This Is the Year

This dazzling YA cli-fi written in prose and verse will speak to any reader struggling with the state of our world and how to understand their place in it.

"In outer space, no one will know me as the girl with the dead sister."

Seventeen-year-old self-proclaimed Goth and aspiring writer Julieta Villarreal is drowning. She's grieving her twin sister who died in a hit-and-run, her Florida home is crumbling under the weight of climate disaster, and she isn't sure how much longer she can stand to stay in a place that doesn't seem to have room for her.

Then, Juli is recruited by Cometa, a private space program enlisting high-aptitude New American teens for a high-stakes mission to establish humanity's first extraterrestrial settlement. Cometa pitches this as an opportunity for Juli to give back to her adopted country; Juli sees it as her only chance to do something big with her life.

Juli begins her training, convinced Cometa is her path to freedom. But her senior year is full of surprises, including new friendships, roller skating, and first love. And through her small but poignant acts of environmentalism, Juli begins to find hope in unexpected places. As her world collapses from the ramifications of the climate crisis, Juli must decide if she'll carry her loss together with her community or leave it all behind.

Told in gripping prose interspersed with poems from Juli's writing journal, this genre-bending novel explores themes of immigration, climate justice, grief, and the power of communities.

"Muñoz's debut teaches us what it means to be a human on Earth and how we keep surviving--together." --Booklist (starred review)

Author: Gloria Muñoz
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 01/07/2025
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.90w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9780823458363
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/21/2024
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 12/01/2024
Booklist 11/01/2024 pg. 86
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2024
School Library Journal 01/01/2025 pg. 65
BookPage 01/01/2025
Horn Book Magazine 05/01/2025 pg. 93
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2025 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Gloria Muñoz is the author of Your Biome Has Found You and Danzirly, which won the Ambroggio Prize and the Florida Gold Medal Book Award for Poetry. She is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow, a Hedgebrook Fellow, a Macondista, a Highlights Foundation Diverse Verse Fellow, and a part of Las Musas. This Is the Year is her debut novel. Visit her online at gloriamunoz.com and on Instagram at @bygloriamunoz.