Brooklyn is a confident, upbeat young girl who’s entranced by the high life and the harming city of New York. Having grown up under the intensely close and persecuted eyes of her religious parents, she vowed to leave and make something of herself. 

This novel walks with Brooklyn from the ripe age of 17 and so on. It is about familial drama and the weight of the choices that we make that ultimately make or break the life we’re building. Haunted by the choices that she makes early on, Brooklyn discover that the high life may not be the best life, but is seeking the best life worth the sacrifice? 

Ugh, I cried at some parts of this book because I resonate with Brooklyn and also I was sad for her. Sad for the deep pain and reality of not knowing love and how loved you are and what it looks like to fight for reconciliation. This book is heavy and real and raw. 

I think I gave it 3 stars, because I really struggled with the explicitly of the sexual relationships showcased in this book. I am not one to glorify underaged sexual encounters regardless of consent and I recognize the time period and how real that presentation is, I just think there’s a fine line between awareness and glorification and it comes with the language that we choose to describe such things.