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Understanding Grief and Giving Hope
Ghost Brother follows two brothers in the aftermath of a car crash that kills one and leaves the other to pick up the pieces of his life. What is it that draws you to write Young Adult fiction?
I love the YA genre. As a former high school English teacher and the mother of four sons, I have noticed that this age group doesn’t receive the same attention as young children. Reading is essential for all ages, but keeping readers interested and engaged during their teens is critical. I feel that more emphasis and attention need to be placed on junior high and high school students regarding their literary options. There needs to be encouragement from all of us for them to read books of their choice, where they can see themselves in the stories and read for enjoyment.
How were you able to capture the thoughts and feelings of Carlos, the twin who watches his brother move on without him?
When I lost my sister, it was so hard for me to understand and deal with the fact that she was gone. I would talk to my mom about messages I felt were from her. My mom was also feeling the same way. What I realized was that there were so many coincidences that made it clear that her spirit was still with us. I would talk to my mom about the story I had started working on about siblings. I found myself wanting more information and reading anything I could about losing someone. It brought me comfort. When my mom suddenly passed away, I felt I had to publish my book so that it would help others understand their grief of losing a loved one and give them hope that there is more beyond this life.
Can fans look forward to more books from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Reading and writing are my passions. I have many stories waiting to be shared with readers. I’m currently working on a manuscript that focuses on Selena, the girl that Cris falls in love with, in Ghost Brother. She is a strong, intelligent, and interesting female character. I wanted her to have a more active role, but didn’t want to take away from the brothers. I intend to tell her story from her perspective. She is gifted and can see and hear things others can’t. She was able to communicate with Carlos, the dead brother. Selena was misunderstood because she could do things others did not understand. She is now the main character in my new manuscript. I hope to complete her story later this year and will then start submitting in the hopes of getting it published
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Webite
Ghost Brother
Ghost Brother is a young adult novel that opens with twin brothers, Cris and Carlos, heading to a school dance in South Texas, only for a violent storm, a pair of bullies, and a disastrous crash to shatter their lives. Carlos dies instantly. Cris survives. What follows is a story told in both of their voices, one alive and drowning in guilt, the other watching as a ghost who can see everything but cannot be heard. The book blends grief, memory, and mystery as the brothers struggle, separately and together, to face what happened and what it means for their family.
Reading it felt like sitting with someone who is trying to talk through the hardest moment of their life, stopping and starting, sometimes whispering, sometimes spilling over. The writing is simple and direct, which fits the teen voices. I liked that the author didn’t rush past the emotional fog after the accident. Cris moves through the world as though he’s wrapped in wet cotton, and Carlos drifts with this strange mix of clarity and longing. Their alternating chapters make the tragedy feel bigger and messier because you’re seeing it from both sides of the veil. Some scenes hit with sharp force, like the mother collapsing when she hears the news or Carlos watching her cry and being unable to touch her. Others move slowly, the way real grief does, circling the same memories again and again.
I was also drawn to the author’s choices around culture and community. The book is rooted in Mexican American traditions, beliefs, and rhythms that shape how the characters mourn and how they make sense of death. There’s a spiritual layer here that never feels like decoration. Carlos isn’t just a ghost for plot convenience. His presence echoes the stories their grandmother told, the prayers their mother whispers, the sense that the dead stay close. The supernatural moments glide in quietly, almost like a breeze shifting the curtains. At other times, they feel heavier, especially when Carlos tries to warn his family that the sheriff may twist the truth about the accident. The blend of realism and the supernatural makes the book feel like a hybrid of contemporary fiction and ghost story, but always grounded in teen experience.
By the end, I felt like I’d spent time with a family trying to hold itself together. The story doesn’t pretend grief is tidy or that answers neatly appear. It sits in the uncertainty, in the fear that justice may not come easily, and in the hope that love still stretches across impossible distances. If you like young adult fiction that honestly explores loss and adds cultural depth and a touch of the supernatural, this book is for you. It’s especially suited for readers who appreciate emotional stories that explore family bonds, healing, and the invisible threads that connect us even after death.
Pages: 182 | ASIN : B0CZPLPB7P
Her Stories Are Universal
Sylvia Sanchez Garza Author Interview
Cascarones follows the life of a Mexican American girl in Texas that must balance her culturally rich heritage in a whitewashed school. Why was this an important book for you to write?
It was important for me to write and share my story since I believe that diversity is so important to all of us. Everyone needs to know that being different is a gift― especially our young readers. They need to be able to see themselves, their culture, and their traditions in books, music, and movies. Since reading has always been one of my passions, I realized that there was a lack of published stories that reflected Mexican American families such as mine.
When I was growing up, I loved it when our teachers would take us to the library to check out books. As I grew older, I started to realize that most of those books were about people that I couldn’t relate to. The characters weren’t anything like my family or friends. They didn’t look like us and definitely didn’t talk like us. When I started visiting bookstores, the same seemed true. Even today, it is still difficult to find books written by Mexican American authors in libraries or bookstores. I felt it was important to write about my beautiful culture and traditions so that readers would be able to experience the rich and colorful experiences that I was so privileged to grow up with.
