Crooked

by Louisa Luna

Melody is just out of prison. Faced with the absence of her brother, who's serving life in San Quentin, and hardened by her own experiences in lock-up, Mel sturggles to adjust to the harsh realities of life on the outside. She quickly discovers that freeedom is relative...she has no money, no prospects, no guidance.
Forced to return to her mother's apartment in Marin County and take a job houling portable toilets, Mel finds herself drinking too much and hanging out with her old gang again. Haunted by glimpses of her own harrowing girlhood and of the mysterious circumstances that put her in prison in the first place, she slowly, bravely begins to forge a potential path toward redemption and escape.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

309 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Louisa Luna is the author of the novels Brave New Girl, Crooked, and Serious As A Heart Attack. She was born and raised in the city of San Francisco and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

https://www.instagram.com/louisalunaw...

Reviews

[rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, Louisa Luna is so underrated. So few people have read and rated this book and even Brave New Girl has less than 500 ratings. I don't understand it, because I think she's got the cynical voice of a certain type of teen-to-young-adult girl down. The tomboy sort, mistreated or misunderstood, loaded with issues in some way that she is aware of but doesn't fight too hard against -- which is odd, because she'll fight another person in a heartbeat if they make her angry.

Crooked's main character Mel moves through her life post-prison in kind of a haze, sleepwalking, drinking, having impulsive sex, reliving the hells of being locked up. I mean, I'm not sure how you live a normal life post-prison, which seems to be at least one of the lingering points of the story. As Mel spends more time "outside" again, you gradually learn her whole story, culminating in why she was sent to prison and why her twin brother Gary is serving life in San Quentin. (I found it easy to guess before the big reveal, with some of the themes Luna kept repeating.)

Like Brave New Girl, Crooked is a coming of age book. It is more about the experience of being Mel, than "about" what happens, necessarily. Also like Brave New Girl, I can tell already that the voice of this narrator and her hazy, random, ennui-based decision making process is going to be one that lingers in my head for a while. Mel is a whiskey-pounding, gun-toting Angela Chase. But, like, with more consequences.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, is all i can say. louisa luna has my full respect. this is the only book that i've ever had to put down (several times) because i felt so sick to my stomach with anguish for the character and the brutality of circumstances in life - especially for a young person trying to start a new life after leaving the criminal (in)justice system, with few resources and little support (so often the case). it might be kind of obscure, but try to get your hands on it and then pass it on. kind of reminds me of richard wright's native son.

[Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read stories like this one before, and I probably have met a couple of Mel's, Chicks, or Duke's, but what really interested me about this book was how the author constructed Mel's memory into this non sequential narrative about her past which was intermingled with her present. As a reader you may be in the middle of this scene only to be thrown in to the past, like you were in Mel's head being triggered by some sort of memory. Even the story of past that is intermingled with the present isn't sequential.

The reason I find this so interesting, is it shows how much the author understands the memories of traumatized youth. Jerry Fest in his book, "epistemology of street dependent youth" talks about how a traumatized or street dependent youth's memory can be like a puzzle, and how the memories of the past can present themselves in this mix up non sequential abstract collogue of the youths life. When talking to youth, we think they may be just feeding us bullshit because there stories don't match up in order, or we hear about things left out before, but really it may be that the youth's recollection of there own experience is as complex as a puzzle, something that can't be told in black and white facts.

[Kirsten stracke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow this was depressing. I read Two Girls Down and liked it, so I tried this earlier book by Luna. There were some characters with checkered pasts in the other book, and this is those checkered pasts come to life. I just watched people destroy their lives with drugs, alcohol and other poor choices for the course of an entire book. It's a testament to the compelling nature of Luna's writing that I kept going, hoping for a redemption. One thing this book does very well is bring to life how incredibly difficult it can be to get your life together when you've had such a poor start in life. If your mother, brother and friends are all alcoholics and drug addicts, how do you even have an awareness that there is an alternate way to live? Much less achieve it?

[Elizabeth Malatestinic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book similar plot line to a few of my other favourites, The Glass Castle and Lullabies for Little Criminals, and I think that that is one of the resons that I enjoyed it SO much. The characters were developed well and I got a good sense of what each of them were like based on their dialect and the descriptions of their behaviour and reactions etc. A heavy read but a good one. I felt myself getting invested in the recovery of the main character, Mel Booth and it made the ending of the book that much more enjoyable and unpredicatble to me.

