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Črne vrtnice: Anatomija dekliške tolpe
To je ostra in boleče neposredna pripoved petih najstnic o nezadržnih poskusih preživetja na surovih ulicah Vancouvra, kjer so zlorabe, spolni napadi in zasvojenost del vsakdanjika. Črne vrtnice, dekliška tolpa, ki jo vodi Mac, je raznolika skupina najstnic. Vsaka od njih ima svojo travmatično zgodovino ter edinstven glas in način pripovedovanja zgodbe. Vse pa se gibljejo na drugi strani zakona in na drugi strani zakona tudi služijo denar za preživetje.
Zgodba razkriva anatomijo dekliške tolpe, a tudi skupno prizadevanje deklet, da bi odšle iz okolja v katerem živijo, se preselile v varnejši del mesta in zaživele kot družina. Toda zakon ulice ne izpusti zlahka tistih, ki jih je dobil v svoj primež.
Zgodba razkriva anatomijo dekliške tolpe, a tudi skupno prizadevanje deklet, da bi odšle iz okolja v katerem živijo, se preselile v varnejši del mesta in zaživele kot družina. Toda zakon ulice ne izpusti zlahka tistih, ki jih je dobil v svoj primež.
230 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
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592 people want to read
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October 5, 2013
JESUS. CHRIST.
That is all.
That is all.
September 27, 2013
Kayos shooting that U.P. guy somehow brought it all back, everythin I thought I forgot—everythin I been trying so hard and long to block out—flashed in front of my eyes like I was seein it all again on a movie screen.
I seen a lotta crazy shit on the rez. I seen my cousin Bo get shot in the belly and bleed to death in my kitchen. I seen my brother Lenny get shot in the shoulder, the red flesh all ripped up like the inside of a fish. I seen Lenny stab a guy by the basketball courts, stab him in the neck with a broken beer bottle. I seen my brother, Eugene, get shot in the back, get paralyzed for life over a fifty-dollar debt. I seen one of my mom’s boyfriends smack her across the face with his gun because she smoked his last cigarette. I seen my brother Neil push his girlfriend down the stairs so she wouldn’t have her baby. I seen the cops bash my brother’s hands with clubs until all his fingers were broken and hanging from his hands like bloody sausages. I seen my mom threaten to kill my uncle with an axe. I seen my cousin shoot a dog in the head with a .22. I remember my uncle Leo stickin his gun up my asshole, makin me tell him I liked it. Then stickin it in my mouth. Askin me if I wanted him to pull the trigger. Yes, I’d nod, gaggin on the gun. Yes. Do it. Just do it. Please. And I meant it.
Then he would.
Click.
***
Ashley Little’s Anatomy of a Girl Gang is like an after-school special gone horribly awry—and that’s a good thing.
The novel follows the short, eventful, often frightening existence of a Downtown East Side (DTES) Vancouver gang called the Black Roses. The Roses are five teenage girls: Mac, originator of the gang and the eldest among them; Mercy, the admitted “Punjabi Princess” with an aptitude for theft; Kayos, a teenage mom whose life of privilege is darker than she lets on; Sly Girl, a struggling-to-stay-clean crack addict fleeing the violence and poverty of her First Nations reserve; and Z, a diminutive anti-establishment graffiti artist who speaks and thinks only in tags.
The story begins with Mac and Mercy wanting to distance themselves from another gang, the Vipers—gangsters who want to act like pimps, treating the girls like shit—deciding they’d had enough of living beneath the thumbs of others. They set up shop in a DTES flat and start selling drugs to make ends meet, to build their nest egg for that dream condo in the sky that will take them out of the DTES once and for all. But two girls aren’t a gang; they need extra muscle on the streets, they need someone with a finger on the erratic pulse of the substance underground, and they need their name spread far and wide. Enter Kayos, Sly Girl, and Z.
What unfolds is a tragic family drama (structurally inspired to some degree, according to the author, by Romeo & Juliet) as we learn both what each girl is escaping from—abuse, neglect, violence, or just good old-fashioned oppressive parenting—and the lengths to which they are willing to go in order to carve their gang’s name out of blood and concrete.
The girls begin the Black Roses with the best of intentions: to honour and respect one another, to not get into it with other gangs in the area, to stay clean from drugs, keep out of trouble, and always act in the best interests of the group. In spite of its gangland aesthetic, the story is made relatable through Little’s strong-yet-streamlined characters and their clear motivations—at its core the novel is about finding a niche, a sense of belonging, and building a family. But best intentions only go so far when the surrounding environment all too often resorts to a kill-or-be-killed frame of mind. Gradually, cracks appear in their group dynamic—Mac falling in love with Z and Mercy feeling hurt that she didn’t know; Kayos killing a rival gang member and Sly Girl struggling to process it without falling back to using—and the strain of five disparate, quick-to-boil girls forced far too quickly into adulthood is too much the gang to survive. And when shit does go wrong, it goes wrong spectacularly fucking fast—so fast you’ll feel like you’ve been slapped in the face. And I promise you’ll never look at a curling iron the same way again.
The novel is written as a series of testimonials. Each chapter is from the point-of-view of another member of the gang, written in their own voice: Mac’s chapters have an authoritarian vibe to them, desperate as she is to get that wealth and influence she knows she deserves; Mercy is intelligent and self-aware; Kayos is at odds with her privileged yet abusive past, and sometimes finds herself questioning where she went off the rails; Sly Girl’s chapters are filled with blunt acknowledgement of the hardships she’s endured and a sometimes self-hating desire to rise above it all; and Z’s chapters are written in the broken language of tagging—“i go out @ nyte, do my aRt, den go home & sleep & eat in da daytime when evrybudeez @ werk & skewl. itz aiight. 4 now. i don’t wanna B a product of my environment. i want my environment 2 B a product of me.”
