Furia: A Reese's Book Club Pick

I couldn’t put it down, the story is the perfect amount of feminism, romance and life lessons. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good read.

I loved the main character's voice in this book. She's a strong person and this was quite an adventure. I liked seeing her make her way in the world and follow her dreams.

I'm not really a fan of soccer, or futbol, as it's called in this book. And yet, I found myself wanting to be one by the end. A passion for that sport permeates this book and it's infectious, as is the main character's love of the city where the story is set. Even more, though, I loved the main character hserself and was pulling for her to achieve her dreams. You will be, too. You will love her and this book.

Bought this for a book club. It didn’t hold my interest and I live soccer! This is a book for preteens.

Camilla is a teenager living in Argentina, who dreams of being a fútbolera, but her parents would never support her dream. Camilla sneaks around and plays fútbol anyways. Earning the name Furia on the field. She also must decided if fútbol or love is more important to her.I enjoyed this book even though I’m not a fan of fútbol. There was enough other material that the book still kept me interested. I also really enjoy reading books set in different locations, so I could learn about what their customs and ideas are like compared to the US. I would recommend this book even if you aren’t into fútbol just to learn about what it is like to be a girl growing up in Argentina.

This is a must-read YA book. I learned so much about a slice of life in Argentina. This book handles some heavy stuff (missing girls, murder, domestic abuse) in a very accessible way and without detracting from the coming of age story at the heart. Camila is a strong protagonist and I cheered her on every step of her journey.

Yamile Saied Mendéz’s Furia is the story of ambitious soccer player Camila “la Furia” Hassan, who dreams of becoming a professional player despite the disapproval of her conservative parents. The story takes place in Rosario, Argentina, where violence against women is regular news, girls go missing every day, and women were band from playing soccer until the 90s. Camila secretly plays soccer at night with a team of girls. She tells her mom she is studying for med school, but really she is aching for a chance to impress scouts. When Camila leads her team to local victory, they finally have a chance to compete in an international fútbol competition. But Camila can’t compete without parental permission and telling her abusive father her secret is out of the question. Achieving her goals is further complicated when Diego Ferrari—Camila’s childhood sweetheart—comes back to town, intending to sweep Camila off her feet. Camila must decide between achieving her dreams on her own merit or running away with her beau. Diego is more than capable of providing for her with his success playing soccer for Juventus F.C. The blossoming relationship between Camila and Diego is sweet, but ultimately, Mendéz captures the feminist spark of Camila’s character by having her make her own way forward in her career. Camila is the kind of role model readers of young adult fiction will love and cheer for. Her anger and grief over the missing and murdered girls and her resilience in response to her own challenging circumstances make her an inspiration to all the women who have longed for the freedom to guide their own lives.

Furia is the only book that has ever given me chills. Yamile Saied Méndez uses words in a way that is subtly beautiful—you don’t sit there thinking about how lovely the prose is, but the words strike home with simple yet breathtaking power. Her characters are complicated and flawed and act like teenagers (but not like caricatures), but also are mature in ways that YA writers don’t always give their characters credit for. The story doesn’t pull any punches or tie everything up with a string, but it’s not needlessly cruel. It’s real life.In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life: to her parents, she is a perfect daughter studying to be a doctor, but to her friends and teammates, she is team captain and La Furia. Her parents think women shouldn’t play soccer (a real view held by conservative Argentines even in recent years), so she keeps her double life a secret from them. But when her team has the opportunity to compete in a big championship tournament, Camila realizes she cannot keep up the lie forever.The story has several plots woven together: sports, family, romance, oppression. The subplot of violence against women is so artfully done and true to life. Most women have experienced some sort of violence or oppression in their lives, first- or secondhand, and will find something that resonates within these pages. Even people who feel distant from such experiences will be pulled in by Camila’s fiery character and Mendez’s deft storytelling. The story travels through violence and oppression to a place of redemption and healing, without once losing touch with reality. It is inspiring and important.

