Publisher's Synopsis
The strongest person in the history of humanity happens to be a fourteen-year-old Filipina in South San Francisco, California, and her name is Imelda Corazon SantaMaria. This is the story of a girl who wants to be a woman, a woman who loves, a woman who loves a young man named Rogelio. Rogelio has a problem though: testicular cancer. To make matters worse, Rogelio's mother has recently converted from Catholicism to become a Jehova's Witness and forbids modern medical treatment, insisting on prayer instead. What does Rogelio want? Just a girl he can trust. What does Imelda want in return? Rogelio's love, oh, and to no longer be a virgin on the first day of high school, six days after the opening of the story. Did I mention the abortion in chapter two, the stabbing in chapter four, the abduction (sort of) in chapter seven, the three-car pile-up in chapter nine, the psychiatric ward in chapter eleven, or whether or not Imelda gets her man in the end?
