Book Review: Nobody's Pilgrims (OT) (three teens on a dangerous road trip)

Nobody's Pilgrims, by Sergio Troncoso (Cinco Puntos Press, 2022, 278 pp, $17.95)

Not Your Usual Road Trip Story

Here we have three "pilgrims," three 17-year-old kids on a road trip, but not your usual road trip. They have "taken" a nice truck and are driving from Texas to Missouri to Connecticut. Why? Several reasons, one being that that state seems beautiful with its autumn colors and cooler weather. 

As for the truck, it may be hiding something illegal because the kids are being hunted, inadvertently, with the innocent families' help.

As for why they left Texas and Missouri, one wants to get away from an abusive extended family, one wants to escape a small town and living with her brother's girlfriend with whom she doesn't get along, and one is undocumented, so they have to stay off the radar.

And we have one girl and two boys. . . . 

How is Your Spanish?

This reviewer's knowledge of Spanish is less than rudimentary, having taking one class many years ago, but I did recognize some words and could guess at others, except for the whole sentences. In other words, readers with a knowledge of migrant workers or undocumented Mexicans might feel right at home in Pilgrims while others will learn much about another way of surviving.

Presaging COVID?

Is it drugs that cause the kids to travel so fast and secretively or is it something worse? What could be worse than drugs in a book written before COVID? Have you heard of Marburg? Regardless, the bad guys are quite believable and good at what they do.

A Fast Read

With the exception of the first 50 or so pages, this was a page-turner. I couldn't wait to start the next chapter to find out if I would be following the teens with hearts of gold who just want a good start at life, or the bad guys, or the family who inadvertently did the wrong things because they believed. 

What Would I Change?

I would probably open this tale with an exciting scene in Connecticut and then start at the beginning which I would condense - 50 pages of setting the story loses too many readers. I would redraw the front cover to make the kids look more attractive to draw in more readers, and, finally, I would rewrite the ending rather than leaving it up in the air with the reader expecting the worst. 

And I would include a caveat about the physical violence.

Having done all that, Nobody's Pilgrims would make for one on-the-seat-of-your-pants movie!