I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was a National Book Award Finalist and has been on basically every list for Best of the Year books.  It is one that I have read nothing but great things about.  I really enjoyed it.

This is the story of Julia, the daughter of Mexican immigrants now living in Chicago.  Julia is not the perfect Mexican daughter.  She does not want to just stay at home and be with her family.  She doesn't care about learning to cook or even make tortillas.  When she graduates from high school she wants to go to college, not stick around and take care of her parents.  She is not the perfect daughter, but her older sister Olga was.

Olga was just what her mother wanted her to be until a tragic accident claimed her life.  Now as her death as so heavily impacted her family, Julia starts to learn that maybe her sister wasn't as perfect as everyone thought.  And as Julia learns more about who her sister was , she really begins to learn who she is. 

This is a beautiful story about family and culture and self discovery.  It is a novel about the obligations we have to our family, but maybe more importantly the obligation we have to ourselves, to follow our own dreams. 

From Amazon:

National Book Award Finalist!
Instant New York Times Bestseller!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian meets Jane the Virgin in this poignant but often laugh-out-loud funny contemporary YA about losing a sister and finding yourself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican-American home. 
 
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?