鈥淲hat Happened to Ruthy Ramirez鈥� by Claire Jimenez (Grand Central)
If true crime is your guilty pleasure, you absolutely must find out what happened to Ruthy Ramirez.
One cold November day in 1996, 13-year-old Ruthy doesn鈥檛 come home from track practice after school. Over a decade later, a woman who looks just like Ruthy appears on reality TV show 鈥淐at Fight,鈥� going by the name Ruby. 鈥淲hat Happened to Ruthy Ramirez,鈥� the compelling true-crime-style debut novel by Claire Jimenez follows the Ramirez family as they pick up the search for Ruthy.
Missing persons are 鈥� something the author and her characters are well aware of 鈥� leaving the Ramirez family torn when they see Ruby on TV.
Jess, Ruthy鈥檚 older sister, is convinced the moment she sees her. All she has to do is find an excuse to have her mom watch the baby and get a weekend off from work to drive out to where 鈥淐at Fight鈥� films. Ruthy鈥檚 younger sister, Nina, is the hardest to convince. But as a fresh college graduate during the 2008 financial crisis 鈥� and with a dead-end retail job as the only thing tying her down 鈥� she agrees to help track down 鈥淭V Ruthy.鈥�
As the sisters sneak around their uber-religious, strict Puerto Rican mother, family dysfunctions resurface. Work, church and family drama provide subplots that open up conversations on identity, trauma and opportunity.
But it鈥檚 also a light, easy read. Jimenez鈥� style is thoroughly conversational, complete with an arsenal of curse words that would鈥檝e made my 13-year-old self proud. She sprinkles in jokes and wordplay, counterbalancing the heavy topics 鈥� including sexual abuse and violence 鈥� and rounding out her characters as more than the sum of their tragedies.
Meanwhile, Ruthy tells the story of the day she disappeared 鈥� a day almost like any other in which she fights with her mom, navigates a precarious middle school cafeteria and tries to understand the shattered relationship with her former best friend.
Jimenez keeps readers anticipating the moment we鈥檙e all morbidly curious about: Ruthy鈥檚 disappearance. Did she run away as Nina thinks? Or is Jessica right and she was kidnapped? By whom?
We don鈥檛 find out until the very last pages what happened to Ruthy Ramirez.
And really, the book isn鈥檛 about that anyway. It subverts the often trauma-porn-ridden true crime genre and instead centers on the family losing and regaining hope, living life with a big, mysterious, Ruthy-shaped hole in it.
Donna Edwards, The Associated Press
