• What did you think of Acevedo’s decision to write the novel in verse? What effect did this have on the telling of the story?
• “If Medusa was Dominican/ and had a daughter, I think I’d be her./ I look and feel like a myth./ A story distorted, waiting for others to stop/ and stare.” What does this passage say about Xiomara’s relationship with her changing body?
• At one point Xiomara’s mother calls her an offensive word to describe a promiscuous woman. How does Xiomara repurpose the word rather than taking offense to it?
• “As I got older/ I began to really see/ the way that church/ treats a girl like me differently,” Xiomara writes. When you were a teenager, what did you start to question about the things you had been taught?
• The Bible stories in Genesis, particularly that of Eve, are particularly questionable to Xiomara. Why do you think that is?
• At one point, Xiomara writes that her boyfriend Aman has “made a junkie” out of her: “He’s turned me into a fiend:/ waiting for his next word/ hanging on his last breath/ always waiting for the next, next time.” What did you think of her metaphor of addiction in this passage?
• “She knows me in ways I don’t have to explain,” Xiomara writes of her friend, Caridad. How does their friendship evolve throughout the novel?
• How do Xiomara and her twin support one another as they face pressure to fulfill certain expectations of gender and identity from their family?
• How did Acevedo’s setting and language paint a picture of Xiomara’s home and culture? What was most effective about her descriptions?
• Ms. Galiano encourages Xiomara to join her school’s slam poetry club. Have you had a teacher who saw promise in you and inspired you to explore it?
• How does Xiomara change after performing slam poetry? Why does it open her up?
• How does Father Sean help Xiomara reconcile with her mother? Did you sympathize with her Mami despite the pain she caused?
• Was there one school assignment or essay written by Xiomara that stood out to you? If so, why?
• Would you share this book with younger readers in your life? Why or why not?

Discussion questions adapted from PBS News Hour.