Every now and again, Little will also insert a chapter from Vancouver’s perspective, pulling the action out to a bird’s eye view of the city, looking down on the streets and the girls and the brutal life they’re leading through a loving, protective, and somewhat ambiguous lens. These chapters are at first a bit difficult to parse when placed alongside the very down-to-earth realism and in-the-moment threat experienced in the chapters belonging to each member of the gang. However, as the novel progresses and the tragedies begin to stack up, the Vancouver chapters—in how they anthropomorphize the streets and the glass and chrome of Vancouver’s skyscrapers, describing the city as if it were a cocoon failing to protect its most vulnerable contents—take on a sorrowful tone, as if the city itself were a parent filled with regret for its citizens and their lost potential.
Despite the horrible shit the girls do to one another and those unfortunate enough to be pulled into their maelstrom, they remain sympathetic throughout. They’re fighting to showcase their strength and agency, which in each of their cases is something that life and circumstances outside of the gang have taken from them. But they aren’t needless aggressors—they react, they don’t act out. Would any of the Black Roses have killed without provocation? It’s possible, sure, but given the guttural reaction they have to every life taken, accidentally or otherwise, and how quickly the stress resulting from their actions causes them to splinter and move further away from one another, it’s clear they don’t ever lose whatever tenuous grip they have on their humanity. The Black Roses aren’t sociopaths. They’re kids who don’t know how to process the amazing amount of shit they’ve lived through, and they know—or think they know—that their only two options are that they fight and they fight real fucking hard, or they simply curl up into a ball and wait for death.
As the novel nears its end, the sense that they are all of them walking a high wire stretched too tight across a crevasse is almost overwhelming; as a reader I found myself thinking I was watching someone pull a load-bearing piece from the base of a card tower each and every chapter, just waiting for that one, that innocuous Ace of Spades that when pulled would knock everything over. And damn it, the second they mentioned celebrating Mac’s eighteenth birthday, all I could think to myself was “tried as an adult.”
Even knowing to some degree how bad things were inevitably going to get, the emotional impact of the novel’s final chapters wasn’t diminished at all. While I was grateful for even the smallest shred of hope offered by the story’s end, Anatomy of a Girl Gang is a heartbreaking read, a must for high schools across the continent, and just too goddamn real for comfort.
And again, that’s a good thing.
I seen a lotta crazy shit on the rez. I seen my cousin Bo get shot in the belly and bleed to death in my kitchen. I seen my brother Lenny get shot in the shoulder, the red flesh all ripped up like the inside of a fish. I seen Lenny stab a guy by the basketball courts, stab him in the neck with a broken beer bottle. I seen my brother, Eugene, get shot in the back, get paralyzed for life over a fifty-dollar debt. I seen one of my mom’s boyfriends smack her across the face with his gun because she smoked his last cigarette. I seen my brother Neil push his girlfriend down the stairs so she wouldn’t have her baby. I seen the cops bash my brother’s hands with clubs until all his fingers were broken and hanging from his hands like bloody sausages. I seen my mom threaten to kill my uncle with an axe. I seen my cousin shoot a dog in the head with a .22. I remember my uncle Leo stickin his gun up my asshole, makin me tell him I liked it. Then stickin it in my mouth. Askin me if I wanted him to pull the trigger. Yes, I’d nod, gaggin on the gun. Yes. Do it. Just do it. Please. And I meant it.
Then he would.
Click.
***
Ashley Little’s Anatomy of a Girl Gang is like an after-school special gone horribly awry—and that’s a good thing.
The novel follows the short, eventful, often frightening existence of a Downtown East Side (DTES) Vancouver gang called the Black Roses. The Roses are five teenage girls: Mac, originator of the gang and the eldest among them; Mercy, the admitted “Punjabi Princess” with an aptitude for theft; Kayos, a teenage mom whose life of privilege is darker than she lets on; Sly Girl, a struggling-to-stay-clean crack addict fleeing the violence and poverty of her First Nations reserve; and Z, a diminutive anti-establishment graffiti artist who speaks and thinks only in tags.
The story begins with Mac and Mercy wanting to distance themselves from another gang, the Vipers—gangsters who want to act like pimps, treating the girls like shit—deciding they’d had enough of living beneath the thumbs of others. They set up shop in a DTES flat and start selling drugs to make ends meet, to build their nest egg for that dream condo in the sky that will take them out of the DTES once and for all. But two girls aren’t a gang; they need extra muscle on the streets, they need someone with a finger on the erratic pulse of the substance underground, and they need their name spread far and wide. Enter Kayos, Sly Girl, and Z.
What unfolds is a tragic family drama (structurally inspired to some degree, according to the author, by Romeo & Juliet) as we learn both what each girl is escaping from—abuse, neglect, violence, or just good old-fashioned oppressive parenting—and the lengths to which they are willing to go in order to carve their gang’s name out of blood and concrete.
The girls begin the Black Roses with the best of intentions: to honour and respect one another, to not get into it with other gangs in the area, to stay clean from drugs, keep out of trouble, and always act in the best interests of the group. In spite of its gangland aesthetic, the story is made relatable through Little’s strong-yet-streamlined characters and their clear motivations—at its core the novel is about finding a niche, a sense of belonging, and building a family. But best intentions only go so far when the surrounding environment all too often resorts to a kill-or-be-killed frame of mind. Gradually, cracks appear in their group dynamic—Mac falling in love with Z and Mercy feeling hurt that she didn’t know; Kayos killing a rival gang member and Sly Girl struggling to process it without falling back to using—and the strain of five disparate, quick-to-boil girls forced far too quickly into adulthood is too much the gang to survive. And when shit does go wrong, it goes wrong spectacularly fucking fast—so fast you’ll feel like you’ve been slapped in the face. And I promise you’ll never look at a curling iron the same way again.
