Summary
What does it mean to be illegal in the United States? Life in Mexico is a death sentence for Emiliano and his sister Sara.To escape the violent cartel that is after them, they flee across the border, seeking a better life in the United States and hoping that they can find a way to bring their pursuers to justice.Sara turns herself over to the authorities to apply for asylum.Emiliano enters the country illegally, planning to live with their father.But now Sara is being held indefinitely in a detention facility, awaiting an asylum hearing that may never come, finding it harder every day to hold on to her faith and hope. Life for Emiliano is not easy either. Everywhere he goes, it's clear that he doesn't belong. And all the while, the cartel is closing in on them...Emiliano sets off on a tense and dangerous race to find justice, but can he expose the web of crimes from his place in the shadows?Award-winning author Francisco X. Stork's powerful follow-up to Disappeared delves with his usual sensitivity into the injustice that hides under the guise of the law in the United States. This is a timely and moving story that takes an unsparing look at the asylum process and the journey to find a new life in the US.
Author Notes
Francisco X. Stork (he/him) emigrated from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and his adoptive father. I Am Not Alone is his tenth novel. Other novels include: Marcelo in the Real World , recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors , which received the Elizabeth Walden Award, The Memory of Light , recipient of the Tomás Rivera Award, Disappeared , which received the Young Adult Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book and Illegal , recipient of the In the Margins Award, the Young Adult Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and the International Latino Book Award. On the Hook published in 2021, received four starred reviews and was the recipient of the International Latino Book Award.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up--Beginning immediately on the heels of Disappeared, siblings Sara and Emiliano Zapato find themselves separated in their attempt to escape a cruel cartel who threatened reporter Sara and her family, after she discovered the cartel was behind a string of young girls' disappearances in their hometown of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. After successfully crossing the border into the United States, Sara turns herself in to petition for asylum, and is being held at an immigrant detention facility where the Mexican cartel has more sway in her treatment than the rule of law Sara was so certain she'd find in this new country. Meanwhile, Emiliano heads to Aurora to live with his estranged father and attempts to lift incriminating information from the cellphone he and Sara were able to smuggle from the Mexican cartel. But the life and danger they left behind is more intertwined with the people they know stateside than Emiliano or Sara ever fathomed possible, and each sibling's next move to do what's right could be the one that sends them both back to Mexico--and certain death. While some of the circumstances that keep the suspense high require some suspension of disbelief, a truthful and timely look into the United States' immigration procedures and divisive political landscape shines through. An epilogue seems to conclude Sara and Emiliano's fate for good. VERDICT A strong showing for fans of crime and suspense, and recommended where the first title does well.--Brittany Drehobl, Morton Grove P.L., IL
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sequel to The Disappeared, Stork revisits the Zapata siblings, who are now on the run from the cartels and seeking asylum in the U.S. Three weeks ago, Sara, a reporter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, helped free her best friend Linda Fuentes, who was kidnapped by Leopoldo Hinojosa. When Linda sends Hinojosa's cellphone to Sara, Sara becomes a target. After Hinojosa's men attack them on the journey, Sara turns herself in to plead for asylum at Fort Stockton Detention Center, leaving Emiliano with the object. In Chicago, Emiliano hides with their father, Roberto Zapata, now Bob Gropper, who immigrated five years ago and started a new family. But Bob's new wife, Nancy, is less than thrilled to be harboring "an illegal stranger." Things grow more complicated when Emiliano's whereabouts are discovered, and Sara learns that the guards at the detention center may be compromised. Stork delivers another thrilling story, carefully juxtaposing the issues asylum seekers face with the experiences of "illegal" immigrants in a dual-perspective first-person narrative. Socially relevant and politically poignant, Stork's propulsive thriller explores how the U.S. justice system treats immigrants. Ages 12-- up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Aug.)
Horn Book Review
In this sequel to Disappeared (rev. 9/17), Mexican journalist Sara Zapata is now in the Fort Stockton Detention Center in Texas, lost in a sea of asylum petitions, after she and her brother Emiliano fled Jurez with a cell phone belonging to the head of a drug trafficking ring. While Sara stays to plead for asylum, seventeen-year-old Emiliano proceeds alone to pursue the mysterious Big Shot behind the trafficking ring in the United States. Storks suspenseful narrative alternates between Saras and Emilianos first-person points of view. Both protagonists have a strong inner compass guiding them to do the right thing, and providing a moral center to a tale that incorporates family, immigration, detention centers, human trafficking, and the web of evil that spreads from a city in Mexico right up to the Washington lawyers and government officials who profit from it. The story stands alone, but readers will likely want to read Disappeared for the bigger picture. Dean Schneider July/August 2020 p.143(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Following their escape from the cartels and corrupt local police threatening their lives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Sara Zapata and her brother, Emiliano, learn that even Los Estados Unidos can't guarantee their safety. About 10 days have passed since their fateful trek across the border chronicled in the closing chapters of Disappeared (2017). Held captive at the Fort Stockton Detention Center, Sara awaits the results of her appeal for asylum in the U.S., every day losing more hope among the other women refugees. In the meantime, she must endure the ire of detention center personnel, including an office director with dangerous criminal ties. Unable to continue her investigation of a human trafficking ring with roots in Mexico and the U.S., Sara pins all her hopes on Emiliano, who now holds the all-important cellphone with incriminating data linking the powerful officials and criminals involved in the abduction and captivity of las Desaparecidas. Emiliano, meanwhile, heads off on a harrowing journey of his own, struggling to reconnect with his estranged, Americanized father while striving to elude danger at every corner, including the looming threat of deportation. Switching from third-person narration to a less enthralling first-person alternating narration, this sequel piles on the suspense and twists. Though there's some muddled political commentary, Stork offers a biting indictment of the U.S. government's immoral apathy to the refugee crisis within its borders. Strong character development, however, reigns supreme. A brilliant, penetrating follow-up. (Thriller. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After taking down a cartel and narrowly escaping by crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S., siblings Sara and Emiliano find themselves in even more danger than they were back home. Sara, a former journalist in Juarez, is in a detention facility, awaiting her asylum hearing. Her younger brother, Emiliano, is in hiding with a most precious cargo--the cell phone of cartel boss Hinojosa, which may contain the contact information of human traffickers based in the U.S. It is a race against time as Sara desperately tries to survive the cruel and inhumane conditions of the facility. Meanwhile, Emiliano must rely on his ingenuity and determination to avoid his pursuers. Picking up where 2017's Disappeared left off, Stork does not miss a beat. This time, Emiliano is the spotlight character, with Sara providing stark interludes inside the detention facility. While Disappeared took pains to illustrate the lives of the poor in Mexico, this throws light on the many experiences of Mexican immigrants in the U.S., from migrants being detained to undocumented workers fearing ICE raids to those who have attained citizenship and have perhaps too easily forgotten the poverty and despair back home. This book will not disappoint as both a thrilling page-turner and as a powerful analysis of injustice happening within America's borders.
