What happened to Ruthy Ramirez /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A powerful novel that's "hilarious, heartbreaking, and ass-kicking" (Jamie Ford), of a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discovers their long‑missing sister is potentially alive and cast on a reality TV show, and they set out to bring her home.

A March Indie Next Pick! Belletrist, Phenomenal, and Readers Digest book club pick! Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award!

The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen‑year‑old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?

The years since Ruthy's disappearance haven't been easy on the Ramirez family. It's 2008, and their mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, Jessica juggles a newborn baby with her hospital job, and Nina, after four successful years at college, has returned home to medical school rejections and is forced to work in the mall folding tiny bedazzled thongs at the lingerie store.

After seeing maybe‑Ruthy on their screen, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed in search of their long‑lost sister. When Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future--with or without Ruthy in it.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Elle * USA Today * Today.com * Ms. Magazine * Good Housekeeping * Bustle * The Week * Goodreads * Bookriot * Pop Culturely * SheReads * Litreactor * Electric Lit * The Mary Sue * People Español * Zibby Mag * Debutiful * Her Campus

Best Books of March by Shondaland * Ms. Magazine * Popsugar * Bookriot * Debutiful * Powell's Book Blog * TIME 100 must-read book of 2023 * Booklist Top 10 debut of 2023 * Library Journal Best Pop Fiction of 2023 * The Latinidad List​ Best Debut Novel of 2023 * Chicago Public Library Favorite Book of 2023 * Good Housekeeping Must-Read Book of 2023 * Today.com Standout Book of 2023

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Ruthy Ramirez, the middle child of a Puerto Rican family, vanished after track practice when she was only 13. Now, 12 years later, her older sister thinks she's spotted the missing Ruthy on a reality show. Her family, still reeling from Ruthy's absence, must sort out what happened so many years ago. The story features the perspectives of each Ramirez woman, with flashbacks to Ruthy's 1996 disappearance through the novel's present day at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Narrating her own work, Jiménez smoothly delivers the raw and honest dialogue. She embodies each of the indomitable Ramirez women, effectively conveying their sorrow at losing Ruthy and the pain that subsequent trauma brings to their lives. Short chapters revealing Ruthy's 13-year-old self, interspersed between her family's perspectives in the present, will keep listeners hooked. Jiménez examines complex issues via her characters, exploring tricky sibling dynamics, family expectations, cultural identity, and generational violence. VERDICT Jiménez's prose and narration shine in this engaging and powerful debut novel exploring identity, trauma, and enduring familial bonds.--Laura Hammond

Publishers Weekly Review

A Staten Island Puerto Rican family reckons with the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl in Jiménez's brilliant debut. In 1996, middle daughter Ruthy Ramirez, a defiant, wildly independent eighth grader, mysteriously vanishes after track practice. Twelve years later, guilt-ridden matriarch Dolores harbors fear, resentment, and rage and has become obese, and determines to shed weight with help from a Christian exercise DVD. Dolores's youngest daughter, Nina, a recent college graduate with few job options, returns to Staten Island for a lingerie retail job ("Better than any political science class... really taught you how deeply patriarchy was linked to capitalism," she narrates). Jessica, the oldest, an overworked nurse's aid, shoulders the burden of her baby daughter and caring for Dolores. The sisters, especially Jessica, shield secrets: Nina wants to go to medical school, and Jessica wonders if the person who sexually abused her as an adolescent ever crossed paths with Ruthy. Then, one night, Jessica sees a woman she believes to be Ruthy on a reality show called Catfight, where five women live in a Boston condo and settle disputes with violence. Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to Boston to rescue their sister, and after Dolores learns of the trip, she enlists her church friend Irene, and all four are soon en route to the Catfight condo, where mayhem ensues. The author perfectly harnesses the Ramirez women's alternating viewpoints to illuminate how the years have worn on them, and in the stunning ending, she cannily reveal the truth behind Ruthy's disappearance. This is a knockout. Agent: Jane von Mehren, Aevitas Creative. (Mar.)

Booklist Review

Jiménez's witty debut novel focuses on the ferocious love of a tight-knit Puerto Rican family on Staten Island at the height of the 2008 recession haunted by the disappearance of 13-year-old middle daughter Ruthy 12 years ago. The narrative features multiple perspectives: Ruthy's point of view lends a coming-of-age feel as she deals with bullies and middle-school angst, and those of the ones left behind (dad Eddie died soon after the incident) highlight their ups and downs. Oldest daughter Jessica, 27, is a nurse's aid and tired mom; youngest daughter Nina, 22, hoping to become a med student, works grudgingly at a lingerie store; mom Dolores, 44, a parenting coach at a Pentecostal church, suffers from diabetes and frets for her and her daughters' safety. After a tiresome work shift, Jessica alerts Nina about a woman in a tawdry reality show with an unmistakable resemblance to Ruthy. Propelled by the hopeful possibility of bringing their sister home, Jessica and Nina decide to travel to Boston to confront the mysterious woman. Things go hilariously off-kilter when their mom zealously tags along. Sympathetic and fiery Latina characters shine in this warm and moving novel portraying a down-to-earth family with deep loyalty and longing for closure.

Kirkus Book Review

A story of family, fury, a missing girl, and what society doesn't see. Twelve years ago, 13-year-old Ruthy Ramirez disappeared after track practice one day, never to be seen again. Left in the black hole where there is "no such thing now as a map" are the women in Ruthy's family, who never get over her loss. Told from the alternating perspectives of Ruthy's younger and older sisters, Nina and Jessica; her mother, Dolores; and Ruthy herself, this is a story of the fights women encounter and the ways they survive, set in a Pentecostal Puerto Rican community in Staten Island. More than a decade after Ruthy's disappearance, Jessica is convinced she's seen her on Catfight, a reality TV series where women literally fight their cast-mates to stay in the town house where they're filming and win the grand prize. Jessica and Nina begin binge-watching the show, analyzing every detail about the woman onscreen, comparing her with their memories of Ruthy and their expectations of whether a near-homeless raging alcoholic is the woman Ruthy could have grown up to become. They try to keep this secret from their diabetic mother, but their plan unravels when Dolores figures out that they're not heading off to a retreat for young Christian women but are instead driving to Boston, where the show is filmed. The three end up road-tripping together, along with a friend, and it's Dolores, not her daughters, who schemes her way into a nightclub where the Catfight girls will perform. There's a delightfully subversive and maverick quality to the way first-time novelist Jiménez gives her characters the freedom to tell the truth as they see it, whether it's Dolores negotiating with God in expletive-laden prayers or Nina explaining the fallout of graduating from college with an expensive biology degree only to end up folding lingerie for a toxic White boss. The book's humor alongside Jiménez's willingness to include everything from pop culture to intergenerational trauma is the reason this book is a page-turner. Jiménez brings bravery to the page, and it's her strong storytelling and humor that make this an outstanding debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Claire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories , which received the 2019 Hornblower Award for a first book from the New York Society Library and was named a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, a New York Public Library Favorite Book about New York, and Best Latino Book of 2019 by NBC News. She received her MFA from Vanderbilt University and her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2020, she cofounded the Puerto Rican Literature Project, a digital archive. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in Remezcla , AfroHispanic Review , PANK , The Rumpus , and Eater , among other publications. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is her debut novel.