The novel is written as a series of testimonials. Each chapter is from the point-of-view of another member of the gang, written in their own voice: Mac’s chapters have an authoritarian vibe to them, desperate as she is to get that wealth and influence she knows she deserves; Mercy is intelligent and self-aware; Kayos is at odds with her privileged yet abusive past, and sometimes finds herself questioning where she went off the rails; Sly Girl’s chapters are filled with blunt acknowledgement of the hardships she’s endured and a sometimes self-hating desire to rise above it all; and Z’s chapters are written in the broken language of tagging—“i go out @ nyte, do my aRt, den go home & sleep & eat in da daytime when evrybudeez @ werk & skewl. itz aiight. 4 now. i don’t wanna B a product of my environment. i want my environment 2 B a product of me.”
Every now and again, Little will also insert a chapter from Vancouver’s perspective, pulling the action out to a bird’s eye view of the city, looking down on the streets and the girls and the brutal life they’re leading through a loving, protective, and somewhat ambiguous lens. These chapters are at first a bit difficult to parse when placed alongside the very down-to-earth realism and in-the-moment threat experienced in the chapters belonging to each member of the gang. However, as the novel progresses and the tragedies begin to stack up, the Vancouver chapters—in how they anthropomorphize the streets and the glass and chrome of Vancouver’s skyscrapers, describing the city as if it were a cocoon failing to protect its most vulnerable contents—take on a sorrowful tone, as if the city itself were a parent filled with regret for its citizens and their lost potential.
Despite the horrible shit the girls do to one another and those unfortunate enough to be pulled into their maelstrom, they remain sympathetic throughout. They’re fighting to showcase their strength and agency, which in each of their cases is something that life and circumstances outside of the gang have taken from them. But they aren’t needless aggressors—they react, they don’t act out. Would any of the Black Roses have killed without provocation? It’s possible, sure, but given the guttural reaction they have to every life taken, accidentally or otherwise, and how quickly the stress resulting from their actions causes them to splinter and move further away from one another, it’s clear they don’t ever lose whatever tenuous grip they have on their humanity. The Black Roses aren’t sociopaths. They’re kids who don’t know how to process the amazing amount of shit they’ve lived through, and they know—or think they know—that their only two options are that they fight and they fight real fucking hard, or they simply curl up into a ball and wait for death.
As the novel nears its end, the sense that they are all of them walking a high wire stretched too tight across a crevasse is almost overwhelming; as a reader I found myself thinking I was watching someone pull a load-bearing piece from the base of a card tower each and every chapter, just waiting for that one, that innocuous Ace of Spades that when pulled would knock everything over. And damn it, the second they mentioned celebrating Mac’s eighteenth birthday, all I could think to myself was “tried as an adult.”
Even knowing to some degree how bad things were inevitably going to get, the emotional impact of the novel’s final chapters wasn’t diminished at all. While I was grateful for even the smallest shred of hope offered by the story’s end, Anatomy of a Girl Gang is a heartbreaking read, a must for high schools across the continent, and just too goddamn real for comfort.
And again, that’s a good thing.
October 16, 2017
id like my heart back in one piece please
January 16, 2025
I get that she’s going for gritty realism, but I think this book felt pretty excessive on the level of disgusting events to happen to a group of children. I understand that these are things that do happen to people, especially in the dtes. However, I think writing about this community, especially coming from an author (seemingly) on the outside, needs a lot of tact which I didn’t really find in this book. It kind of felt like slamming together every awful disgusting thing that could possibly happen and tying it together with loose emotional growth and a vague sense of connection between the girls (if that).
I read an article about the writing of this book on CBC. It mentioned how the author spent 2.5 weeks “dressed down” (cosplaying homeless??) walking around the DTES in order to write this book. To be real, I don’t think that is enough to write this kind of traumatic story about its fictional residents. Maybe this author secretly did a lot more research that wasn’t in the article or mentioned in the acknowledgments, but I kind of doubt it by how it was written. Creating a fictional 13 year old indigenous girl to get raped multiple times, shot, addicted to heroin, etc. with no other noticeable traits is, in my opinion, weird. The characters felt hollow to me because they didn’t have any traits other than trauma.
Something that stuck out to me from this article was the quote: “I wanted to paint a picture of that community for people who would never go there.” Is that all the downtown east side is to this author? Murder, rape, drugs, and gang violence? This is highly disenfranchised community that is consistently characterized this way. It’s not really a revolutionary story.
I don’t understand why all the characters need to be kids. I don’t understand why there needs to be a full blown torture scene. I don’t understand why there’s a page listing all the times Shygirl’s seen someone get shot, followed with a graphic rape scene. This book is gross. These things don’t seem to play into the overall story whatsoever.
Maybe I’ve mischaracterized the author, but that’s the vibe I’ve gotten from the online presence.
Also:
Z’s chapters were almost illegible. I understand the initial thought of that writing style being a cool concept, but I don’t think it was at all meaningful. I had no concept of what Z was like other than a random xd tumblr vibe. And, the Vancouver perspectives were just pretentious.
I read an article about the writing of this book on CBC. It mentioned how the author spent 2.5 weeks “dressed down” (cosplaying homeless??) walking around the DTES in order to write this book. To be real, I don’t think that is enough to write this kind of traumatic story about its fictional residents. Maybe this author secretly did a lot more research that wasn’t in the article or mentioned in the acknowledgments, but I kind of doubt it by how it was written. Creating a fictional 13 year old indigenous girl to get raped multiple times, shot, addicted to heroin, etc. with no other noticeable traits is, in my opinion, weird. The characters felt hollow to me because they didn’t have any traits other than trauma.
Something that stuck out to me from this article was the quote: “I wanted to paint a picture of that community for people who would never go there.” Is that all the downtown east side is to this author? Murder, rape, drugs, and gang violence? This is highly disenfranchised community that is consistently characterized this way. It’s not really a revolutionary story.
