the skinny magazine

Skinny Mag has a roundup of spring '07 books by bay area types like me, including this review of The Virgin's Guide to Mexico. Also reprinted here:

Alma Price is a 17-year-old, straight-A, Harvard-bound student. In fact, she's only ever received exceptional grades (except for that one B). Thanks to her privileged upbringing, Alma doesn't know what it’s like to struggle to survive and succeed. Looking for experience and a temporary reprieve from college, Alma picks up clues from her mother's painful childhood in Mexico and runs away to the family, culture and legacy she believes the country will bring to her sheltered life. Through frequent Spanish exchanges and "gawky-girl" teenage jargon, we follow her into Mexico, learn to speak Alma's language and witness a transformation that leaves her nearly unrecognizable. Meanwhile, Alma’s overprotective parents trail her through vibrant, peasant-filled landscapes, meeting various ominous characters, and ultimately realizing their daughter's unstoppable metamorphosis has also been occurring in their own lives; readers may wonder whose account truly guides the narrative. The Virgin's Guide to Mexico is one of those works that urges you to read its passages again and again; it forces you into Alma's thought process as you piece together her steps towards a destination she already knows will leave a bruise.
– Rene Wilson