Natalya > Status Update

With the end of this book, I learn that Joan has to find her own path, without her mother’s love. She’s all grown now. Her mom’s life lessons can only guide her. She now embraces her past, while continuing on with her future. She is her own woman. I found this book to be sooo powerful.

Flashing back and forward between Joan’s new life in Memphis with her mom and sister and to her mom’s life. When her mom met her dad for the first time. I find this quite fascinating. Seeing her mom’s past compared to how her father grew to be so gruesome draws my attention. From this, it talks about stories of their new neighbors. Learning of their experiences with racism. Trauma. Freedom.

Fleeing from her home at 10 years old, Joan, her mother, and her little sister, Mya, have just escaped from the grasp of their father. He was very violent to her mother. The book then fast towards to them moving to Memphis, their mom’s childhood town, a mostly black neighborhood.