looming over his story, and Juarez itself, is Santa Muerte-Saint Death. The folk saint watches impassively as people in the border town struggle in the face of a vicious drug trade, dangerous trafficking, corruption, and income inequality. It's possible that Santa Muerte might help Arturo if he prays hard enough and proves himself. But it's also possible she'll watch as Arturo heads toward his tragic ending. Arturo's narrative alternates with commentary from nameless third parties on conditions affecting Mexico, and Juarez specifically, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, climate change, the city's founding, and even the worship of Saint Death herself. The formatting and language underscore that this is a book about Mexican characters who live their lives in Spanish-non-English words are not italicized, and dialogue is formatted according to Spanish-language conventions. This well-researched novel is an absorbing, heart-rending read and a scathing indictment of the conditions that have allowed the drug trade and human trafficking to flourish in Mexico. VERDICT Eerily timely and prescient, this ambitious story is a necessary purchase for all collections.-Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* In ramshackle Colonia de Anapra, near the Mexican border town of Juarez, people's lives are governed by extreme poverty, fear, and gang violence. Arturo scrapes together a living hauling junk and playing cards, and it is the latter talent that brings his best friend, Faustino, to his door after a year's absence. Now a gang member, Faustino confesses to borrowing $1,000 from his boss, which must be returned by the next day or he'll be killed. He begs Arturo to win the money in a high-stakes card game. Angry at being drawn into such a dangerous situation, Arturo begrudgingly agrees to help after learning the money was used to send Faustino's girlfriend and baby over the U.S. border. Sedgwick crafts a provocative and unsettling story, as he immerses readers in the violence of Anapraa place where women regularly go missing, cops turn a blind eye to crime, and residents revere Santa Muerte, Saint Death. Plot threads buzz with tensionArturo's card game being among the story's most intense scenesand characters are redefined as their pasts are gradually revealed. Preceding most chapters are fragments of a wider conversationmessage boards, statistics, inner monologueslargely on illegal immigration and the exploitation of poor countries. Uncomfortable and at times accusatory, Sedgwick's unflinching narrative is timely and guaranteed to incite discussion, if not debate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)