05/26/2014
In Vancouver's rough Downtown Eastside, a group of underprivileged teenage girls seek security and protection. Little (The New Normal) alternates among their voices—as well as that of the city itself—in potent, vignette-like chapters, some of which are as short as a single sentence. Having quit the Vipers after realizing the gang "didn't give a solid fuck about us," intense 17-year-old Mac starts the Black Roses, an all-female gang of "bad bitches." She recruits Mercy, an orphan and dropout; Kayos, a sexual abuse victim whose anger smolders just below the surface; Sly Girl, an ex-addict from "the rez" with scars from being shot in the face; and Z, a Chinese graffiti artist. They sign on to share a home, steal, deal drugs, and abide by a shared code of conduct in hopes of keeping their pasts at bay and building a future. A romance between Mac and Z, a shooting, a fatal accident, and a robbery fuel jealousy and complicate their plans. While the demise of their operation is perhaps inevitable, the girls' journey is deeply felt and often shocking in its brutality. Ages 14–up. (May) Going Over Beth Kephart Chronicle, $17.99 (264p) ISBN 978-1-4521-2457-5 Kephart (Small Damages) crafts an absorbing story of young love and conflicting ideologies set in 1983 Berlin. Ada, 15, lives an impoverished life in West Berlin with her mother and grandmother, while 18-year-old Stefan—who Ada has loved for years—lives with his grandmother in dull Friedrichshain on the other side of the wall. The plot shifts between Ada's life, which includes "graffing" scenes of heroic escapes on the Wall itself and visiting Stefan when she can, and Stefan's dissatisfied days spent working as a plumber's apprentice while developing tentative plans to attempt to overcome the wall, despite the potentially fatal consequences. Kephart alternates between the two teenagers' voices, with Stefan's voice written in second-person; deeply held desires for freedom and escape, both physical and artistic, radiate from each narrative. A subplot involving a Turkish boy in need of help gives the novel additional depth, and the sharpness of the lovers' separation is as deeply felt as the worry that they will never reunite. Ages 14–up. Agent: Amy Rennert, the Amy Rennert Agency. (Apr.) Lies My Girlfriend Told Me Julie Anne Peters Little, Brown, $18 (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-23497-9 After Alix's track star girlfriend, Swanee, drops dead of sudden cardiac arrest, the high school junior is devastated. When a mysterious girl keeps texting Swanee's phone, unaware she has died, Alix learns she was not the only girlfriend Swanee left behind. Once Alix starts spending time with beautiful and grounded Liana, her father worries that it is a rebound, but Alix becomes convinced they were "always meant to find each other." This book tenderly explores themes of loss and forgiveness, but Peters's descriptions of Swanee as uncaring and possessive (after Alix's baby brother nearly chokes to death, Swanee immediately wants to "pick up where we left off" making out) make it difficult to understand why Alix or levelheaded Liana would be so devoted to her. Supporting characters, such as Swanee's troubled younger sister, can come off as contrived, but the two central protagonists have believable chemistry, and Peters (It's Our Prom ) capably addresses teen LGBT relationships without making them the story's sole preoccupation. Ages 15–up. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, the Wendy Schmalz Agency. (June)
"Both gripping and moving, Anatomy of a Girl Gang is a tight, grim portrait with deep empathy for characters capable of horrific deeds." —Kirkus Reviews (STARRED)
"Relentlessly gritty and in your face, this novel makes some urban lit look like just bling." —Library Journal
"It seems destined to shock and thrill younger readers - think Go Ask Alice minus the moralizing. The plot moves at top speed, much like the characters themselves: running headlong into the night, propelled by the certainty that everything will fall apart if you stop too long to think." —Lambda Literary
"Ashley Little's book grabs you by the larynx and does not let go. Reading, no, listening to these girls' voices is like being that nurse or paramedic on the scene without any defibrillator or oxygen. Sly Girl takes your breath away; Mercy makes you want to go on a five-finger discount walk with her; Z and Mac kiss graf across the city; and Kayos kicks ass against anyone who goes against her Black Roses. And in the voice of the city, Vancouver, takes these precious gang girls into her arms and, we hope, loves them back to themselves, to where they need to be: whole and in bloom." —Cathleen With, author of skids and Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison
"Ashley Little’s novel Anatomy of a Girl Gang is so fierce and raw and compelling that you won’t want to put the book down until you know exactly what becomes of the Black Roses ... A thrilling and frightening, fast-paced read."
—Vancouver Weekly
06/01/2014
Gr 10 Up—After being forced to prostitute themselves for the benefit of their gang, Mercy and Mac free themselves to create The Black Roses, the most terrifying all-female gang Vancouver has ever seen. Told in the alternating perspectives of the five members, each teen describes the horrors in her life and explains her willingness to embrace this type of life. The characters unabashedly share their stories. When Mercy accidentally runs over a homeless man, her remorse for having killed him is overshadowed by the need to fence the stolen car and erase any evidence of her involvement. Yet within the crew, each girl experiences friendship, support, and even love—they are a family. When Sly Girl is beaten and raped during a crack deal, the gang closes ranks to protect her and exacts brutal revenge on the perpetrators. The novel ends, as many gang members do, in preventable pointless violence. The protagonists are authentically portrayed and the author uses gritty prose to depict their bleak and painful existence. The brutality is unsettling and realistic, and more suitable for mature teens. Overall the book is a compelling, seemingly accurate, and somewhat disturbing read.—Patricia Feriano, Our Lady of Mercy School, Potomac, MD
★ 2014-04-09
In a bleak tale, simply and eloquently told, five girls form a Vancouver street gang.Tired of turning tricks for the Vipers, teenage Mac decides to start the Black Roses and recruits her friend Mercy. Three more join them: Kayos, a rich girl famous in their elementary school for "[a]lways beating the shit out of people for no reason," Sly Girl, a 13-year-old who has been clean for six weeks but knows her way around the drug scene, and Z, a graffiti artist ostracized by her family as much for her sexual orientation as for preferring street art over a traditional career path. Together, the Black Roses become a family of sorts, looking out for each other as they sell drugs, steal cars, defend their territory and cover their mistakes. Brutal acts committed both against and by the gang are described in graphic sensory detail—most intensely in a scene in which the girls kidnap and torture two boys who have sexually assaulted one of their crew. Each girl narrates a share of the short chapters in her own distinct voice (Z's is especially idiosyncratic, a sort of Joycean textspeak), and a few chapters are told in the lyrical, evocative voice of Vancouver itself. The result is a tight, grim portrait with deep empathy for characters capable of horrific deeds.Both gripping and moving, for those who can stomach the violence. (Fiction. 15-18)