I don’t understand why all the characters need to be kids. I don’t understand why there needs to be a full blown torture scene. I don’t understand why there’s a page listing all the times Shygirl’s seen someone get shot, followed with a graphic rape scene. This book is gross. These things don’t seem to play into the overall story whatsoever.
Maybe I’ve mischaracterized the author, but that’s the vibe I’ve gotten from the online presence.
Also:
Z’s chapters were almost illegible. I understand the initial thought of that writing style being a cool concept, but I don’t think it was at all meaningful. I had no concept of what Z was like other than a random xd tumblr vibe. And, the Vancouver perspectives were just pretentious.
March 9, 2022
At times reminiscent of Cathleen With's Skids — and in fact With is in the acknowledgments. These characters are memorable, more so because we hear each of their voices.
However, the voice of Z, written in a graffiti tagging vernacular is challenging to read. The problem is that Z is no Bill Bissett, so if one labours through the text, there is no pay-off, other than a bit of narrative. I mostly skipped/skimmed Z's section.
The gang is portrayed as skilled criminals and yet they become suddenly amateurish with desperation after their savings were stolen and they try to plan someone new. The kidnapping was a stupid plan, and one has to look at these characters in a new light after they come up with it. Yes, they are greedy, impulsive teenagers, not master criminals. They have a naive, immature worldview, for example, believing that someone would be able to obtain $1,000,000 in cash in 48 hours and stuff that amount into a backpack.
This book takes place in a landscape I also inhabit, and that is fascinating, and in this case, slightly surreal, because what Little describes is an alternate reality that is always there and we can sense it even it we are not able to fully see it as vividly as this book portrays.
However, the voice of Z, written in a graffiti tagging vernacular is challenging to read. The problem is that Z is no Bill Bissett, so if one labours through the text, there is no pay-off, other than a bit of narrative. I mostly skipped/skimmed Z's section.
The gang is portrayed as skilled criminals and yet they become suddenly amateurish with desperation after their savings were stolen and they try to plan someone new. The kidnapping was a stupid plan, and one has to look at these characters in a new light after they come up with it. Yes, they are greedy, impulsive teenagers, not master criminals. They have a naive, immature worldview, for example, believing that someone would be able to obtain $1,000,000 in cash in 48 hours and stuff that amount into a backpack.
This book takes place in a landscape I also inhabit, and that is fascinating, and in this case, slightly surreal, because what Little describes is an alternate reality that is always there and we can sense it even it we are not able to fully see it as vividly as this book portrays.
January 2, 2018
Well this was something! Solid 3 stars but I wasn't very into it. Great to see a darker and more realistic side to Vancouver tho. Canada isn't just maple syrup and hugs.
Downtown Eastside still is a very hard place, known for its levels of drug use, poverty, mental illness, sex work, homelessness, and crime. This book basically represents all of it.
So we have five very different girls set on a pretty dark path. There is no out if you are in gang. Doesn't matter if you work for someone else or run it yourself. The plot got quite twisted in some parts.
I'm not sure if it was a good idea to show Z's POV in that style. I mean:
That shit seriously hurts your eyes.
BUT. This also had POV of Vancouver itself? How awesome is that!
So overall it was an interesing read if you wan't something darker and different.
Downtown Eastside still is a very hard place, known for its levels of drug use, poverty, mental illness, sex work, homelessness, and crime. This book basically represents all of it.
So we have five very different girls set on a pretty dark path. There is no out if you are in gang. Doesn't matter if you work for someone else or run it yourself. The plot got quite twisted in some parts.
I'm not sure if it was a good idea to show Z's POV in that style. I mean:
my namez Z. ima graf wryter. graffiti iz aRt dEzyne NOT $treet cryme!!! my aRt iz all ova di$ citee & aLL up & doWn mayneland BC. u problee $een $uma my werk. bin throwin up Z, throwin up i love you, throwin up mad colorz all ova chinatown all ova DTE$ cuz u know dem $ad a$$ junkie$ need $um colorz in der live$.
That shit seriously hurts your eyes.
BUT. This also had POV of Vancouver itself? How awesome is that!
So overall it was an interesing read if you wan't something darker and different.
October 14, 2013
I suspect the voices of the Black Roses are going to stay with me for a long time to come. Much as I dislike the hyperbole of saying "you won't be able to put it down," if you're anything like me, you won't be able to put it down. Set aside a couple of hours. This is a desperate, moving window into an altogether faraway yet familiar world.
June 20, 2018
Knjiga sa jako teškom temom. Izuzetno tužan kraj. Očekivala sam ga, ali zaista nisam mogla ni da zamislim da će biti ovoliko tužan.
October 21, 2015
Anatomy of a Girl Gang – A touching story of vulnerability that’s brutal, edgy and explosive Five young women, all from seriously dysfunctional backgrounds, form the Black Roses, a girl gang that provides them with safety, family, purpose and love as well as cash from their criminal pursuits.
The leader, Mac, has a mother’s who's a junkie; Mercy, an Indo-Canadian, has lost her parents as a child; Kayos, the Shaughnessy kid has been sexually abused by her step-father; Sly Girl, the Native Indian has escapes the hell that’s the rez, and Z, the Chinese graffiti artist can’t conform to her New Canadian family’s cultural expectations.
For a short time these young women, hardly more than girls, come together and share a special bond, but living outside the law as well as dealing with addictions and the psychological issues that haunt them gradually begin to erode the Black Roses from within and without.
Author Ashley Little tells this story from the POV of the five members. Her voice uses street slang that sounds authentic, as do her descriptions of life on the mean streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The writing is fresh, flawless, and powerfully simple. The plot is brutal, edgy and explosive. The format uses short chapters, graphic headings and jumps back and forth from character to character but manages to remain cohesive and extremely readable.
