What’s Coming to Me

Seventeen-year-old Dominican Minerva Guitérrez struggles to find stability in Padilla’s emotionally layered debut. Min’s cousin has moved in to help around the house following Min’s mother’s most recent hospitalization for an undisclosed long-term illness. After getting expelled from school, the only thing Min has going for her is her employment at Nautilus Point, N.Y., hot spot Duke’s Ice Creamery. But her boss is a “creep” who spies on his young female employees through cameras, and she barely makes enough money to add to her “Probable Orphan’s Fund,” which she plans to use to leave Nautilus Point. When she learns about a rumored treasure hidden at Duke’s, she enlists her estranged best friend and their weed-dealing neighbor to find it. Complications such as Min’s budding relationship with a longtime crush, her boss’s growing suspicions about the group’s scheme, and an unknown party poking around Duke’s in the middle of the night derail matters, and the teens realize the cost of finding the treasure might place them in greater danger than it’s worth. Despite an abrupt resolution, Padilla skillfully balances introspective musings on grief with thrilling mystery and intrigue in this intimate-feeling read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Aug.)