Uprooted from her comfortable life in Bogotá, Colombia, into an ant-infested Miami townhouse, fifteen-year-old Francisca is miserable and friendless in her strange new city. Her alienation grows when her mother is swept up into an evangelical church, replete with Christian salsa, abstinent young dancers, and baptisms for the dead.
But there, Francisca also meets the magnetic Carmen: opinionated and charismatic, head of the youth group, and the pastor’s daughter. As her mother’s mental health deteriorates and her grandmother descends into alcoholism, Francisca falls more and more intensely in love with Carmen. To get closer to her, Francisca turns to Jesus to be saved, even as their relationship hurtles toward a shattering conclusion.
"Juli Delgado Lopera—remember that name—is an irreverent, shameless and disarming new novelist. They are a merciless satirist in control of a pitch-perfect voice that makes an indisputable case for Spanglish as the perfect vehicle to express what we are really like right now." —NBC News
“Ebullient and assertive. . . . Francisca’s soul stinks up the place beautifully in Fiebre Tropical.” —New York Times
“What Delgado Lopera pulls from that [Miami] heat in an inimitable voice is a bold, stylistic, and deeply moving examination of generational sadness, deferred desire, and the budding seeds of personal revolution that is entirely their own.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Its language—funny and intelligent and fresh—glitters.” —Jezebel
“Dripping with sweat, hating, and loving the experience of being alive, feeling a heartbeat and another heartbeat and a rhythm in the world that pulses through your own blood and bones: this is the stuff of a great queer novel.” —Lambda Literary Review
“Fresh, funky and long overdue, stories like Fiebre Tropical are the future of American literature.” —Sounds and Colours
"Juli Delgado Lopera—remember that name—is an irreverent, shameless and disarming new novelist. They are a merciless satirist in control of a pitch-perfect voice that makes an indisputable case for Spanglish as the perfect vehicle to express what we are really like right now." —Jaime Manrique, NBC News
“A tragic tale punctuated with queer humour and raw emotion.” —Dazed Digital
“Gorgeous, firecracker-like bilingual prose and a good dose of humor—even as it emotionally shatters.” —The Seattle Times
“Fiebre Tropical crackles and hums like neon, embedding contagious energy in the coming-of-age story of Francisca.” —them.
“A layered portrait of exile, sexual awakening, and family bonds.” —The Millions
“Exceptional, unflinching, cheeky and queer AF.” —Ms.
“Captivating.” —Lambda Literary Review
“Glowing. . . . story about coming of age as a queer adolescent, an immigrant, a daughter, a bilingual kid, a complex human being, this book is fast-paced and energetic while also being heartfelt and captivating.” —LitHub
“Inventive and heady mixture of Spanish and English.” —The White Review
"A rich, deeply felt novel about family ties, immigration, sexual longing, faith, and desire. Simultaneously raw and luminous." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Moving and hilarious. . . . This feisty coming-of-age tale introduces a funny, fresh, and indelible new voice." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Engaging and lyrical." —Booklist
"Boiling over with searing details and raw emotion, Fiebre Tropical is a spellbinding tale." —Foreword Reviews
“A startlingly lush, humid mix of visceral imagery and wondrously inventive language that mixes Spanglish slang with poetic observation.” —48 Hills
“This bilingual, fast-paced story will have you laughing, crying and gaining a new favorite fictional character.” —Shondaland
“Fiebre Tropical is a story of migration, queerness, brokenness, and love. Juli Delgado Lopera has written a novel across borders that buzzes with verve, fierceness, and raw emotion. Delgado Lopera forks their tongue for this book, weaving English and Spanish in inspired and irreverent prose. This book is absolute music to my ears.” —Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree: A Novel
“A magnificent novel, by turns electric, hilarious, sexy, thrilling, wrenching, and profound. Pa decirlo clarito: Juli Delgado Lopera is a writer of explosive talent, and this book is a fierce and radiant contribution, yes, to queer literature, Latinx literature, and immigrant literature, but also to literature, punto.” —Carolina De Robertis, author of Cantoras
“When you drive around town, when you stare out the window, when you wake up in the middle of the night, whether you know it or not, you are waiting for a book like this. Fiebre Tropical is a triumph, and we’re all triumphant in its presence.” —Daniel Handler, author of All the Dirty Parts
“Delgado Lopera’s riveting new book is propelled as much by its hurricane-force language as by its unforgettable characters, storm-tossed women making the best of their new lives in a new country. This queer coming-of-age novel explores first love, but it also looks at the myriad ways humans find solace and connection.” —Caroline Paul, author of You Are Mighty: A Guide to Changing the World
"Fiebre Tropical is a literary explosion. In a rollicking, multilingual prose both wise and irreverent, brimming with snark and queer humor, Juli Delgado Lopera crafts a migration tale we’ve never read and badly need." —Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms
“Gorgeously written, tragic and hilarious by turns, Fiebre Tropical is the tale of a teenager from Bogotá coming to the United States and coming of age. But more than that, it’s about a crumbling family of matriarchs gone crazy for religion, and the soul-saving, soul-crushing power of first love. Juli Delgado Lopera’s voice prickles with tears, outrage, and sharp details that make us believe in their characters, and more importantly, to believe in their survival.” —Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous: A Novel
“¡Ay Dios mío! This book’s got tumbao. With energetic prose and a sharp sense of humor, Juli Delgado Lopera brings us a queer coming-of-age tale that explores diasporic identity from Bogotá to Miami, and the complicated ways that religious fervor impacts same-sex desire and one’s relationship to community. Delgado Lopera’s eye for detail is fierce and this book is easy to devour.” —Joseph Cassara, author of The House of Impossible Beauties: A Novel
