Ander and Santi Were Here

Ander & Santi Were Here is an emotional, at times heartbreaking, YA romance. I appreciated this book for everything that it portrays. It's also written beautifully. It was a great YA book about belonging, identity, and immigration. I would consider this an important read, especially for its target audience, young adults.

Ander is a mural artist and struggles with figuring out the balance between doing Mexican style art because it's expected of them vs because they actually want to. I really enjoyed the nuance of their dilemma around their art, and their advisor who was being racist under the disguise of being helpful. Not all racism is blatant and bad-intentioned. I enjoyed that Ander being non-binary was not a big deal within the story and how supportive their family was.

The biggest conflict in the book comes from Santi's immigration status. The uncertainties and instability of being undocumented with the threat of deportation always hanging over their head were portrayed honestly. I appreciated that a YA romance didn't shy away from covering these realities that you'd be more likely to see in adult fiction.

On the other hand, I really didn't enjoy the romance aspects of the book. I felt Santi had no real personality. We have no idea about his interests, hobbies, what kind of person he is... They have an instant love connection and the rest is history. I couldn't tell you why Ander was interested in him at all. Though, their romance was quite tender, heartwarming and cute.

I also couldn't stand Ander. This could very well be because I'm quite far from my teenage days, but I found them annoying because of how immature and angsty they were while also making very adult decisions, plus I found their obsession with being a “puta” a bit off putting.

Rating: 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you to St Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC.