The Go-Between

by Veronica Chambers

Fans of Jane the Virgin will find much to love about The Go-Between, a coming-of-age novel from bestselling author Veronica Chambers, who with humor and humanity explores issues of identity and belonging in a world that is ever-changing.
 
She is the envy of every teenage girl in Mexico City. Her mother is a glamorous telenovela actress. Her father is the go-to voice-over talent for blockbuster films. Hers is a world of private planes, chauffeurs, paparazzi and gossip columnists. Meet Camilla del Valle—Cammi to those who know her best.
 
When Cammi’s mom gets cast in an American television show and the family moves to LA, things change, and quickly. Her mom’s first role is playing a not-so-glamorous maid in a sitcom. Her dad tries to find work but dreams about returning to Mexico. And at the posh, private Polestar Academy, Cammi’s new friends assume she’s a scholarship kid, the daughter of a domestic.
 
At first Cammi thinks playing along with the stereotypes will be her way of teaching her new friends a lesson. But the more she lies, the more she wonders: Is she only fooling herself?

• ISBN10: 1101930977
• ISBN13: 9781101930977
• Publish Date: 16 February 2021 (first published 9 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Postponed Indefinitely
• Imprint: Ember
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 stars

When the child of a famous Mexican actress moves to the US, she experiences quite a culture shock. In Mexico City, she was one of the #RKOMC - rich kids of Mexico City, in California, she was labeled a scholarship kid and the daughter of a domestic and a gardener. At first, she welcomes the "mistake", because she was so tired of being a celebrity child, but soon her web of lies is out of control.

I know people will be angry with Cammi for perpetuating stereotypes, but she had her reasons, AT FIRST, and then it sort of got away from her. Eventually, Cammi realized the damage she was doing by perpetuating stereotypes about Mexicans. It was difficult for her to see herself through this different lens, because she grew up somewhere where she wasn't considered a person of color. It was quite an experience for Cammi, but she definitely learned a lot from it.

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[Leah]

The Go-Between is one of those books you enjoy, on the surface, but you know that if you scratch a bit too hard you’ll come up with a few issues. I was intrigued to read a Mexican girl’s perspective on moving to LA, the struggles she would face, the differences between the two places, however while I enjoyed the book on the surface, once Camilla actually got to LA, I lost a lot of respect for her. I generally love books about kids of celebrities, or kids who are celebrities, because that also offers an insight into a world I know little about and while I initially loved Camilla, boy does she make some poor decisions.

The first half of the book, set in Mexico City, was fascinating. And I’m not sure if it’s a good fascinating or an “OMG, why are these people allowed to be famous” fascinating, because despite the fact that Camilla goes on and on and on about not being part of the Mexico City elite, she proves time and time again that just because she might not be flaunting her parents wealth on Instagram, she also doesn’t do anything when her supposed friend goes behind her back - twice - to land both her, and then her mother, in trouble with the press. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. And Camilla let Patrizia fool her twice, for reasons I still don’t understand because she was just as vapid as all those other so-called friends Camilla had and got rid of.

Then, when we got to LA, Camilla decides that because these two girls assume she’s a poor Mexican girl from East LA and is apparently on scholarship, she rolls with it. As if that’s just what you do. She tries to rationalise it, but you kind of want to tell her to grow up. And she carries it on for so much longer than necessary (in fact, one minute lying to these people she considers friends is too long). Even the fact that Cammi’s friends think those racist things about her - and that then gets put aside “we’ll take racist off the table” LOL WHAT?! NO. If someone assumes that because of your skin colour and accent you are poor/deserving of sympathy/free gifts and you are not, YOU TELL THEM. You put them in their place and don’t even want to be friends with them. You don’t lie and string them along. It was like bad after bad after bad. It was frustrating for Cammi to just accept it, but then on the other hand, it made me cringe that Cammi was so superficial herself. She didn’t want to take the bus so she Uber’ed everywhere as if that’s no big deal? Because “the bus in LA isn’t safe”, are buses regularly hi-jacked in LA and you’re taken somewhere other than where the bus says it goes? Am I missing something? Do what you like with your money, but please don’t act like the bus is beneath you.

If I didn’t have to review this book, I may not have pulled up so many issues. If you don’t think too hard you may enjoy this book, but there is a lot wrong with it. It could have been amazing, if Cammi had stood up to those racist comments (I am also very aware that someone can be racist in a book and as long as they’re called out and change, that’s like a learning experience? But they bring up Willow and Tiggy’s racism then casually brush it away, like maybe it’s not racism??? And Willow can’t possibly be racist because she’s mixed race??? And it’s just like?????? Eh?? It doesn’t work like that? That’s akin to saying only white people can be racist and I’m pretty sure any race can be racist against another race).

This book wasn't for me. It could have been amazing, Veronica's writing style flows so easily, and for the most part I liked Camilla, I really did, but she just needed to get her priorities straight. Fitting in is hard, I know that, I've moved places but starting it off with lies is never the answer.