ILLEGAL

Following their escape from the cartels and corrupt local police threatening their lives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Sara Zapata and her brother, Emiliano, learn that even Los Estados Unidos can’t guarantee their safety.

About 10 days have passed since their fateful trek across the border chronicled in the closing chapters of Disappeared (2017). Held captive at the Fort Stockton Detention Center, Sara awaits the results of her appeal for asylum in the U.S., every day losing more hope among the other women refugees. In the meantime, she must endure the ire of detention center personnel, including an office director with dangerous criminal ties. Unable to continue her investigation of a human trafficking ring with roots in Mexico and the U.S., Sara pins all her hopes on Emiliano, who now holds the all-important cellphone with incriminating data linking the powerful officials and criminals involved in the abduction and captivity of las Desaparecidas. Emiliano, meanwhile, heads off on a harrowing journey of his own, struggling to reconnect with his estranged, Americanized father while striving to elude danger at every corner, including the looming threat of deportation. Switching from third-person narration to a less enthralling first-person alternating narration, this sequel piles on the suspense and twists. Though there’s some muddled political commentary, Stork offers a biting indictment of the U.S. government’s immoral apathy to the refugee crisis within its borders. Strong character development, however, reigns supreme.

A brilliant, penetrating follow-up.