This book is one of the most inspiring stories I have ever read. Furia is the story of a young woman, Camila Hassan, growing up in the small town of Rosario, Argentina. Camila has a dream to become a famous futbolera and go to school in the United States to get a good education. However, because of her very traditional lifestyle and verbally and emotionally abusive father, Camila does not see how her dreams can ever come true. Camila secretly joins a women’s futbol league and excelles quickly, turning into ‘La Furia’ or ‘The Fury’ on the soccer field. Her dreams finally seem to be coming true, despite all her obstacles. As Camila’s team advances, they eventually qualify for a big futbol tournament that could lead to big opportunities, however in order for her to attend, she has to have parent approval. What will Camila do? And just in case you thought things couldn’t get any more complicated, Camila’s first love, Diego comes home and rekindles things between the two of them. But things are different now, she has her own dreams, aspirations, and pursuits, he’s not the only thing in her life now. Furia is an amazing story that involves many different aspects of human life. This book digs into the problems of poverty versus getting a good education, dealing with emotional and verbal abuse from a parent, going forward without the support of your family, choosing between love and opportunity, and going against the traditional roles of women. I would highly recommend this book for all ages. It truly is a very complex story that involves so many aspects that people can relate to.

I really enjoyed Furia! The book was exciting, inspiring, and well put together. It drew me in with its characters and story, and I couldn’t put it down! I read the whole book in a night because I had to know what happened. Yamile Saled Méndez did a wonderful job combining romance, family struggles, soccer, and the life of a teenager in Argentina into a well put together and thoughtful book. I loved the way she used Spanish words and phrases in her book to make it more authentic and to remind the reader that they aren’t in America, but in Argentina. It was such a great way to add more culture and authenticity into the book, without taking away from the story or making it hard to understand for those that don’t speak Spanish. It was obvious that she put a lot of thought into this book and how she was going to put it together which was one reason this book was so good. Méndez also created characters and experiences that one could relate to easily which helped to make this book more personal and to keep the reader engaged. This story inspires the reader to not give up on their dreams, to not let others take you away from your dreams, to stand up for yourself, and so many other things. Furia transported me to Argentina and sucked me in from the beginning and is definitely a must-read for anybody looking for an inspiring, romantic, girl power read!

Furia is like futbol itself: fast, powerful, and makes you wanna scream for joy. I don’t care who you are, your kid should read this. Anyone can find worth in this story no matter what their demographic. What impressed me most was the balance Mendez strikes between harsh reality and her audience. In YA, there’s no better way to shoot yourself in the foot than talk down to the teenagers you’re writing to, but lots of authors will go to the opposite extreme by going into graphic detail. For Mendez, it was enough to just be honest. That came through so powerfully in Camila’s voice, how life’s coming at her with a million things at once and she’s trying to make sense of it all. Yes, there’s some heavy stuff in this book--abuse, both physical and emotional, and the disturbing truth of abduction--but what’s so important about this book is how Camila reacts to it. On the surface, Camila’s story is about finding freedom and identity in futbol. But the deeper meaning of her story is about how, when you’re confronted with evil, you don’t have to just take it. Her example teaches that you can stand against it, use your personal power to resist malignance where you find it. In a world about as peaceful as a hurricane, that’s exactly what teenagers need to hear. What great YA does is show our youth just what kind of potential they have. Yamile Said Mendez, you have done that and more. And it was a heck of a ride, too!

Furia is such a wonderful read. As a female soccer player and as someone who speaks Spanish, this novel really hit close to home. However, I would recommend the story to anyone—especially to young women looking for a character that they can relate to. Camila is such a strong female lead, and she tells a story that many of us women can relate to. Yet, at the same time, she opens our eyes to a world that is much different than our own.I definitely recommend the audiobook version of Furia. I am one who tends to be skeptical about audiobooks because you never really know what you’re going to get (and there is nothing worse than a monotone reader). However, I fell in love with narrator Sol Madariaga from the very first chapter. She gives personality and life to the characters that Yamil has crafted so brilliantly. Her accent adds to authenticity of the story and really helps to envelope the reader in Camila’s world.(SPOILER ALERT)Something that I really appreciated in this story was that Camila’s happy ending didn’t result from her ultimately “getting the guy”. Though we all appreciate a little romance, I feel like often a female character’s whole story focuses on ending up with the man of her dreams. Camila shows strength and independence when she chooses her own career path over a rose-colored life with Diego. She puts her dreams first and achieves them… but doesn’t swear off men in the process. She keeps the door open for love, but puts herself before her love interest.

