This young adult fiction penned by Maya Van Wagenen tells an insightful, humorous, and realistic coming-of-age story.

Dolores Mendoza, a Mexican American girl, finds herself amidst familial financial struggles and her parents’ faltering marriage. Diagnosed with interstitial cystitis following a humiliating bladder incident a year prior, she navigates isolation due to her condition and copes with the betrayal of a close friend. Into her life steps autistic Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones.

Terpsichore is secure in who she is, and she accepts and understands her own challenges. However, she is held so firmly back by her mother and not allowed to live outside of the protective bubble. Terpsichore wants to fake a friendship to prove to her mom that she’s capable of attending public school and can stop home schooling. Their solution is apparent — where Dolores seeks a friend, Terpsichore seeks autonomy.

Dolores’ chronic illness frequently causes trouble for herself, and a vein of wry humor and dramatics runs through her everyday interactions. Her creative first-person narration includes transcripts from her confessional conversations with a priest, mock telenovela scripts (complete with scene directions), and her reviews of local bathrooms. Dolores is in an ongoing standoff with her illness, approaching her challenges in a way that feels true to her character and to being 14. Self-actualized and incisive Terpsichore’s journey and the girls’ increasingly non-fake friendship are touching.

Together the two girls help each other to understand their strengths and overcome their challenges. Even when everything seems to fall apart, they help each other put it all back together.

Adding a layer of charm to the narrative is the affectionately combative dynamics between the Mendoza family, in particular between Dolores and her older brother Mateo.