Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

23 reviews

bookinitwithahtiya's review

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow wow wow. First of all, I love this book. Let’s just get that out the way now. Go buy it or put it on hold at your library or strongly hint at a family member to buy it for you. Seriously. LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET gives heart and reality to the idea of gentrification by pulling back the veil on what it really is: displacement of those who live in emotional and literal peril and poverty on a daily basis. There’s themes of Black girlhood interwoven with the complexities of being Black and poor; and I loved the moments Wolfe gives us of Fe Fe and her friends just being little girls trying to enjoy their summer. 

I loved the stylistic choice of the narrator telling us her story with a measure of hindsight, and it’s always fascinating reading a story where we know, in a larger sense, how it ends. It lends to a sense of foreboding but also allows us to fully focus on the characters and their relationships. We know abstractly where they are headed, but not necessarily how they end up there, and Wolfe does an INCREDIBLE job shepherding us on Fe Fe’s journey. I look forward to more work by this author.

This is perfect for fans of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams; Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump; Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley; and Lot by Bryan Washington.
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reading_ladies_blog's review

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emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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voela321's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 
This debut novel is written in the voice of 12 yo Felicia and reads like a memoir. This is a story about the experiences of 4 young girls living in the Robert Taylor Housing Projects in Chicago the summer they were being torn down. Felicia's life is forever intertwined with that of her friends Precious, Stacia and Tonya that summer. In between going to school, playing double dutch, huddling in closets from gang violence and hiding from police the girls interact and learn about each other. Felicia lives with her mom and 16 yo brother Meechie. Their mom is determined to keep them safe and away from the violence that rules the streets but one night the police raid their apartment after a shooting and pull Meechie from bed and arrest him wrongly and take him to jail. Precious lives with her parents and is largely protected from the violence by spending hours per week in church. Stacia is the child of a gang leader, one of many siblings all aiming to follow in their mother's footsteps. Tonya is the child of a drug addict mother willing to sell her child for drugs. Over one eventful summer when gang violence comes to a head and the projects are demolished forcing the families to find new paths the girls see and do things that will change all of their lives forever. I won't soon forget these characters and their stories. This is an important read about a time in our history we should all understand, With a voice of experience Wolfe lays out all the factors that came together to create so many problems for so many just trying to survive.

 
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