Lucia Cruz may be turning eighteen this year, but she is not the debutante type. Everything about a traditional Filipino debut feels all wrong for her. Besides, custom dictates that eighteen friends attend her for a special ceremony on her birthday, and Lucia only has one friend– Esmé Mares. They’ve stuck to each other’s side all throughout high school, content to be friends with only each other. At least, Lucia thought they were content.

As it turns out, Esmé wants something different out of her senior year. And, on top of that, Lucia’s mom has planned a debutante ball for her birthday behind her back. She’ll be forced to cobble together a court of eighteen “friends” before her beloved lola arrives from the Philippines for this blessed occasion.

How far will Lucia stray from her comfort zone in order to play the role of dutiful daughter and granddaughter? Will she do the unthinkable– participating in a school sponsored activity? Will she discover that her sense of humor can be a way to connect with people, not just push them away?

I’ve heard of bat/bar mitzvahs, and quinceneras, and of course, those mega super sweet 16s, but Fil-Am debuts were new. So coming-of-age rites are kinda universal, and brings all kinds of drama. Much like all of the above, for the rich it is a way to go way overboard. For the middle-class, it brings up all kinds of insecurity that one forgets the point of the ceremony is not the bling. I don’t blame Lucia or being so frustrated with her mother’s insistence of having a debut. She’s been clear that she doesn’t want one, and it’s more for her mom to prove herself to her snobby siblings- who are jerks so why does their opinion matter anyway!?

However, Luz’s attitude when it comes to the rest of her life can be difficult to connect to. That’s the point as her best friend tells Luz that she’s a hater, and it’s not cringy or lame to want to be genuine or earnest. You know, that kind of person, someone who proudly wears their outsider badge and won’t budge or join anything. Luz is that girl. Yet she’s also the girl who feels so much, and her hermit-like bitterness is a defense mechanism against vulnerability and being let down. Which yes, it’s totally connected to her dead-beat, verbally abusive Dad.

I applaud Rogers for creating such a flawed, complex character and urge readers who find Luz’s personality unbearable to fight through because she does try to amend and adjust her perspective to being open and finding new friends. To realize that these people won’t leave her or disappoint her.

Unfortunately, in sticking close to Luz’s judgemental perspective and stubbornness, most of her connections with others (not her family or Esme) feel superficial. I don’t feel the bond that the Open Mic Comedy Club supposedly feels for her (then again, Luz is surprised about that too so perhaps it was intentional) or the ones with her cousin that she supposedly admires and the lola that she loves.

Her relationship with her mother was much more interesting because of its complexities as Luz feels like a parentified disappointment and their relationship is not one where they can discuss that because she doesn’t want to make her already insecure mother feel worse about events out of her control. It was a moving portrayal of the push-pull of immigrant/blended families trying to keep their traditions alive while adapting it to the modern day. Likewise, Luz’s relationship with her sister was endearing, but I wish there had been a little more depth. Luz says Ali is the baby of the family, so they all try to protect her, but I kept feeling there was more to her than Luz sees and wished she got more page time.

The look into debuts including the commercial-industrial complex of debut-tok was interesting especially in how much it is woven into Filipino culture. The side plot of Luz finding her funny in Comedy Club felt like oversold as we hardly see Luz’s sense of humor or learning how to do a good stand-up.

A solid 4 stars with interesting parts regarding Filipino debut culture and a multifaceted main character that underbakes some character connections.