This is an immigration story, a family drama, an LGBTQ romance, with a sci-fi plot, all in one YA novel. Marisol, the teenaged protagonist, flees El Salvador after her brother is killed and her sister is threatened. While escaping to the US fulfills a longtime dream of hers, the trade she has to make, taking on the grief and trauma of another girl, is the where the sci-fi plot comes in.
This is an intriguing, sad yet bitter sweet story.