Out of the Easy in Take the Library Challenge!

Jul 28, 2013 Aaron rated it liked it

Josie Moraine is 17 years old, and her story is set in 1950 New Orleans. She has a unique take on what many consider to be America's height. It is clear when one reads the first couple of sentences of the book, in which she basically tells us her mother is a prostitute, but not the kind that walks the streets. Instead, Josie's mom works out of a brothel. Josie is even named after a well-known prostitute in the city.

Josie and her mom live in the brothel. While her mom seems to be seriously messed Josie Moraine is 17 years old, and her story is set in 1950 New Orleans. She has a unique take on what many consider to be America's height. It is clear when one reads the first couple of sentences of the book, in which she basically tells us her mother is a prostitute, but not the kind that walks the streets. Instead, Josie's mom works out of a brothel. Josie is even named after a well-known prostitute in the city.

Josie and her mom live in the brothel. While her mom seems to be seriously messed up and dating an abusive man, Josie seems to have been taken under the wing of the harsh brothel madam, Willie. In fact, Willie has offered to pay for Josie to attend one of the local colleges.

The problem is that Wilie is aiming for something else. She is doing everything she can to get away from the prostitute's life. Josie wants to go to college in Massachusetts, particularly after meeting a well-to-do teen girl who is down to visit her family in New Orleans.

Part of her attempts to get out of the Easy includes working at the local book store with her good friend Patrick. Many assume they are boyfriend and girlfriend, but they are keeping it just on the friend level. That is probably a good thing since she has her hands full with her aspirations, and Patrick has to deal with his father's mental illness.

Things become even more complex when a man ends up doing while he is with Josie's mother. While there is nothing to indicate that anything other than natural causes was at the root of his death, the death really highlights the class system that allows the men of the area to dally with the prostitutes while they ladies of the night are looked down upon by just about everyone.

The story spins through the various plots and subplots with skill. I do think that Sepetys has a talent for rich description and wonderful dialog. With that said, this is a teen novel, and I really don't see anything that has any real draw for teens in the storyline. It is a time that has little draw for them, and I don't know that they will really be drawn to a story about the daughter of a prostitute in the 1950s. Granted Josie is 15, but she reads like a 15 year old that is being read about by adults not by her peers from a future time.

I also have to admit that I would not have finished this one if I didn't have to for a committee I am on. It wasn't a bad book, but definitely not for me. ...more

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Jan 23, 2014 Sue rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya

Josie lives in New Orleans, but she knows she doesn't want to stay there. She is an ambitious 18 year old who wants to go somewhere where everyone doesn't know that she is a prostitute's daughter. She works hard at two jobs, saving money to get away, but everything seems to be working against her. When a customer at the bookstore is nice to her and then dies she gets drawn into the mystery of his death.

I liked the characters and the writing. I loved Sepetys' "Between Shades of Gray". This book d ...more

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Oct 22, 2013 Newport Librarians rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-fiction, ms-colleen

It's 1950 in New Orleans, and Josie lives in the Quarter where she works cleaning the house of the biggest madam in the area and at a local bookstore. Her mother is a prostitute and a thief, possibly a murderer, and all Josie wants in life is to go to school at Smith and become something - away from New Orleans. She is torn between her life and friends at home, and starting a new life for herself.

This is Sepetys second novel (her first, Between Shades of Gray, is just as amazing) and her writing ...more

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