Furia is a great book about a girl named Camila and her struggles to chase her dreams even when those dreams run contrary to the expectations of her family and friends. From the multifaceted characters to the seemingly insignificant details, Yamile Saied Mendez creates a world that feels real and instantly transports readers into the shoes of Camila. To add to the realism, Mendez shows the everyday challenges of her characters in multiple areas including school, soccer, and family. This helps create the depth needed to engage readers and to link the story to larger issues such as abuse and women’s rights. The story has a fast pace and keeps readers glued to the page as we follow Camila down her path to achieve her dream of playing professional soccer, which is filled with unexpected twists and turns. One of the things that I like the most about this book is that while the ending would still be considered happy, it’s not perfect. In order to achieve her dream Camila must make significant sacrifices and not everything goes according to her original (or even her back-up) plan. Despite these setbacks, Camila continues to pursue the path she wants in life and doesn’t allow the expectations or desires of others keep her back from her dream. Mendez has created a book that is perfect for all the incorrigible women in the world that reflects the sacrifices so many have made to pursue their while also showing that there is hope for those of us that are still on that journey even when the going is hard.

Furia, by Yamile Saied Méndez, is an inspiring book about a young teenage girl growing up in Argentina. Camila, the main character, secretly plays soccer in an all-girls league because her parents, but especially her father, would never let her play because they think soccer is a mans sport. This is set forth by the fact that her older brother, Pablo, is on his way of becoming a famous soccer player. I heard the first chapter of this book by an author reading in the BYU English Reading Series class and fell in love with the story. It draws you in with a fiery spirit of equal rights and Argentinian culture, but overlays serious tones of domestic abuse in a way that is subtle but striking. Méndez also adds in elements of young love versus pursuing careers, the struggles of a poor family and getting an education, and many other intertwining ideas that make this book not only an amazing read, but gives the reader meaningful messages and ideas. The choice that Camila has to make at the end of the book between her love, Diego, who is a hot shot soccer player, and her soccer career, brings all her struggles and conflicts together in a single decision. What I loved the most about this book was the story that Méndez writes is not just a nice story about a young girl that comes from a humble beginning to be a star. It tells a story instead of what obstacles Camila had to overcome in her journey and dream of becoming more than what the world has defined her as.

This book is soooo good! I couldn’t put it down. It is beautifully written, the characters feel like real people, the story is fantastic, and I felt like I had visited Rosario, Argentina despite never having traveled to South America. This book has so much heart and passion. It even made me interested in fútbol while I read the book despite me not being a sports fan. I could go on and on, but really you should just read the book yourself.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read YA contemporary, but I’m so glad I read this book! Furia is an empowering story of family, friendship, and first love. Camila is a character who doesn’t ask for sympathy, but she deserves it all the same. Born into a dysfunctional family in a poor neighborhood in Rosario, Argentina, Camila dreams of doing the impossible: being a successful futbolera and going to play in the US. Her verbally/emotionally abusive father presents a clear obstacle in following these dreams, and to make things harder, her first love, the famous international soccer player Diego comes back home for a week and she remembers all the feelings she had for him the last time she saw him. He could save her from her family’s vicious cycle, but ruin her dreams. What—or who—will she choose?This story is written with a strong, relatable voice and it presents the people, culture, and locale of Rosario in sound, smell, and colors that made me feel like I was there. The struggle of this one girl, presented with Argentina as the backdrop, showcases the struggles that every girl in Argentina faces to this day—and Camila faces those challenges with a courage and faith that is awe-inspiring and that earn her the name of Furia. Everyone should read this book, but especially young girls. It shows that we can breaks out of bad cycles and accomplish our dreams**Spoilers** below:The ending warmed my heart in the way a book hasn’t in a while. I loved seeing Camila not only achieve her external goal of getting to the US and playing futbol there, but she also accomplished her internal goal of breaking the terrible cycle her family was in. These two goals combined were so empowering to me.

I love reading YA because it helps me connect to my student’s lives, dreams and aspirations. This book is most definitely not about a Cinderella story but a Mulan story and I loved that. Getting ahead on your own skills and talents, putting the hard work in everyday and helping other girls to also achieve her dreams, la Furia is really a strong character. My only wish is for a little more background on the disappearing girls from her barrio, that part felt more like a filler and was disconnected from the plot, but overall, great reading,

Ahh, what a book! La Furia pulled me out of a reading slump, and I'm forever grateful. I read it in a day and I'm still on a high after finishing it just moments ago. The plot pulls you along at a breathless yet perfect pace. The characters are SO, so real, that I feel like they're my friends. There is literally nothing better than characters who become a reader's friend. And the setting of Rosario, Argentina did something I've been craving since the pandemic began: it carried me away into another country and culture. So if you want to travel right now, and if you want a few brave, tenacious new friends, and you want a plot that doesn't let you put the book down unless you absolutely HAVE to...FURIA is for you.Yamile, you're a stunning writer. Thank you, thank you, for writing this book and sharing it with the world.

