Book Description:
Alessa is just seven years old when her uncle rapes her for the first time. As the years pass, his sexual appetite becomes more voracious and his perversion more twisted, until the abuse has become almost a daily ritual, with the unspoken involvement of the girl’s mother.
At the age of sixteen, after the death of her only friend, Alessa finds herself at the mercy of her real-life monster, with no relief in sight. She flees her home to escape this hell, only to find herself descending into a more dangerous one. Alone and helpless in the streets of North Philadelphia, she encounters more human predators who want to take over her life and devour her. About to hit rock bottom, Alessa manages to break away from her new tormentors and finds refuge in a shelter for homeless and abused women.
Wherever she goes, however, trouble keeps seeking her out, until she meets three people who change the course of her life forever. Though Alessa’s bittersweet journey is perpetually fraught with challenges, she does, nevertheless, manage to find fleeting moments of joy along the way. But as she begins to settle down, a ghost from the past comes to haunt her again, threatening to destroy the very foundation of her small world and plunging her back into an abyss of despair, until she makes her final bid for escape.
Now that I've said that, onto my review... This was NOT an easy book to read. Not because it was poorly written or anything, but because of the nature. This book starts off with Alessa getting raped by her uncle when she's merely 7 years old (and it's VERY graphic). I was appalled, but couldn't stop reading. I got drawn in because I wanted to know if she finally stood up to her uncle & her mother (who knew it was going on but turned a blind eye).
Alessa's uncle rapes her on an almost nightly basis until she's 16 when her best friend gets murdered & she runs away after her uncle basically tells her he's going to pimp her out to some of his poker buddies while her mom is away for the weekend. Her best friends mom helps her get away & she goes to Philly. Things are starting to look up for her until she gets raped again & then gets "owned" by a gang leader (Harlin) after he saves her (his sister became friends with Alessa). He pimps her out at a local dance club & then tries to turn her into a prostitute after she gets fired.. She runs away when she's supposed to meet her John.
After running away a second time, she gets her life turned around some more & is starting to do better. She goes to a woman's shelter where she meets Ebby, a woman who becomes her best friend. Harlin finds out where she is & she lies to Ebby about going to another shelter, but instead lives on the streets where she ends up "adopting" a little girl named Lucy whose parents abandoned her when she was little. Alessa ends up getting brutally raped & beaten one night after begging the guys to take her instead of Lucy (their intended target). Alessa needs physical therapy after that & that's where she meets Remo, a guy that really helps turn her life around & accepts her past.
I think I need to stop the review right there because if I go any further then I'll really ruin the book for anyone that wants to read it. I will say that this book takes an extremely emotional turn towards the end & I actually had tears in my eyes reading it. It's very rare when a book makes me get emotional (I threw my Harry Potter book when she killed off Sirius), but this one did.
Like I said, this book shouldn't be read by anyone under 18, but that's my opinion.
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