Books › Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass
Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass
260 pages
A tense, deeply empathetic exploration of how the looming threat of high school violence can shrink your world, and what it takes to expand it again.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like walking down a high school hallway with your shoulders permanently tensed. It captures the suffocating, claustrophobic dread of being targeted by a bully, where every corner and passing period feels like a potential ambush. Yet, beneath this brisk layer of anxiety lies a deeply grounded, vibrant portrait of a Latinx neighborhood, complete with the scent of hairspray at the local salon and the complex dynamics of a single-mother household. The prose is direct and conversational, pulling you immediately into the protagonist's fraying state of mind. It is a perfect fit for readers who crave gritty, realistic contemporary YA that doesn't shy away from the ugly realities of teenage cruelty, but ultimately rewards them with a hard-won, empowering journey toward self-advocacy and resilience.
- Mood
- anxious
- claustrophobic
- resilient
- Tone
- earnest
- tense
- grounded
- empathetic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the isolation of bullying · navigating cultural identity · mother-daughter dynamics · finding personal agency
- The writing
- The prose is direct, conversational, and deeply rooted in the sensory details of a vibrant urban neighborhood.
- The arc
- The journey moves from paralyzing, isolating dread to a hard-won sense of resilience and self-advocacy.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate gritty, realistic contemporary YA that tackles the messy, terrifying realities of high school social dynamics without sugarcoating them.
Content notes
- bullying
- physical violence
- emotional abuse
- colorism
About the book
One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn't even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she's done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn't Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn't kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back.
At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she's never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy's life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away?
Description from Open Library.
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