The author took some chances in writing style, format and subject matter and succeeded in all three. Anatomy of a Girl Gang is a ground breaker and worthy of the accolade it’s been receiving.
The leader, Mac, has a mother’s who's a junkie; Mercy, an Indo-Canadian, has lost her parents as a child; Kayos, the Shaughnessy kid has been sexually abused by her step-father; Sly Girl, the Native Indian has escapes the hell that’s the rez, and Z, the Chinese graffiti artist can’t conform to her New Canadian family’s cultural expectations.
For a short time these young women, hardly more than girls, come together and share a special bond, but living outside the law as well as dealing with addictions and the psychological issues that haunt them gradually begin to erode the Black Roses from within and without.
Author Ashley Little tells this story from the POV of the five members. Her voice uses street slang that sounds authentic, as do her descriptions of life on the mean streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The writing is fresh, flawless, and powerfully simple. The plot is brutal, edgy and explosive. The format uses short chapters, graphic headings and jumps back and forth from character to character but manages to remain cohesive and extremely readable.
The author took some chances in writing style, format and subject matter and succeeded in all three. Anatomy of a Girl Gang is a ground breaker and worthy of the accolade it’s been receiving.
January 3, 2015
Reminds me a bit of Rebecca Godfrey's Under the Bridge and, now that I think about it, her earlier book The Torn Skirt . They both describe how teenage girls can inhabit this shadowy, liminal space that crosses between normal and underground, safety and violence. Although Anatomy of a Girl Gang is much farther outside the realm of mainstream and much deeper into the alternate universe of the downtown eastside.
Going in. you know that disaster is inevitable. But the book carries you along in a weird wave of hopefulness - I started to feel somewhat proud of what excellent gangsters they were turning into. But the alternating voices start to show cracks and then the whole thing falls apart - not before descending into some of the most disturbing violence I've ever read. I don't know if I would be recommending this one to the standard YA audience, although it's far more diverse and relatable than most YA.
Going in. you know that disaster is inevitable. But the book carries you along in a weird wave of hopefulness - I started to feel somewhat proud of what excellent gangsters they were turning into. But the alternating voices start to show cracks and then the whole thing falls apart - not before descending into some of the most disturbing violence I've ever read. I don't know if I would be recommending this one to the standard YA audience, although it's far more diverse and relatable than most YA.
December 13, 2018
"Bad bitches don't die." p. 108
LOL, I crack myself up sometimes. I also cracked myself up with this book. I definitely liked this one.
Stuck in the streets of a gritty neighborhood in Vancouver and fed up with the sexist actions of their all-boy gang, Mac and Mercy decide to start their own crew, which they call The Black Roses. Mac sets strict rules at the outset: there will never be more than 5 girl members, they will never use the drugs that they sell, and they will be their city's worst nightmare.
Together, Mac and Mercy recruit 3 more girls. Each member is distinct in their personality and serves their own purpose within the gang. Mac is the leader, mastermind, and the O.G. of the gang (that's 'original gangster' for you squares). Mercy, a "Punjabi princess," is Mac's right hand with a special aptitude for theft (cars, store merchandise, you name it). Kayos is from a rich family and has a special flair for violence. Sly Girl, who comes from a hard life on a reservation, is a master of the ups and downs of buying, selling, (and later using) drugs. The final recruit, Z, is a young Chinese graffiti artist whose job it is to market The Black Roses' message of mayhem by tagging their name on street signs and bridges all across the city.
At first, the Black Roses are wildly successful. Although they run into some problems with other gangs, they quickly solve them with violence. They begin to save their money and dream of leaving the streets. There's even time for a romance to develop between two of the members. All continues to go well until a devastating blow leaves them without hope or the money they've saved to plan an escape. Desperate, the girls come up with an ill-advised plan which sets into motion a chain of events that eventually destroys them all.
This book is told in alternating narratives of all five of the characters. Interspersed throughout the story is the voice of Vancouver, an eye in the sky that "sees" all. Honestly, the writing of this book is not all that excellent but the story manages to be quietly devastating enough to keep you turning the pages. The mid-90's hip hop language, explained to the less-than-wary with the aid of a glossary in the back, is also funny too with definitions for words like: "slinging," "burners," and "gat."
This is YA, but I'd recommend for adults too.
Four stars, yo.
LOL, I crack myself up sometimes. I also cracked myself up with this book. I definitely liked this one.
Stuck in the streets of a gritty neighborhood in Vancouver and fed up with the sexist actions of their all-boy gang, Mac and Mercy decide to start their own crew, which they call The Black Roses. Mac sets strict rules at the outset: there will never be more than 5 girl members, they will never use the drugs that they sell, and they will be their city's worst nightmare.
Together, Mac and Mercy recruit 3 more girls. Each member is distinct in their personality and serves their own purpose within the gang. Mac is the leader, mastermind, and the O.G. of the gang (that's 'original gangster' for you squares). Mercy, a "Punjabi princess," is Mac's right hand with a special aptitude for theft (cars, store merchandise, you name it). Kayos is from a rich family and has a special flair for violence. Sly Girl, who comes from a hard life on a reservation, is a master of the ups and downs of buying, selling, (and later using) drugs. The final recruit, Z, is a young Chinese graffiti artist whose job it is to market The Black Roses' message of mayhem by tagging their name on street signs and bridges all across the city.
At first, the Black Roses are wildly successful. Although they run into some problems with other gangs, they quickly solve them with violence. They begin to save their money and dream of leaving the streets. There's even time for a romance to develop between two of the members. All continues to go well until a devastating blow leaves them without hope or the money they've saved to plan an escape. Desperate, the girls come up with an ill-advised plan which sets into motion a chain of events that eventually destroys them all.
