When We Make It By Elisabet Velasquez

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An unforgettable, torrential, and hopeful debut young adult novel-in-verse that redefines what it means to make it,” for readers of Nicholasa Mohr and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican eighth grader who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has been denied.

When We Make It is a love letter to anyone who was taught to believe that they would not make it. To those who feel their emotions before they can name them. To those who still may not have all the language but they have their story. Velasquez’ debut novel is sure to leave an indelible mark on all who read it. When We Make It

What if making happens every day. To each of us. Differently.

Thank you so much to @elisabetvelasquezpoetry for this #ownvoices gem.

I finished this one last night and my heart just swells with Bushwick pride. Elisabet Velasquez put Bushwick on her back and showed the world who we are, what we've survived and how we continue to make it. As I was reading I had to keep pausing and sharing bits and pieces with friends and family. I couldn't help but savor every word, every poem, every thought and every reference. I have waited my whole life for a book to capture exactly what it means to come from Bushwick, to die in Bushwick and to survive Bushwick.

What really struck me were how vivid the memories and references were. As I was reading, I could hear Elisabet's voice and it felt like she has been writing this book her entire life. I still live in Bushwick and every mention of certain places that still exist and are still holding the neighborhood down, took me back to childhood. It made me feel pride in my people who are still here pushing back against the gentrification that wants eliminate and erase us.

Sarai's experiences were so similar to my own, at times I felt like her story was my own. Sarai's story is also the embodiment of the struggle of my people to simply just be seen and live to see another day so they can make it. Although it's a book in verse, the themes explored are so deep: poverty, violence, mental illness and addiction, misogyny, cultural identity, religious hypocrisy, gentrification, crimes of survival, & sexualization of girls.

When We Make It is the hug I didn't know I needed. It's the affirmation that the lives of Puerto Ricans matter and that survival is who we are. By the ending I was sobbing but out of pure release. When We Make It helped me release the breath I didn't realize I had been holding all these years. I was left with the feeling that finally someone sees us and knows what we are still doing to try to make it and simply exist.

If you're from Bushwick, it mandatory that you GET THIS BOOK AND BUY A COPY FOR A FRIEND. It will change your life. There's nothing left to say but PRE-ORDER ASAP! Hardcover When We Make It packs such an emotional punch and I was not prepared. I bookmarked SO many poems because some of them just left me feeling in awe or utterly heartbroken. This was such a splendid debut and Velasquez is an author to watch out for.

- Told in verse, the story follows Sarai, a first-generation Puerto Rican living in poverty in Bushwick. The story follows her on her journey across three years, from 13 to 16 years old, and follows her on pivotal moments of her life.
- What struck me the most was this story's unfiltered and candid portrayal and exploration into living in poverty - what it really means to be poor, how it feels to worry about a safe place to stay and have no housing insecurity.
- It also explores Serai's fraught family life and her relationships with her mother and sister. More, it delves into her relationship with her Boricua identity and her family's history in Puerto Rico.
- The more I think about it, the more this book really explores so much as it illustrates a rich portrait of Sarai's life. The story explores religion and how it tethers people and communities but how there's also hypocrisy and sexism, teen pregnancy, how adults can be 'well-meaning' but are ignorant because of their own privileges.
- Above all, this is a story with so much raw emotion; about anger and hunger and hope for a better future, about what it means to 'make it'.

Content warning: drug use, domestic abuse, death, anti-fat rhetoric, teen pregnancy, miscarriage, postpartum depression, racism, rape, sexual assault Hardcover *Thank you, Penguin Teen, for sending an ARC of this book*

We don't talk about being Puerto Rican.

We just live it. You know?

I do. I do know.

I've read and re-read this book three times now since receiving it and it's already marked up.

And I cried, which I don't feel means much anymore because I cry often for a lot of reasons while reading, but this book means so much to me now.

Written in beautiful free-verse, we explore girlhood, identity, colorism, poverty, racism, young feminism, teen pregnancy, grief, and the Puerto Rican diaspora.

There's pain and hope ingrained in every poem/chapter and certain poems hit close to home as a young Boricua also struggling to feel fully connected to this identity.


CW: (on top of topics listed above) references to sexual harassment, spousal abuse, death, substance abuse
Hardcover So much gratitude to everyone who took the time to read and review this book!
Mad love.

Elisabet Hardcover This book is phenomenal!
It has a rhythm and movement outside of poetic meter and pacing.
It deeply embedded in the words and in lives that influenced this body of work.
I know the lives in this story. I grew is a neighborhood just like this one. This story hit home and put me in a nostalgic place. This book is gripping, moving, heartbreaking and beautiful. I love it. Hardcover

EXQUISITE. Full review to come. Hardcover Set in 1996, this verse novel follows 13-to-16-year-old Sarai over these hugely pivotal years coming-of-age in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She's Puerto Rican and wants so badly to know about her heritage, as well as the story of how she, her mother, and her sister are to survive in a community that is among the most dangerous and challenging at the time.

There are a LOT of big, meaty topics in here, and it's very clear why Sarai is angry, why it is she doesn't trust adults, and why she makes the choices she does throughout. She does have a best friend, and despite her older sister's periodic disappearances, Estrella is absolutely there for her, too. There's teen pregnancy in here, housing instability and insecurity, a broken and challenged family, as well as interesting looks at sex work, at education (Sarai will be the only one of her family to ever graduate 8th grade), and about leaning into one's heritage and WHY that matters so much. Colorism certainly plays in here, too, which will resonate with so many readers.

Think Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X meets Lilliam Rivera's The Education of Margot Sánchez with a touch of Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. I'm eager to read more from Velasquez! Hardcover Elisabet Velasquez knows how to write and she knows how to write powerfully. this book moves fast but not easy to read at times and i recommend reading the TWs before picking this up. this is a novel in verse about a Puerto Rican born and raised in NY just trying to make it and the struggles of being American when you’re not white, rich, or lucky. the American dream broke a long time ago and yes, though it’s heartbreaking, it’s a fact of life and i think books like these are necessary for us to read. i really love the way Elisabet frames her stories and i think y’all will too Hardcover content warnings: addiction (drugs), body shaming, child abuse, death, domestic abuse, drug use/abuse, drug overdose, fatphobia, police brutality, teen pregnancy, miscarriage, pregnancy, racism, rape, sexism, sexual assault, sexual content, mentions of child protective services
Hardcover Thank you to Penguin Teen & Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

When we Make it is a coming of age novel in verse, about young Sarai as she navigates poverty, family trauma and housing insecurity. Sarai is always told about how when she makes it things will get better, but Sarai is still trying to figure out what making it looks like to her.

This book was quite heartbreaking. So many sad and traumatic things happen to Sarai and her family. I really loved Sarai's voice: her curiosity was such a driving force. I loved how so much story was told in so few words. The verse was beautiful and tragic. Sarai's story is one that won't leave me for a while.

Rep: Boricua mid-size female MC, and mixed Boricua supporting cast.

CWs: Addiction (drugs), body shaming, child abuse, death, domestic abuse, drug use/abuse, drug overdose, fatphobia, police brutality, pregnancy, racism, rape, sexism, sexual assault, sexual content. Hardcover