Shut Up, This Is Serious: Chapters 33-37

by Carolina Ixta
In this novel, high school senior Belén deals with panic attacks in the wake of her father leaving while she tries to help her pregnant best friend Leti prepare to be a mother.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapter 1-3, Chapter 4-6, Chapter 7-9, Chapter 10-13, Chapter 14-17, Chapter 18-20, Chapter 21-24, Chapter 25-28, Chapter 29-32, Chapter 33-37
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. lieu
    the post or function properly occupied or served by another
    Which is why when she slipped her fingers between my palms in lieu of a rosary, I just let her.
  2. matted
    tangled in a dense mass
    Her hair was matted and her eyes bulged and it looked like she was drenched in blood and vomit.
  3. peek
    throw a glance at; take a brief look at
    They fawned and wept, and then they offered her to Señora Barragón, who peeked up at me.
  4. opt
    select as an alternative over another
    I run to the waiting room and bring the leftovers from my Wendy’s meal, feeling so grateful for my ma, who even opted for the extralarge fries.
  5. petty
    preoccupied with unimportant matters in a spiteful way
    “I’m so sorry, Belén,” she says, “I’m sorry I said all those things about you. I was so petty, and so pregnant, I wasn’t thinking right.”
  6. divine
    resulting from heavenly providence
    “Divine timing,” she says, her lips teasing a smile.
  7. decency
    the quality of conforming to rules of propriety and morality
    I’m not sure what your parents will gain, hopefully decency, no offense, but you’re going to gain so much more.
  8. underestimate
    make too low an approximation of
    “I think I’ve been underestimating you,” I tell her.
  9. ostracize
    expel from a community or group
    “I know what it’s like to feel ostracized from your family, when you can’t ask them for help.”
  10. paralyzed
    unable to move
    “And I knew, but I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was paralyzed by sadness.”
  11. resentment
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    “Your pa was my best friend,” she says, “but he had so many problems, so much resentment.”
  12. familiarize
    make knowledgeable about or accustomed to
    I stopped by every day for about a week, helping Leti do loads of laundry, and familiarizing my nostrils to the smell of baby shit while I changed diapers.
  13. outlier
    a person or thing that does not conform to a norm
    The only outlier is Gerardo, from Oakland Grill, who blesses Ali the same way he did the morning we worked on our statements.
  14. vacant
    not containing anyone or anything; unfilled or unoccupied
    They’re vacant now, littered with empty bottles of Hennessy.
  15. strew
    be dispersed over
    Most of the families have gone by now, the desolate remnants of celebration strewn across the field.
  16. resilience
    the ability to recover readily from adversity or change
    The two of them, like the two of us, are bound by loss, and buoyed by resilience.
  17. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    I was young and unaware of all of the meticulous work and sacrifice stitched into the creation of a christening.
  18. nave
    the central area of a church
    Afterward, we all pray to close the ceremony, and when the priest hands Alma to Leti, Leti’s sniffles echo throughout the nave of St. Jarlath’s.
  19. obligatory
    required by compulsion or convention
    Ali curves around us to take the obligatory family photos Alma will grow to be embarrassed by, probably wondering why I hadn’t advocated more fiercely for the removal of the bonnet.
  20. despise
    look down on with disdain or disgust
    The iron security door was left open, a bad habit of my pa’s that my ma always despised, and when we went inside, we could almost feel his presence around.
  21. conjure
    summon into action or bring into existence
    I knew I couldn’t offer it to my ma without explaining where I miraculously conjured three hundred dollars, so I decided to split it between Alma’s baptism gift and Ali’s going-away present.
  22. reconcile
    come to terms
    And if my pa decided to continuously send money but never call, I’d have to reconcile a way to tell my ma.
  23. rite
    any customary observance or practice
    A dainty, nameplate bracelet—a Mexican child rite of passage that I knew Leti wouldn’t be able to afford for a while.
  24. communal
    for or by a group rather than individuals
    Ali sits beside Ms. Barrera, showing her pictures of his dorm for summer school, excited by the fact that he has to buy shower shoes for the communal bathrooms.
Created on Tue Apr 22 06:53:15 EDT 2025 (updated Fri Apr 25 17:52:08 EDT 2025)

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