What's Coming to Me

Starred review from June 15, 2022
Minerva Guti�rrez is poor, brown, angry--and planning retribution against her creepy boss. Living on the margins in the Long Island town of Nautilus, 17-year-old Dominican Min should be thankful she got a job at Duke's Ice Creamery, even if her boss is a sexist jerk who has hidden cameras to watch the girls he hires. But gratitude is the last thing on Min's mind, not with her life currently falling to pieces: estranged from best friend Mary, expelled from school for fighting with Mary's new girlfriend, and running out of money since her mom's most recent hospitalization for a long-term illness. Following an armed robbery at work, old rumors about a secret treasure hidden on the property resurface, and Min and her neighbor CeCe start to get ideas. Meanwhile, Min reconnects with Mary and gets romantically involved with Duke's assistant manager, Eli, just as events start to escalate dangerously. Padilla's debut is an impactful, no-holds-barred exploration of grief and trauma. With a main character who is smart, cynical, irrepressibly angry, and seemingly intent on self-sabotage, this book takes readers on a beautifully textured journey that combines equal parts coming-of-age novel, heist thriller, and caustic commentary on systemic social inequalities. Despite the seriousness of these themes, when the ending comes, it's joyful, hopeful, and, above all, earned. A powerful, genre-blending page-turner. (Fiction. 14-18)

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Starred review from August 1, 2022

Gr 10 Up-A magnetic, coming-of-age thriller about grief, class, and trauma. Minerva Gutierrez, 17, works at an ice cream stand for a predatory boss, hoping to save up money to escape her circumstances-a terminally ill mother in the hospital and living in borderline poverty. When burglars rob the shop, grabbing the money bag straight out of Min's hands, the Dominican teen is traumatized and finds it difficult to get past the events of that night, especially as she starts to wonder whether her sleazy manager was a part of the crime. The first half of this gritty, noir-esque novel sets the scene for this Long Island seaside tale of haves and have-nots. The pacing picks up in the latter half, as a motley crew of Min, her love interest and assistant manager, Eli, CeCe, her weed-dealing neighbor, and Mary, her erstwhile best friend, plan a heist to extract a rumored treasure that could change their lives. Padilla's characters are fully fleshed out, especially the unflinching Min whose mother's long-term and terminal illness is always weighing on her mind. Marked by a strong voice, the protagonist's sardonic narration is equal parts vulnerable and defiant. While the novel is heavy with themes of poverty, sexism, and racism, there are threads of lightness woven in. CeCe and Mary are lesbians. CeCe is Latinx; Mary and Eli are white. VERDICT Realistic teen characters, hypnotic writing, and an honest portrayal of adolescence make this debut a perfect choice for fans of Sarah Zarr, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Phillippe Diederich.-Shelley M. Diaz

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August 29, 2022
Seventeen-year-old Dominican Minerva Guitérrez struggles to find stability in Padilla’s emotionally layered debut. Min’s cousin has moved in to help around the house following Min’s mother’s most recent hospitalization for an undisclosed long-term illness. After getting expelled from school, the only thing Min has going for her is her employment at Nautilus Point, N.Y., hot spot Duke’s Ice Creamery. But her boss is a “creep” who spies on his young female employees through cameras, and she barely makes enough money to add to her “Probable Orphan’s Fund,” which she plans to use to leave Nautilus Point. When she learns about a rumored treasure hidden at Duke’s, she enlists her estranged best friend and their weed-dealing neighbor to find it. Complications such as Min’s budding relationship with a longtime crush, her boss’s growing suspicions about the group’s scheme, and an unknown party poking around Duke’s in the middle of the night derail matters, and the teens realize the cost of finding the treasure might place them in greater danger than it’s worth. Despite an abrupt resolution, Padilla skillfully balances introspective musings on grief with thrilling mystery and intrigue in this intimate-feeling read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary.

Starred review from September 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Minerva Guti�rrez, Dominican American, is spending the summer working at Duke's Ice Creamery, a beloved Long Island institution. Six months ago her tips went straight into the "Probable Orphan Fund" hidden in her closet. But that was before she discovered the cameras Duke himself, her nasty boss, uses to watch his cute, young employees. Before her mother's chronic heart condition required an extended hospital stay. Before Min was suspended from high school and lost her best friend in one violent outburst. And before she started riding along with her neighbor CeCe, resident weed dealer. Neptune is a suburban beach community of sharp economic disparities, with luxury gated communities just down the road from Min and CeCe's housing complex. When they learn that Duke's is a front for criminal activity, they decide to take some of that wealth for themselves in a heist that lends the novel momentum, suspense, and a noir feel. In order to break in after hours, Min must betray Eli, a crush who helps her feel normal. The reader doesn't understand everything contributing to Minerva's self-sabotage--refusing to visit her mother, drugs, alcohol, skipping school--until she turns a nearly imperceptible corner. Padilla has created a character who pierces the reader's heart by interspersing a miasma of anticipatory grief and anger with scenes that perfectly distill Minerva's path out of the darkness.

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