Mexican High

Monroy's spirited, overreaching debut tracks a rocky coming-of-age. Milagro Márquez's father is a wealthy, powerful Mexico City native, but her mother, a California-raised Jew, who works for the foreign service, won't tell Milagro who he is. As mother and daughter move from Clinton-era Washington, D.C., to Mexico City for her mother's latest posting, Milagro sees a chance to seek him out. Thrust into the heady, drug-fueled world of diplomatic offspring and Mexican rich kids at her exclusive private school, Milagro quickly transforms from a “good girl” into a rebellious club kid, spending chunks of time with fresas , or “Eurotrash with Mexican passports.” Her late teen precocity soon puts her at odds with her overbearing mother, who embarks on a series of far-fetched schemes to get Milagro back on track. Monroy makes Milagro a terrific observer of telling details, but her voice isn't built for the larger points Monroy tries to make about the contradictions of teenage life and the economic fragmentation of Mexican society. The result is more a fictive diary than a satisfying novel. (June)