What's Coming To Me
Author: Francesca Padilla.
Format: Audiobook.
Read by: Frankie Corzo. Date: 2022.
ISBN: 9781641293358.
Publisher: SoHo Teen.
Genre: Suspense/Thriller.
Reading Level: Grades 9-12
Trailer: What could be worse than spending your summer locked up in Long Islands' very own Duke's Ice Creamery trying to get money in your "probable orphan fund"? Maybe it's the discovery that your boss at Duke's is a total pervert creep with cameras trained on all his underaged staff? Or maybe it's the fact that there is nothing Minerva Gutiérrez, who is only a Latinx girl from the wrong side of the tracks, can do about it.....but maybe that's not true--anything is possible when you're with your friends. Especially if those friends aren't shy about committing crimes.....Who knows, maybe she can solve more problem than one this summer.
Minerva Gutiérrez is doing the best with the cards she is dealt. Yes, maybe she is a rebellious seventeen year old who has to work at Long Island's famous Duke's Ice Creamery because her family doesn't have another income. Yes, maybe she and her drug-dealer-turned-actual-(maybe?)-friend are smack dab in the middle of a revenge plot on par with the Oceans 11 franchise at said ice cream shop. And yes, maybe she would rather just be getting high or drunk or whatever it takes to not be so aware of herself, her life, instead of doing either of the first two mentioned shenanigans. It's not like she has a lot of other options! First of all, it was always just her and her mom and once her mom got sick she didn't have any other choice than to start working at Duke's, even though the boss is a slimy pervert. Plus, what else is she supposed to do about her perv boss besides rob him blind? I mean, that's just a win-win scenario if you ask Minerva. Her creepo boss goes down and she has the money to survive and make it out of her depressing hometown.
Like most things in Minerva's life this summer doesn't go exactly as planned. How would it? Not only is she dealing with her chester-the-molester boss, but she has other, new, less creepy boys in her life to worry about. Boys who would not be happy if they learned about her plot to destroy Duke's from the inside out. Even with help from her pals CeCe and Mary she can't get around that fact. Not to mention the fact that her oh-so-annoying 2nd cousin has been put in charge of her while mom is away. And she hasn't been honest with anyone--including herself--about how long that will be. With all of the odds stacked up against them will Minerva and her friends be able to bring the creepy boss down and bring themselves up? Or will it all come crashing down around her like everything else has?
Minerva, CeCe, and Mary could tell you bringing down a creeper is all about strategy. Show off your strategy skills in this safe cracking game! Linked Here: https://benjames171.itch.io/safe-cracker
About the Author: On her website Francesca Padilla, Franny, describes herself as a, "queer Dominican-American fiction writer". What's Coming To Me is Padilla's debut novel, and as a Dominican-American from New York like the main character, you can tell she put a lot of her own experience into this novel. Franny is a part-time writer, full time community engagement coordinator in health and human service in New York (Padilla, 2023).
Who better to learn about both the book and the author than the author herself! If you have interest in either of the aspects mentioned before (What's Coming To Me and/or Francesca Padilla) AND/OR you're interested in 1) Latinx bada$$es 2)youtube bloggers 3)just taking a break from reading for sec, check this out:
Analysis: This suspenseful coming-of-age tale about a girl navigating life in town where some people have it all and some people have nothing is nothing if not relatable. Sometimes YA suspense fiction takes itself so seriously that reader's forget the main character is a teen. It's understandable when the teen in those books is somehow a well-trained super detective who operates way above their development level. This is not the case in What's Coming To Me. Minerva Gutiérrez operates just as a teen fraught with grief, rebellion, and hormones would. She spends a lot of her time messing up her personal relationships through her rage and irresponsibility. She gets high and drunk instead of talking through her emotions like a good girl like Nancy Drew might. She's unique, but unique in a distinctly relatable type of way. Author Francesca Padilla brought a lot of authenticity with Minerva's carelessness and drug use but I feel she falls short of any sort of meaningful exposition that analyzes the harm that those qualities and actions bring into teenager's lives. I personally believe that safe and responsible drug use for adults is one thing, but I have first hand experience of the ways in which normalizing adolescent drug use (without any sort of discussion about risks) can be harmful. I'm not saying Minerva should never have smoked some pot or drank some drank--I'm just saying I would have liked to read (hear, this was an audiobook selection for me) how those actions are not necessarily productive coping methods.
I would consider this suspense novel to be more of a character-driven noir than a fast-paced thrill ride. Much of the book focuses on learning about Minerva and her group of friends rather than an intricately plotted mystery narrative. Minerva's identity as a Dominican-American who is experiencing poverty and grief is the driving force of the book, and reader's will adore her quick wit and honest spirit.
In the Library: I would love to put together a heist themed escape room for teens to enjoy, potentially at an after hours event in the library. I would use study rooms as the room to escape from and include puzzles that, when solved, would allow participants to open up safes or lock boxes. I could also see trying in a class about financial literacy in this book. The classes could teach teens about how to get a job, how to save money, and how to invest.
Potential Issues: I mention this a bit in my analysis, and maybe I do so because I anticipate it being an issue: there is a lot of drug and alcohol use in this book. Teens are faced with the decision to use drugs and alcohol all the time, and ideally this book could serve as a great place to start the conversation about navigating those choices.
Reasons for Inclusion: What's Coming To Me works on many levels. It's a worldly suspense/thriller that centers around a group of awesome and tough girls taking down a rich pervert, so that is a lot of fun. In some ways, it's a bit of a workplace drama as well which caters to teens who are already in the workforce. Finally, it deals with some tough issues like grief and navigating friendships will honest authenticity. Padilla definitely brings it with the relatability for the more rebellious teens.
Sources:
What's coming to me. (n.d) Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56857017
Padilla, F. (2023, February 1). About francesca. Franny Padilla. https://frannypadilla.com/about-francesca/
Paola M Guerrero. (2022, August 24). What's coming to me w/ Francesca Padilla || author interview. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTOIn22ePpI
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