Lit by the hormonal neon glow of Miami, this heady, multilingual debut novel follows a Colombian teenager's coming-of-age and coming out as she plunges headfirst into lust and evangelism.

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.

"Ebullient and assertive. . . . Francisca's soul stinks up the place beautifully in Fiebre Tropical." --The New York Times "What 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 "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