This book is told in alternating narratives of all five of the characters. Interspersed throughout the story is the voice of Vancouver, an eye in the sky that "sees" all. Honestly, the writing of this book is not all that excellent but the story manages to be quietly devastating enough to keep you turning the pages. The mid-90's hip hop language, explained to the less-than-wary with the aid of a glossary in the back, is also funny too with definitions for words like: "slinging," "burners," and "gat."
This is YA, but I'd recommend for adults too.
Four stars, yo.
December 13, 2019
Well. What an afternoon of reading that was... There were parts (horrible parts) that felt really real and others that were just meh. Unfortunately those parts were overwhelming. Some things make it seem like the author doesn’t live in Vancouver and one of the MC’s having a cool gang uncle to set them up is just a bit over the top.
November 25, 2024
I don’t really know how to feel about this book. It was interesting to read it in the Vancouver setting because I was able to contextualize where things were happening. However I felt like I did not really understand the direction of the plot and it seemed that things would just happen without really circling back. I also really did not enjoy the writing of Z’s perspective.
December 7, 2020
Konačno zbilja dobra knjiga, ako ne i najbolja ova godine. Ovakve jako teške tematike se definitivno neće svidjeti svakome, unaprijed da vas upozorim. Knjiga me oborila s nogu, a i rasplakala, a i navela da više cijenim ono što imam.
November 17, 2024
no doubt a page turner. very heavy vivid scenes of assault and murder.
A reminder that all walks of life want safety and have heart felt moments from mercy thinking about her dark purple childhood bedroom walls to love in gang.
A reminder that all walks of life want safety and have heart felt moments from mercy thinking about her dark purple childhood bedroom walls to love in gang.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2018
I loved this novel so much. The ending was absolutely positively horrendous and so unsatisfactory. I was so emotionally invested in all of these characters and then they were all murdered off. I had a moral dilemma with this novel because the characters are doing horrible things but they are great people.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2015
After getting fed up with being treated as subhuman by the larger gang she runs with, Mac and her friend, Mercy decide that they are going to start their own all-girl gang. Mac's vision is clear: the gang can have no more than 5 members and they will all adhere to a strict code of ethics that involves solidarity, sobriety and some level of secrecy. Together, Mac and Mercy recruit 3 more girls and dub themselves "The Black Roses". Each character is very distinct. Mac is the leader, decisive and well-versed in gang culture. Mercy is a "Punjabi princess" and has a knack for theft. The first recruit, Kayos, is from a wealthy family with dark secrets. Sly Girl has fled from a brutal life on a reservation, only to wind up on the streets selling herself and becoming addicted to crack. The final recruit is Z, a petite Chinese girl who is making a name for herself as a talented graffiti artist. In the beginning, the girls are wildly successful. They begin to dream big, hoping to set themselves up for a life beyond crime. When the male-dominated gang that Mac and Mercy left finds the apartment that the girls tried so hard to keep secret, they steal everything the Black Roses worked so hard to acquire. Desperate, the girls concoct a plan that sets in motion a devastating chain of events.
Told in alternating narratives, each girl gets time to tell her part of the story. Also in the mix of narratives is the city of Vancouver itself, watching over its denizens. The effect is a compelling story of troubled girls trying to save themselves after life has dealt them a terrible hand. Not for the faint of heart, this Canadian import is utterly captivating. In spite of ill-informed choices and near-constant criminal behavior, readers will find themselves rooting for and identifying with each of these girls. Mature situations make this best suited for older teens. Hand this one to teens who like their literature to be emotionally devastating.
Told in alternating narratives, each girl gets time to tell her part of the story. Also in the mix of narratives is the city of Vancouver itself, watching over its denizens. The effect is a compelling story of troubled girls trying to save themselves after life has dealt them a terrible hand. Not for the faint of heart, this Canadian import is utterly captivating. In spite of ill-informed choices and near-constant criminal behavior, readers will find themselves rooting for and identifying with each of these girls. Mature situations make this best suited for older teens. Hand this one to teens who like their literature to be emotionally devastating.
October 28, 2014
I have never been in a gang, I think the closest I have been to what I would call a gang is when a bunch of us girls in elementary school hung out together and we tried to be the “cool ones.” I thought we were “cool” at least for a while until it didn’t matter anymore and the cool factor faded away. The girl gang in Ashley Little’s novel is nothing like the gang we were a part of. There is something about gangs that intimidate me yet they also fascinate me. Gangs are scary and we all know why. Drugs, shootings, violence, gangs…. it’s a negative word. Gangs for some individuals is also commitment and bonding, it is this bond with other members that is the only thing that they have that holds them together, it’s their family. Sad, but its true in some circumstances. In Ashley Little’s novel the gang is a tight-knit group of girls. I was drawn in by their stories and their commitment to their cause. Each individual brought baggage to the group which was thrown into the mix, their shattered lives searching for something better and finding within the group security to just be themselves. Keeping the gang small the girls relied upon one another and formed a sisterhood. The language is strong, violent and its definitely street talk. The girls are giving it a go as an all-female gang and as other gangs try to intimate them they need to stand their ground. I felt on edge reading, the intensity of the girls actions as they put themselves out there at all costs proving themselves and excitement of the other elements of the book, it was hard to put this book down. I wanted the girls to succeed yet I wanted someone to look out for them, they seemed so vulnerable, being new and without history to support their cause. You’re walking with the Black Roses, as they try to make a name for themselves, their work is violent and intense so be ready
April 2, 2022
I think this book deserves a content warning considering it's YA. There is a relatively graphic torture scene that I was not expecting in a book geared towards a younger audience.
This book has some good elements, the setting being one of them. There's so much potential for the author to explore the friendship dynamics of a group of young girls navigating living in the Downtown Eastside and dealing with their distinct traumas and working together to survive. Instead there's little to no character development (especially the character Z seemed to exist for no other reason than to be another character's girlfriend) and big events like murder seem to happen with little to no follow through or impact on the greater plot line. The ending left me wondering what if any message the author was trying to impart. Overall it just felt like violence and trauma used for the sake of being "gripping" or "edgy" with no other real purpose.
