[Book Review] My Name Is Iris by Brando Skyhorse & Iris Coffee Daybreak

My Name is Iris is the story of Iris, born Inés, a second-generation Mexican-American single mom who has always played by the rules with the goal of living “The American Dream”. But the rules are changed when the government implements a mandatory wristband based on parental citizenship and a wall suddenly appears in front of her home, separating her from the community she’s dreamed of joining.

Book Info

Title: My Name Is Iris
Series: Standalone
Author: Brando Skyhorse
Publication date: August 1st 2023
Page Count: 272 pages
Age Range: YA/NA/Adult (violence, brief sexual reference, mentions of child death, racism)
How I got my hot little hands on it: received a review copy
Publisher’s page: Simon & Schuster

Brando Skyhorse, the PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author of The Madonnas of Echo Park, returns with a riveting literary dystopian novel set in a near-future America where mandatory identification wristbands make second-generation immigrants into second-class citizens—a powerful family saga for readers of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind.

Iris Prince is starting over. After years of drifting apart, she and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. She’s moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and has plans for gardening, coffee clubs, and spending more time with her nine-year-old daughter Melanie. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be.

Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window—and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Where did it come from? What does it mean? And why does it seem to keep growing?

Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley startup has launched a high-tech wrist wearable called “the Band.” Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly tool to help track local utilities and replace driver’s licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship. Suddenly, Iris, a proud second-generation Mexican American, is now of “unverifiable origin,” unable to prove who she is, or where she, and her undocumented loved ones, belong. Amid a climate of fear and hate-fueled violence, Iris must confront how far she’ll go to protect what matters to her most.

My Name Is Iris is an all-too-possible story about family, intolerance, and hope, offering a brilliant and timely look at one woman’s journey to discover who she can’t—and can—be.

Spoiler-Free Summary of My Name is Iris

Iris, born Inés, is a second-generation Mexican-American single mom who plays it safe with the goal of living “The American Dream”. She is very careful to follow all the rules of society, especially the unspoken ones, distancing herself from the Mexican culture of her family and anything that could mark her as an outsider to the collective “us”, sneering at those who don’t, secretly believing they deserve society’s derision.

Shortly after buying a home in an upscale housing development, far from her old neighborhood, a wall suddenly appears in her front yard, blocking her view of the community she’s worked so hard to be a part of. While trying to deal with this issue, another pops up as the government implements “the Band”, an all-in-one identification wristband. The problem for Iris, and many others, is you have to prove your parents are citizens to be issued one. Iris’s parents are undocumented.

Very quickly, the Band becomes a needed survival tool – you can’t drive a car, pay your bills, shop at stores, buy food, or, eventually, even work without one. If you don’t have one, regardless of your own citizenship, the government has the right to strip away all your rights and detain you. Suddenly, all her rule following means nothing and she has to face her greatest fear – being one of “them”.

My Review

First things first – My Name is Iris has an unresolved/open ending that left me confused (and worried my copy was missing pages), so if that’s not your thing, here’s your warning. There’s no closure of any kind. More on this later.

While more literary than dystopian leaning than I was hoping for, the writing and story are compelling and engaging. The magical realism of the wall, changing and growing following Iris’s journey, adds a really interesting element to the story and keeps you thinking. I usually like to shut off that part of my brain while reading, but my mind kept dissecting what circumstances and actions of Iris led to changes in the wall and what that meant. The dystopian premise felt so uncomfortably close to possible that it gave me nauseous goosebumps.

Iris, while maybe not classically “likable”, behaved in a way that felt real and if not relatable, believable. All of the characters in this book are like that and it gives it a very real, true-to-life feel.

Unfortunately, just as we reached the rising action – tensions high, overt racism at a fever pitch, Iris and her family searching for sanctuary in a country gone feral with fear from “us” versus “them” rhetoric – the story ENDS. Nothing resolved. It’s so sudden and unexpected that it honestly feels like a chapter is missing.

It could be seen as a hopeful open ending. Iris completes her character arc and feels shame for sneering at others, “them”, for not conforming to “us”; she makes amends with her family and is searching for safety for all of them, not just herself. But as a personal preference and pet peeve, I need a resolved ending (or at least a pathway or promise of closure in the future).

All in all, I was really intrigued by My Name Is Iris. The use of magical realism and dystopian prophecy creates an empathetic window into what very well could be the future and I think it would make a really great book for discussion in book clubs and classrooms. It’s too bad the abrupt ending kind of ruined it for me.

Let’s Talk Coffee

Since My Name Is Iris is “an all-too-possible story about family, intolerance, and hope”, and what is hope if not daybreak coming through the darkest night, I think Iris Coffee Daybreak is the perfect companion coffee. It’s a light roast that will provide some much-needed comfort in the soft flavors of milky chocolate, almond, and caramel while dealing with some of the hard issues dealt with within these pages.