Gloria Buenrostro Is Not My Girlfriend by Brandon Hoàng is a contemporary young-adult romance about Gary Võ, who befriends the aloof and beautiful Gloria Buenrosto. Growing up in the poor east side of their town, Gary and his best friend, Preston, dream of being popular, and they eye the rich kids who have everything they could ever want. In a turn of events, Gary ends up getting close to Gloria when he discovers that she does deliveries around town with tamales and fixed-up clothes. Spending so much time on his tandem bike, he finds that she’s not a bright and heaven-sent idol as his classmates say she is, but just a girl. And an in into the popular club, much to his hesitant dismay.

At first, I honestly didn’t vibe with the way Gary was written and the starting events on how he grew closer with Gloria. I’m aware that teenagers are self-conscious of their reputation, or the way they look, or how they act, but Gary and Preston’s desire to be part of the popular group was laid on so thick that I found myself thinking that they were incredibly ridiculous. Not only that, the little group that they were invited to—the “Roosters” (a short mispronunciation of Buenrostro)—was so slimy. To be part of the popular kids, steal personal items from the hottest girls at school. Wow! This will definitely not have lasting consequences! But I get that sometimes teenage boys can get slimy, especially popular and rich teenage boys who know they can get away with anything, so this feeling is personal and doesn’t really reflect on my feelings of the overall plot. I was glad that Gary ended up doing the right thing in the end. 

The writing is nothing special, typical for a YA novel; at times it was extremely cliche. But I did adore the development of Gary and Gloria’s friendship. I like the way their relationship ended by the end of the story. Gloria’s problems with her family and Gary’s problems growing up poor were real and brought a depth to their characters (Poverty is as much as a state of mind as it is a state of living! And that shows in Gary and his family!). Thinking about the both of them trying and making food from each other’s cultures was a joy to read. I love it when cultures mix like that. 

I rated this 3 stars. At times, it was cute. Others, not so much.