This book has some good elements, the setting being one of them. There's so much potential for the author to explore the friendship dynamics of a group of young girls navigating living in the Downtown Eastside and dealing with their distinct traumas and working together to survive. Instead there's little to no character development (especially the character Z seemed to exist for no other reason than to be another character's girlfriend) and big events like murder seem to happen with little to no follow through or impact on the greater plot line. The ending left me wondering what if any message the author was trying to impart. Overall it just felt like violence and trauma used for the sake of being "gripping" or "edgy" with no other real purpose.
February 19, 2014
Really enjoyed this one. It tells the story of a girl gang in Vancouver. There are five girls in the gang and they take turns narrating. Each chapter is told from a different perspective. The voices and the structure of the book are its true strength. It's a compelling and fast paced story, that starts out dark and gets darker. The story traces the fall of the members of the girl gang until its bleak end. I loved the Vancouver setting and the voices. This was a really quick read that would make a great movie, even though the violence would be a bit much. I also liked how the reader learns a lot about the backstory of the girls and how they all had their own reasons for wanting to join the gang.
Recommended.
Recommended.
September 17, 2019
“Le cose non andavano per il verso giusto. Mercy e io dovevamo essere trattate come delle regine, maledizione! Invece in questo istane i nostri ragazzi si scontravano con altre bande e la città si riempiva di cadaveri. Anche gente qualunque. Una carneficina. Ora, essendo una Vipers, ero un bersaglio. Che diavolo di protezione era quella? Era l’opposto della protezione. Era una stronzata, ecco cos’era. Vaffanculo. Guardai la mia migliore amica sbuffare fumo da un angolo della bocca, il suo labbro inferiore era gonfio come una prugna marcia. Una lacrima scappò dal suo occhio sinistro, quasi completamente chiuso dal gonfiore, e lei la scaccio via come si fa con un insetto. Ecco quando decisi: sarei uscita dai Vipers e avrei portato Mercy con me.”
Il 15 febbraio 2016 è arrivato in Italia Girl Gang, la drammatica storia di cinque giovani donne.
Mac, Mercy, Z, Kayos e Sly Girl, le protagoniste, hanno fra i quindici e i sedici anni. Tutte con una storia particolare alle spalle: Mac e Mercy hanno volontariamente abbandonato la loro vecchia gang, i Vipers, che voleva farle prostituire; Kayos, ragazza dal carattere un po’ difficile, è la madre di una bambina avuta a soli 13 anni; Sly Girl è fuggita dalla riserva First Nation con la speranza di una vita migliore ma ha trovato solo depravazione e dipendenza; Z è una maestra di graffiti e murales in conflitto con la propria famiglia e con il mondo che la circonda.
Insieme sono le Black Roses una gang tutta al femminile che terrorizza Vancouver. Rubano macchine, bancomat, vestiti e gioielli, cucinano metanfetamina e crack, spacciano e combattono selvaggiamente con chi cerca di far loro del male. Tutto sembra andare per il meglio quando la vecchia gang di Mac e Mercy, per vendicarsi, entra nel loro rifugio portando via tutto. Le ragazze si sentono crollare e Mercy, leader auto-nominato e mente del gruppo, decide di compiere un colpo che, secondo lei, farà ritornare la situazione come prima: rapire la figlia di Kayos e chiedere un riscatto al ricco patrigno. Le cose non vanno come previsto e, purtroppo, solo Sly Girl riuscirà a dare una svolta alla propria vita.
Il libro narra il disagio giovanile, la droga, l’abbandono e la violenza criminale in modo crudo e diretto.
Le Black Roses non sono altro che cinque giovani ragazze abbandonate a se stesse, che cercano di sopravvivere in un mondo violento, alla disperata ricerca di una famiglia che, per un breve periodo, troveranno in loro stesse.
Il romanzo è narrato volutamente a turno ed è strutturato come un diario personale. Le varie vicende vengono eviscerate in modo preciso e dettagliato secondo tutti i punti di vista. Viene inoltre utilizzato un linguaggio volgare, adolescenziale e ricco di slang al fine di rendere la storia il più verosimile possibile.
L’autrice, Ashley Little, ci offre una storia triste e dal finale amaro che racconta quanto ci si possa sentire soli e disperati e di come sia dura la lotta per la sopravvivenza.
Il 15 febbraio 2016 è arrivato in Italia Girl Gang, la drammatica storia di cinque giovani donne.
Mac, Mercy, Z, Kayos e Sly Girl, le protagoniste, hanno fra i quindici e i sedici anni. Tutte con una storia particolare alle spalle: Mac e Mercy hanno volontariamente abbandonato la loro vecchia gang, i Vipers, che voleva farle prostituire; Kayos, ragazza dal carattere un po’ difficile, è la madre di una bambina avuta a soli 13 anni; Sly Girl è fuggita dalla riserva First Nation con la speranza di una vita migliore ma ha trovato solo depravazione e dipendenza; Z è una maestra di graffiti e murales in conflitto con la propria famiglia e con il mondo che la circonda.
Insieme sono le Black Roses una gang tutta al femminile che terrorizza Vancouver. Rubano macchine, bancomat, vestiti e gioielli, cucinano metanfetamina e crack, spacciano e combattono selvaggiamente con chi cerca di far loro del male. Tutto sembra andare per il meglio quando la vecchia gang di Mac e Mercy, per vendicarsi, entra nel loro rifugio portando via tutto. Le ragazze si sentono crollare e Mercy, leader auto-nominato e mente del gruppo, decide di compiere un colpo che, secondo lei, farà ritornare la situazione come prima: rapire la figlia di Kayos e chiedere un riscatto al ricco patrigno. Le cose non vanno come previsto e, purtroppo, solo Sly Girl riuscirà a dare una svolta alla propria vita.