I'm always looking for the kind of feminist read that doesn't shy away from the fact that as a woman, we have to make hard choices in this world. The kind of feminist read that looks the realities of cruelty head on and says, "I will not stand for this." Furia is that read.Throughout the story, Camila chooses to make her own path, without leaning on any of the men in her life, even the ones she loves, like her brother Pablo or her great love Diego. She follows her passion, no matter the cost, and is able to succeed by the nature of her hard work.This is a book with love and heart, one that will challenge you. All the characters in this book are flawed, but this does not make them unlikable; it lends to their strength and vitality. The characters in this book feel real, and you will be rooting for Camila and praying for her success every time you turn the page.Méndez is a clear, beautiful author, who knows how to weave words and paint a world. You can feel the atmosphere of Camila's barrio, you can feel the tension present in Camila's home. This is an excellent debut, and I can't wait to see what else this author can do.

Camila Hassan wants to be a futbolera, a soccer star, even though the world stands against her. Her parents do not want her to play soccer, and instead they are supporting her brother in his soccer ambitions. Camila's childhood love, who went on to soccer stardom, is back in town, tempting her to put him first and her dream second. What everyone doesn't realize is that on the field, Camila transforms into La Furia, a terrifying force of nature that devours the soccer field with skill and ferocity. She knows she has what it takes to surpass everybody's expectations of her, and she is not willing to back down for the sake of love or her family's expectations. Her only problem is that she's been keeping her soccer playing from her parents, and her team's qualified for a competition that she needs parental approval to attend. La Furia won't back down from this challenge either.Camila, a.k.a. La Furia, is the star of this amazing story, so I want to talk about her first. Camila is an incredibly strong character who is so fierce, and is not willing to let anyone take advantage of her hard work or take credit for it. She works so hard to improve her soccer skills in order to reach her goal, and I admire that determination. Her relationship with her brother was also very solid, and I liked that he did what he could to help her. Even so, Camila doesn't want to be saved by others, she wants to save herself. I loved how strong she was to defy her parents and reach for her dreams, even though her parents, particularly her father, felt like she should walk a path they set out for her. While I believe it is important for children to be there when possible for their parents, children also do not need to live their lives in their parents' image or for the sole sake of lifting their parents up. Being a parent is not a free ticket to control children, for one day they grow up to make their own future.I loved the symbolism and role that literature played in La Furia's story. Camila speaks of countless stories and female poets from Argentina who open her eyes to the possibilities she can dream about, and pave her way to strive for those dreams. I thought it was moving when Camila passed this inspiration on to Karen, a girl she mentors, so that another girl could find her own dreams and reach for them, just as Camila does. Stories connect us and inspire us to reach into our hearts for the dreams we dare not contemplate on our own, and I was thrilled to see that illustrated so clearly in Camila's life. Camila also longs to study and play soccer in North America, and it was really great for it to be shown that people can love new places for the opportunities and potential they offer, while still holding on to the good things about their original home and culture.You know that feeling when you haven't even finished a book and you already know you want to own it in every format available? That is what I felt as I was reading Furia. I couldn't put this book down and I read it in just one sitting because it was so good! If I could change just one thing, I would ask for this story to be longer, because I felt like I needed more of these characters! All books come to an end, but I would have gladly read countless more pages to stay with these characters. I wish I had been able to read Furia and other books like it when I was growing up, because its message is so wholesome. To read and know that it is okay to choose yourself and your dreams over romance, family, and other people's whims and demands is a powerful message, and one I think all youth (and some adults) need in their lives. It is too often expected of women that love means sacrificing personal dreams and aspirations for the sake of the relationship, but those expectations don't have to be reality. I think it is great to see that stories where the protagonist chooses their dreams and ambitions over romance are becoming more mainstream, not just in the Latinx community, but in general. Too often the misleading fairy tale is sold to people that life is not complete unless there is a love interest, and that narrative isn't true.Furia is a powerful story of a girl reaching for her dreams no matter who expects her to compromise them. Every one of us could take a page out of La Furia's playbook to make fewer compromises as we reach for the stars. Furia earns my highest recommendation as a story of empowerment, aspiration, and the determination to love yourself more than anything or anyone else, and to push yourself beyond your limits to turn your aspirations into reality.