Title: Little Peach
Author: Peggy Kern
Publisher: B+B
Publication: March 10th 2015
Cover Rating: 4/5
Little Peach wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be about some run away white girl who thought her life would be better if she was on her own. But that isn't what it was about. Not by a long shot. It was a very hard book to read. It was a QUICK read but I had to put it down sometimes and just really think that this lifestyle isn't fictional to a lot of people.
Michelle, "Peach", led such an iffy life. It was sort of okay when her grandpa was there but once he wasn't there everything changed, and not for the better. Having the kind of life she was given made me kind of surprised that she turned out as good as she did. YES, she did get involved with some horrible stuff. But, had she been given the choice, I know she wouldn't have ended up going down that path. I do wonder what to call her situation. Human trafficking? Kidnapping and prostitution? I know it isn't exactly kidnapping because she went with him willingly. Plus she didn't exactly run away, she was told to leave. So, it's not like Devon took her from anywhere.
The synopsis made Devon sound like this business man in a suit and tie looking to pick up unsuspecting runaway girls. Yes, he did pick up runaway girls, but after getting to be around his characters for a bit I started to feel like he was just a somewhat nicely dressed guy. Michelle, being from where she was from, made it seem like he was so well dressed and different than what he really was.
I didn't like Cat at all, in the beginning, at least. She felt very cold. She did change towards the end of the book and for a good reason. She didn't deserve what happened to her. She shouldn't have been caught up in the lifestyle and thinking that Devon would change for her. But she didn't deserve what happened and in the end it still isn't entirely clear what actually DID happen to her. Devon does say what happened but who knows if that's true.
I sort of liked Baby a little bit but she was really messed up and when I got to the end of the book I really wanted to know what had happened to her to make her the way she was. She was so numb in the hotel but she was just a child when they were all home. She had a horrible obsession with Finding Nemo and it made me wonder if maybe she was lost from her parents. Maybe she didn't run away?
This is one of those books where you aren't exactly told the race of the characters but the ethnic aspects in the book lead you to believe that the characters are of African American decent. I really liked that. You can draw your own conclusions. But being raised in the area I was raised in I came to my conclusion because of things I have seen growing up. The music, conversations, hair and clothing styles, gang names and just overall feel of the book are what you have to focus on to really see what the book is about.
One last thing I wanted to mention. Going back and reading the synopsis is very haunting. The first line is "What do you do if you're in trouble?". Michelle's grandpa sad that to her a lot throughout her life and I think him teaching her that helped shape her. It is just haunting reading that because Michelle repeats that to herself throughout the entire book and that statement is what eventually led her to be brave and do what she did in the end.
Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.
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