This is the year Julieta Villarreal will figure out how to escape from the climate disasters threatening her home, the broken friendships she’d rather leave behind, and the grief of losing her twin sister. So when the Cometa Initiative, a private space program, invites New American students to join a space mission, Juli sees a perfect way to restart her life.
Gloria Muñoz’s This Is the Year is a story about transitions. Perhaps the biggest change for Juli is the loss of her twin, Ofe, in a hit-and-run accident, a loss that lingers over the story. Driven by Juli’s first-person narration—some of which is directly addressed to Ofe—and excerpts of her prose poetry, This Is the Year takes a creative approach to storytelling that allows readers to observe the shift in Juli’s emotions, thoughts and opinions as a teenager growing up. Finishing her senior year of high school means facing the very people, disasters and feelings she’s so afraid of, but when she does, Juli finds that maybe there are things at home worth holding on to.
The rest of the world in this book is also in transition—and it’s less than idyllic. Juli and the other characters must come to terms with the consequences of climate change and heightened socioeconomic inequality, especially as humanity looks to space as the new frontier. There is speculative local and global chaos in this book, yet the world also feels hauntingly familiar—perhaps a warning of what may be to come. However, while This Is the Year is unflinching in its portrayals of natural, social and economic disasters, it is also careful to demonstrate that healing is possible, whether it be in community, through individual effort or even within one’s own self.
Ultimately, This Is the Year is a story of hope, not destruction. Juli’s story asks readers to take an honest look at the world around them and ask: Where is my true place? What does it mean to keep dreaming here? And, as Juli must decide: How do we keep moving even when things don’t go according to plan?
