The idea for the novel occurred to Gonzalez on the Q train in New York City while reading the book The Battle for Paradise by Canadian author Naomi Klein and listening to the song "Rican Beach" by Hurray for the Riff Raff.

[1] After leaving the train, Gonzalez went to a Starbucks location, where she wrote the basic concept of the plot on a napkin.

[2] While writing, Gonzalez eschewed explaining aspects of Puerto Rican culture for a broader audience, drawing inspiration from the "[...] inside baseball" jokes in Paul Beatty's novel The Sellout.

[4] In a review in The Washington Post, Ron Charles wrote, "rarely does a novel, particularly a debut novel, contend so powerfully and so delightfully with such a vast web of personal, cultural, political and even international imperatives.

[7] Gonzalez and Alfonso Gómez-Rejón are producing the pilot which will star Aubrey Plaza as Olga and Ramon Rodriguez as her brother, Prieto.