--a summer holiday story in which three cousins visit their grandma in Puerto Rico, and have wild adventures while dealing with the emotional fallout from parental troubles back home
--a story of an ordinary kid swept into a mythological heritage he had no idea existed
--a (fictionalized) story of Indigenous survival in the face of colonial oppression
--a love letter to Puerto Rico that opens the reader's eyes to its beauties and its struggles, seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy, young enough to feel that it is paradise, but old enough to start seeing the cracks....
and all of these are tied together beautifully!
Nico loves Puerto Rico, and his abuela....but this summer things are off for him. His parents are sending him alone, and he's worried that the tensions in their marriage are getting worse, and he's unhappy that he his dream of being a famous film director has hit a roadblock, with his high school hopes for a place at the best New York high school for film dashed. Puerto Rico isn't quite the dream like place he remembered it being--it's a place struggling to recover from disasters (the zika epidemic of 2026, followed by Hurricane Maria) and it feels almost like there's a curse on the place.
But still, it's Puerto Rico, a place he loves, and his two cousins, sisters who are both guaranteed to make things interesting in their own distinct ways, are there for company. Then things become even more interesting, when they encounter a monstrous shadowy creature that seems to them to be the mythical Chupacabra. It seems to be following them....and more interesting still (not in a good way), they are then stalked by a shadowy men who seem to wish them harm. The summer vacation is turning into a nightmare....
Nico is inspired to make a documentary that will him with his high school dream, and the Chupacabra mystery seems like a sure-fire winner. But though this project gives purposes to the days, it becomes ever clearer that there's a bigger, more dangerous and more magical story than he could ever have imagined unfolding, It's tied to the deep history of the island, and the Tainos, its original people, supposedly lost to European colonization, but still there, still holding onto their culture in secret in this version of reality.
The fate of the island hangs in the balance, and Nico and his cousins find themselves confronting mythology made real as they race to discover what role they can play in saving it.
It's a fast paced and gripping read. There's enough mythology and magic to make it work for fantasy fans (and I was happy to read a story in which the main character does not himself have magical powers, but instead uses his camera skills to help save the day). The setting is great; it will bring Puerto Rico alive for kids in the US states who haven't ever given it much thought. (I now hope to visit someday and will reread this when that time comes!). The mundane worries about divorce and worries about achieve high school dreams ground the story nicely, and it's great to see Nico's documentary turn from clickbait folklore to a deeper, more thoughtful project about the depressed state of the island, and it's an example of kids doing something to make real world change for the better that will doubtless resonate with many readers!
In short, highly recommend.
Personal connection-- I spend 4th to 6th grade at Saint Andrews School in the Bahamas (I was a foreign service kid), and we were divided, UK style, into four Houses named after Indigenous peoples of the Carribean--Lucayan, Carib, Arawak, and Taino, none of which we were actually taught anything about. I was a Taino, so happy to meet them in the pages of this book!
disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher
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