[Florence Primrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Melody is just out of prison after doing three years as an accessory to murder and is attempting to reenter society while living with her mother. She finds herself seeing her twin brother’s friends while her brother is at Folsom for life for murder.

She is having a difficult time.

I found this book a look at the “seamy”side of society. Wanted to quit reading,but I kept thinking it would improve. NOT

[Amanda Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. I couldn't put it down.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to read in some ways, but so well written. Real.

[Tanesha Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously with the ending, ugh!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depressing but well done

[Nancy]

Although the storyline seemed somewhat promising, the narrative never really gathered enough momentum to make the ending surprising or meaningful. Oh, the signs were there, and it was obvious the author was working on developing two different affected planes of Melody's personality: one that squeaked of an original mental instability resulting from a poor upbringing and neglect, and one that informed her new penchant for aggressive violence, brought about by the abuse she experiences in prison. It was clear Luna was attempting to merge these two planes slowly throughout the course of the book, gradually increasing the momentum and suspense in preparation for the climactic finish. The problem was that, although the elements were there, I just really didn't care too much about Melody or her cracked-out jerk of a brother. Part of that is not due to lack of descriptive elements contributing to Melody's character. In fact, part of me thinks it might be the result of TOO much meaningless description. Seriously, EVERY detail comes complete with at least several adjectives, a metaphor or simile, and a grab-bag of really "astute" observations from our first-person narrator. I've read Dickens. I can force myself to wade through gratuitous description, but there has to be a point. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why I need to know that the homeless guy Melody steps over at one point smells like mouse traps. Mouse traps???? Seriously???? I finished it....I'm not really sure how....but I'm not impressed.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Louisa Luna's first novel, Brave New Girl. This story takes place in a different place altogether, but her sarcastic wit is still apparent; she makes me laugh out loud sometimes.

The voice of the narrator was very realistic, and the picture on the cover is symbolic in more ways than one.. I'm afraid that getting too much into the storyline or my thoughts will give secrets away, so I'll just say this. I've read stories like this where the end is open-ended (and that drives me crazy!)) This book reached a resolution, good, bad, or indifferent.

[Eve Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating, at times suffocating, a survival story of a woman who plays with your emotions making you question whether or not she is a fighter and will get through it all. She is my sister, my mother, any woman going through something that only another going through the same would understand. I understand and I haven't gone through almost any of it. I became attached and all I wanted for her was to break free, to get anything she wanted, to get anything that she decided she wanted. That she decided she wanted.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-written, but I personally didn't care for the subject matter. It's a good look at someone trying to remake her life after a prison stay. The whole story is bleak and depressing--from her less-than-idyllic childhood to the social set she hooks up with after her release. It's a hopeless story, and I found myself unable to identify with the protaganist. I recommend Louisa Luna's other novel, Brave New Girl.

[Natasha Borden · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far this book has an interesting story line, it only laid out Melody's basic life situation and why she is where she is. It has described the characters such as her mother and co-workers. I like this book from what I've already read.


October 8,2010

I quit this book because I completly lost interest in it. It seems like the book has too many words and not enough story.

[Nashwa S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked it up because the cover and the whole interface looked interesting but I found this book written very cleverly. The first few pages made it seem difficult but it was easy to get into after the first chapter. The switching timelines made you look into the mind of a person who was deeply disturbed by the past and made it difficult to adjust to a life post-prison. Glad I read it!

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. It is a very dark tale of drug addiction and the writer's style pulls no punches. Graphic and shocking, but a compelling read. One of those books that is hard to put down because you know that something is always right around the corner (or on the next page).

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luna's second novel, also published by MTV Books. Gives a female perspective on all those prison-cliche type novels. Not a bad read, but I prefer her other book "Brave New Girl".

[Hurricane_ReD · Rating 1 out of 5]

Her first book was so amazing! I just don't understand how this one could end up being so awful (as in, poorly written).

[kim McRad · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice quick read.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want a happy ending, then this book isn't for you. Quite a depressing book.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Not for the faint of heart. Extremely vulgar and violent but riveting, I could not put it down...call me sick...maybe?--

[Kelly Moriarity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually really good; I picked it up at a garage sale for 25cents and didn't have high expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised!

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something I read over and over again.

[Kathrine Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright...sad.