Book Review THE LIGHT ON HALSEY STREET Vanessa Miller

Thank you to the author Vanessa Miller publishers Thomas Nelson, and TLC Book Tours for an advance paperback copy of THE LIGHT ON HALSEY STREET. Thank you also to NetGalley for an accomanying widget. All views are mine.

For me, this beautiful story about grace, faith, and friendship really comes together in the second half!


Three (or more) things I loved:

1. This is a really brilliant concept. A young black woman gets out of prison, starts a business, and builds herself back in from nothing. Pick me for that story!   

2. I love that Dana repeatedly helps her mother, long after many people would cut her out of their lives. And it isn't about forgiveness, necessarily, or expecting more from her mother "this time." It’s about Dana being able to extend her mother grace.

3. I don't know yet where this book is going...it gets really twisty and full of wonderful conflict at the 2/3 point.

4. Not sure if the writers means this straight but she really reveals the lack of sympathy society has for the poor, the addicted, and the criminal, even the reformed, such as here: Lisa had been victimized by Dana’s senseless act of identity theft, but didn’t people realize Dana had spent a lifetime being victimized by poverty and her mother’s drug abuse? Who would cry for her? It wasn’t so cut-and-dry as “the rich lady stole from someone.” Her back had been against the wall, and she had been trying to survive. But no one cared . . . No one would ever care about her pain. Tears ran down Dana’s face. She would never escape her past. She would forever be the Dana from Halsey Street and Lewis Avenue— the Dana with a drug-addicted mother and a criminal boyfriend. She would always be the lady who committed identity theft, and she didn’t know if she could face another day with the whole world pointing fingers at her. loc. 2375.                                    
Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. Skips too much time and content in big chunks in the middle of the narrative using summary. Dana had spent several months putting in applications but not receiving any callbacks. Dana knew she would have to do something different. So she signed up for cosmetology school and finally found a job as a waitress. After cosmetology school, the struggle was still real , so after thinking long and hard about it, Dana decided to do something drastic to change her circumstances. loc. 984

2. The business sounds so unrealistic, as well as Dana's professional story after she leaves prison. While she had her salon, Dana had experimented with her own brand of hair-care products. She developed a shampoo, conditioner, and hairgrowing grease, and they worked. So Dana used the money she earned from selling off the inventory and furniture in her salon before it closed down to purchase the supplies needed to brand her own hair-care line: jars, lids, labels, a computer, and the ingredients needed for the shampoo, conditioner, and hair grease. Then she wore out several pairs of shoes walking the blocks, introducing herself to salon owners. She even knocked on doors and gave out samples of her hair grease to parents who had little girls whose hair would dry out and stop growing without the right hair grease. Dana had business cards made up, and soon she was receiving orders for her products. Business had gotten so good she now needed to hire help, but it wasn’t good enough for her to be able to afford the help. loc. 991

3. The formatting is inconsistent. Sometimes past action is indicated with italics, but sometimes the italics is applied to present tense action and dialogue also.

Ratings:
Cover: 4.5
Concept: 4.6
Character Work: 4
Settings / World Work: 4.2
Narrative: 3.8
Pacing: 3.5
Plot / Logic: 3.7
Ending: 5
Steam: n/a
Style: 4.4
Overall Rating: 4.18

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