This is an incredible debut novel. Mottley’s prose is fantastic and I can’t believe she was just 17 when writing this. I picked this up on a whim and while not entertaining in the positive sense, Kiara’s life is too horrifying to be entertaining, it was attention catching and I was unable to put it down.

I remember living in the East Bay when the news story that inspired this book broke. I remember feeling heartbroken for the girls that were exploited by the police and Mottley captured those feelings and transferred them into this novel. It did feel at some points where it was too much pain at one time, because event after event was happening to Kiara, but the ending more than made up for it, balancing a hopeful ending with a realistic one. This was an immersive experience and Mottley did a great job balancing her beautiful prose with the dark subject matter.