This Is the Year - by Gloria Muñoz (Paperback)

About the Book

"In a near-future Florida ravaged by climate catastrophe, seventeen-year-old Julieta Villarreal is recruited by a space exploration program for immigrant teens after her twin sister is killed in a car crash"--

Book Synopsis

This dazzling YA cli-fi written in prose and verse will speak to any reader struggling with the state of our world and how to understand their place in it.

"In outer space, no one will know me as the girl with the dead sister."

Seventeen-year-old self-proclaimed Goth and aspiring writer Julieta Villarreal is drowning. She's grieving her twin sister who died in a hit-and-run, her Florida home is crumbling under the weight of climate disaster, and she isn't sure how much longer she can stand to stay in a place that doesn't seem to have room for her.

Then, Juli is recruited by Cometa, a private space program enlisting high-aptitude New American teens for a high-stakes mission to establish humanity's first extraterrestrial settlement. Cometa pitches this as an opportunity for Juli to give back to her adopted country; Juli sees it as her only chance to do something big with her life.

Juli begins her training, convinced Cometa is her path to freedom. But her senior year is full of surprises, including new friendships, roller skating, and first love. And through her small but poignant acts of environmentalism, Juli begins to find hope in unexpected places. As her world collapses from the ramifications of the climate crisis, Juli must decide if she'll carry her loss together with her community or leave it all behind.

Told in gripping prose interspersed with poems from Juli's writing journal, this genre-bending novel explores themes of immigration, climate justice, grief, and the power of communities.

Review Quotes

Muñoz's debut teaches us what it means to be a human on Earth and how we keep surviving--together.
--Booklist (starred review)

[A] thoughtful read that ruminates on the precarious state of the world.
--Publishers Weekly

Deftly explores complex topics such as the climate crisis, single motherhood, grief, poverty, and predatory business practices that target vulnerable populations. An original storytelling style and post-apocalyptic setting make this coming-of-age novel a worthy and special read.
--Kirkus Reviews

A sad but hopeful look at our future if climate change continues to be ignored.
--School Library Journal

Juli's apprehension about her personal future, opting for a route almost no one in her life approves of over college, and her planet's future, which is increasingly less inhabitable, will resonate with teens also facing uncertain next steps with unstable job markets and increasingly warm temperatures.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A story of hope.
--BookPage

The novel is told in a lyrical blend of first-person narration and second-person addresses to Ofe, occasionally veering into verse as the protagonist explores her love of writing. Details such as the city's de facto segregation by class and Juli's volunteer beach cleanups create a frighteningly realistic vision of a state facing full-on climate disaster.
--The Horn Book

About the Author

Gloria Muñoz is the author of Your Biome Has Found You and Danzirly, which won the Ambroggio Prize and the Florida Gold Medal Book Award for Poetry. She is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow, a Hedgebrook Fellow, a Macondista, a Highlights Foundation Diverse Verse Fellow, and a part of Las Musas. This Is the Year is her debut novel. Visit her online at gloriamunoz.com and on Instagram at @bygloriamunoz.