CHRONICALLY DOLORES

During the summer before high school, a nominally Catholic teen finds that she can relate to martyred saints.

Dolores Mendoza’s family is struggling financially, and her parents’ marriage is imploding. A year ago, she was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis after a bladder accident made her a pariah. Then Mexican American Dolores meets Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones, who is autistic and reads white. Terpsichore wants to fake a friendship to prove to her helicopter mom that she’s capable of attending public school and can stop home schooling. The answer to their problems seems clear: Dolores will win back her former best friend, and Terpsichore will win her independence. What could go wrong? 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 and comes to no pat resolutions about her body, instead approaching her illness 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 feel earned, and the affectionately combative dynamics between the Mendoza family, in particular between Dolores and her Tía Vera and older brother Mateo, are strong.

An insightful, funny, and realistic coming-of-age story.