The Secret
Side of Empty might be one of the last young adult novels I might ever get
to read, so I might as well enjoy it right? The The Secret Side of Empty takes place in modern times and follows
around our main character M.T. It’s a nice change of pace reading a story that
happens in a place that is tangible to me. It’s not in the distant future and it’s
not in an alternate universe, it’s just simple New Jersey. Our main character
has pretty nice back story, she is a high school girl that I also an immigrant.
When I hear the word “immigrant” I relate that word more to the 1900’s, and the
old days of Ellis Island . All the people I have come in to connect with my life
most of time are at least 2nd or 3rd generation Americans.
It’s just an interesting fact that you have to remember sometimes that immigration
is happening all the time and it may bring a lot of stress and problems to all
kinds of people.
But anyways we see M.T is blending in
quite nicely. She has a best friend like a normal high school girl and her name
is Chelsa. We find out that these two like to take trips into New York City,
and that’s a perfect teenager thing to do and it’s something that I can easily
relate to. Although I have only been to New York City only a handle full of
times. But I don’t have the same problem as M.T has, you see M.T isn't here legally,
she is undocumented. Which means she can easily be deported at any time from
the United States. This scares her because she states multiply times throughout
the text how “This might be her last year to a formal education”(Andreau 32). This
is easily relate able to how she wants to pursue the American Dream, she wants an
education, she wants to succeed, but can she? I am really concerned that this
story might that a left hand turn with her secret being found out.
-Richard Plattel
-Andreu, Maria E.. The Secret Side of Empty; Philadelphia: RP Teens, 2014
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