Out of the Easy

Ruta Sepetys is very quickly becoming one of the authors I will read without question simply because everything she's written has been so consistently outstanding. It's solidly within YA, our heroines are teens and the endings are generally happy, but she doesn't underestimate what the reader can handle. I fell absolutely in love with this story and I'm excited to recommend it on to other readers.

This was the only fictional book written by Ruta that I hadn't read yet. I've wanted to pick it up for quite some time and I am so glad that I finally did. I felt like this one was so much different from all of her other books, I can't exactly say what made it so different, but it was still amazing. I couldn't put it down and that's a very good sign, but I was expecting nothing less from one of my favorite authors!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I did quite enjoy it, but I'm not really sure what the point of it was. The main story arc was clear, but I feel like it didn't really take up much of the book—it was just sprinkled throughout the novel. Some of the characters were clearly fleshed out and developed, Jesse and Willie were my obvious favorites. However, there were some other characters that I couldn't connect to at all, Charlie being an example. The book wasn't really plot driven and that made it a slow read. I felt like I was just reading about Josie's life and that there wasn't much of a point to it.

DAG YO THIS BOOK WAS GOOD AS HELL

That's my immediate response? I had a hard time putting it down. SUCH a good mix of great setting (NOLA's French Quarter in the 50s) and characters and plot. The protagonist, Josie, is the daughter of a prostitute but basically raised by Willie, the madam of the house where her mother works, as well as by the other prostitutes. (Josie's mother isn't really the parenting type). Josie is so strong and clever (even if she doesn't quite have everything figured out), and I love all the complexity given to all the secondary characters. Gender/sexuality/class/race are all handled so, so smartly.

I just... IDEK if this is a mystery, really? But suspenseful, and, just, ugh, SO GREAT.

Also I wanna go back to NOLA like, yesterday.