Il libro narra il disagio giovanile, la droga, l’abbandono e la violenza criminale in modo crudo e diretto.
Le Black Roses non sono altro che cinque giovani ragazze abbandonate a se stesse, che cercano di sopravvivere in un mondo violento, alla disperata ricerca di una famiglia che, per un breve periodo, troveranno in loro stesse.
Il romanzo è narrato volutamente a turno ed è strutturato come un diario personale. Le varie vicende vengono eviscerate in modo preciso e dettagliato secondo tutti i punti di vista. Viene inoltre utilizzato un linguaggio volgare, adolescenziale e ricco di slang al fine di rendere la storia il più verosimile possibile.
L’autrice, Ashley Little, ci offre una storia triste e dal finale amaro che racconta quanto ci si possa sentire soli e disperati e di come sia dura la lotta per la sopravvivenza.
August 18, 2019
I couldn't put it down. The book gives a voice to those generally dismissed by the privileged yet in dire need of being heard, their voices stifled by despair and series of unfortunate events that are their lives. They're aware of their difference, but clueless to its extent. They are the powerless taking back their power, and it is energizing to read. Despite the unlawful behaviors engaged in on every page, I find myself rooting for these girls, worrying about them, and hoping for their liberation from the shadow of their past, their eventual redemption, however unlikely. The perils of addiction and temptation are described in a familiar way, though I never smoked crack. The decisions made by the characters are not unreasonable within the context, though I find myself hoping again and again that they would do differently, and when occasionally they do, a wave of hope washes over me, hope for these characters and the real people they represent. These girls are some of the strongest characters I have ever encountered in literature, and the most fragile. Their humility is juxtaposed against their cruelty, their ugliness against their unstoppable beauty, and their clever schemes against their dumb decisions. The conclusion of the book is presented with the same ambiguity, one of conflicting met expectations and simultaneous total shock, a broken heart and gratitude and hope for the saved. The book is a quick read and an informative one, in my opinion, on matters rarely touched on by the talking heads on TV yet most relevant in society.
July 28, 2018
Oof. This book tore my heart open. It is raw and violent and difficult to read.
It is set in Vancouver's downtown east side and told through the voices of each of the girls in the gang plus the voice of Vancouver itself. The city comes across as an omniscient narcissist which seems appropriate somehow. It was easy to forget how young the characters were at times which led to some jarring realizations and made some scenes that much more horrifying.
I'd recommend this book with some very heavy content warnings. Not for everyone, definitely a worthwhile read for those who can stomach it.
It is set in Vancouver's downtown east side and told through the voices of each of the girls in the gang plus the voice of Vancouver itself. The city comes across as an omniscient narcissist which seems appropriate somehow. It was easy to forget how young the characters were at times which led to some jarring realizations and made some scenes that much more horrifying.
I'd recommend this book with some very heavy content warnings. Not for everyone, definitely a worthwhile read for those who can stomach it.
April 30, 2019
First thought upon finishing this book: HOLY SHIT.
For the first 10 pages or so, I wasn’t sure this was going to be for me — and then all of a sudden I was 100 pages in and couldn’t put it down until I was finished.
"They are angry. They are hungry. They are not taking no for an answer. ... They are not sorry. They are the future. They are children, lost to my city, doing what is necessary to survive."
Be aware that there is violence throughout, including a particularly shocking act of revenge.
For the first 10 pages or so, I wasn’t sure this was going to be for me — and then all of a sudden I was 100 pages in and couldn’t put it down until I was finished.
"They are angry. They are hungry. They are not taking no for an answer. ... They are not sorry. They are the future. They are children, lost to my city, doing what is necessary to survive."
Be aware that there is violence throughout, including a particularly shocking act of revenge.
November 12, 2021
This was heart-wrenching.
You know how, even if it is a fiction story, you get a feeling these characters could be real people, having lived real lives, had gone through real tragedies? Well, yeah, this is the book for you, then.
It showed me another side to Vancouver I had suspected existing, but never had the courage to see it for what it was. A must read.
You know how, even if it is a fiction story, you get a feeling these characters could be real people, having lived real lives, had gone through real tragedies? Well, yeah, this is the book for you, then.
It showed me another side to Vancouver I had suspected existing, but never had the courage to see it for what it was. A must read.
April 13, 2023
Probably would have given this four stars if the author introduced herself, and therefore me, to speech marks and Z’s chapters weren’t so fucking painful to read.
Seriously though authors. Use fucking speech marks. Your book isn’t any more high brow or clever because it lacks them ffs, it’s just annoying for the reader.
Seriously though authors. Use fucking speech marks. Your book isn’t any more high brow or clever because it lacks them ffs, it’s just annoying for the reader.
February 6, 2021
Found myself unexpectedly thinking of these girls when not reading the book. Even still. They made a connection. The ending was fast, maybe too fast (Or not long enough? Or maybe I wasn’t ready for the book to end?), but the start of the climax was very well done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2022
My enjoyment was 4.5 stars, I sped through this book (by my standards). A look into a world I never really gave a second thought to (whether it's realistic or not) :) I liked Mac and Z's relationship; all of the characters had likable and unlikeable qualities about them (a *good* thing).
January 1, 2025
Construyes toda una historia y la derrumbas en el final lol. Todo lo que pasó antes ya no importa y el final es una mierda. Además la forma de narrar la perspectiva de z es horrible casi me arranco los ojos.
November 19, 2025
I didn’t love the writing of some of the characters (like Z), but I still hammered through it. It was a mostly quick and easy read, not predictable, and nice to have a book with the darker side of Vancouver in it. Would recommend, just not a literary read.
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