We get to explore Suzy’s character all the way to adulthood. What were some driving ideals behind her character?
Cascarones is about a Mexican American girl growing up in South Texas always surrounded by family and friends. Love, faith, and simple fun are seen through her character. In a way, her stories are universal because everyone has their own version of Suzy’s story.
She grew up surrounded by people who left a huge impression on her just by being in her life. Her character is able to change and adapt to the situations that change in her life. Many of the characters in Cascarones are based on people who passed away at a very young age. They are vital to Suzy’s life and helped to shape who she becomes. Since Suzy grows up in a large extended family that is surrounded by love, she realizes that everyone in her life is important even though she is faced by challenges.
Each story gives more insight into the family as well as their culture and history. What were some themes you wanted to explore in this book?
The title Cascarones represents the cycle of life. The cascaron starts out as an egg with so much promise for life. The gold yolk inside symbolizes the life that we all have since we all start our journey as an egg. However, in order to make a cascaron the egg is removed, and the shell is then decorated in the most beautiful and artistic way possible. It is then cracked, falls to the ground and becomes part of the earth. It fertilizes the dirt and is reborn with the grass, trees, and flowers. That is what happens to us. Our life begins as an egg. We all have a gold yolk that represents our inner soul, but at the end our body goes back to the ground. The shell or the cascaron represents us, for we are all here only temporarily. In an instant we could be gone, for we do not know when our time will come. Life is fragile, just like a cascaron.
Everyone has a story inside of them waiting to be written. If there is not anything out there that reflects who you are, then it’s up to you to do something about it. Whether it’s about one’s religion or no religion, culture, or even sexual orientation it’s important to share one’s own story. Start writing and get the message out to everyone else. Once the writing starts, the rest will fall into place.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book is titled The Golden Egg and should be released next month. I’m really excited about it because it will be a bilingual chapter book. One page will be in English and the following page in Spanish. Even though Cascarones has some Spanish in it, many people have asked about a bilingual version.
I also have a poetry book that is forthcoming. Poetry is something that I truly enjoy, and it’s a beautiful way to express feelings in an artistic way. I have several selections that I’m excited to share with readers.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Cascarones is a young adult bildungsroman, a coming of age story narrated in a non-linear fashion that revolves around the life of a Mexican American family living in the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas. The main character, Suzy, as well as her family and friends are encircled by rich traditions and culture of the region, shaping who she becomes. There are many beautiful people depicted in this novel who helped transform Suzy. The narrative shifts from present to the past to connect the reader with cultural traditions that changed through the years. It exposes how Easter was and is currently celebrated in the Rio Grande Valley and growing up during the sixties and seventies as a Mexican American amidst discriminatory undertones.
Sylvia Sánchez-Garza was born in Mercedes, Texas and raised in Weslaco, Texas. As a young girl, her family moved to Houston, Texas for a few years while her father worked on his doctorate at the University of Houston. She returned to and settled in the Rio Grande Valley. “I knew that it would always be my home,” Dr. Sánchez-Garza confessed. She and her husband live in Edinburg, Texas and own a real estate business. She has four sons, who make her very proud. She holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in School Administration, and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies. Cascarones is her first novel.
Cascarones
Cascarones by Sylvia Sánchez Garza is a book that feels more like a conversation between friends. Garza follows the life of a Mexican American girl living in Texas and straddling the world of her culturally rich family and a whitewashed school she winds up going to in Houston. This isn’t the only aspect of her life that Garza delves into. She also explores the girl’s relationship with family members, her church, family traditions, and general everyday life. The book is a nice collection of individual stories about the same family with the same cast of characters.
This was a nice, easy read. It is simple without being boring. The individual stories make nice bite-size sections. This made it a fun, leisurely read. The book feels light. It doesn’t have that heavy, daunting feeling that some books do.
As previously stated, the book feels like a conversation. It feels like sitting and listening to someone reminisce about their childhood. I prefer first-person writing as a rule, and this book delivers. It makes it feel so much more personal and relatable. Readers will identify with pieces of Suzy’s stories and may see themselves in her experiences. Reading this book felt like getting to know a new friend.
I feel like I got to know the characters better through each story. Each story gave a better feel for the family. Even with short stories that could stand alone, the characters were well developed. It also gave a lot of insight into the culture of Mexican American families. It showed their strength and pride in their clinging to their traditions. There were quite a bit of Spanish words and dialogue in the book. I know very little Spanish and looked up a few words, but the vast majority of the meaning comes out in the context.
My only complaint is that I might have liked the stories better in a different order. I think I would have liked them to be in chronological order rather than jumping back and forth in time. It threw me the first time I realized Suzy was speaking as an adult. It took me a second to understand what was happening since it jumped from her being a kid to having kids, and back to a kid again. I lost my bearings a little but recovered quickly.
Cascarones by Sylvia Sánchez Garza is very well-written. There are very few errors, if any. It had a nice pace and flow. I liked following Suzy navigate between two worlds as she is pulled between her large Mexican family and living in America. It taught me a lot about the Mexican American culture that I didn’t know. I’d like to read more by Garza.
Pages: 162 | ISBN: 1724622889
