Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything

Sia Martinez is a seventeen-year-old girl in racist Arizona, still unaccepting of the death of her mother, who attempted to return to the US from Mexico after being deported by crossing the Sonoran Desert alone three years ago. Sia is tormented by the son of the sheriff who sent Sia's mother back to Mexico, her best friend is suddenly preoccupied with someone else, there is this new fellow in town, and her dead grandmother is always whispering in her ear.

We learn that plot elements involve sightings of blue lights in the sky, physical abuse, predatory men, formal religion, ancient spiritual beliefs, white privilege, the usual sexual explorations of young people, the beauty of the desert night, and so much more. Plus aliens. And ghosts.

All told in beautifully poetic language, with the wisest of thoughts and deepest of old stories.

In an odd way, this book is about everything people deal with, and it doesn't offer any easy answers or clear choices. People are a mix of good and bad, we are told by one character, and it's clear the author knows this well.

The truth is that this story goes all over the road, off the road lots of times, and often during the ride I wanted to pull over and walk. But around the next corner would come this fog of brilliance from the story and I kept going. Well worth the meandering ride for the great view, I think.