This is my review of the book Brooklyn by Tracy Brown. I have a huge collection of books and I think I have about four books by Tracy Brown. This is the first one that I picked up. Let me first say that the way this book started out was the way a good movie plays out. You get the ending before you get all the meat and potatoes. I can really appreciate that, especially if just starting a book with too many details distracts you as it does me. It takes away from the book. This way, I am automatically sucked in.
Anyway, this book is about a young sixteen year old girl who grew up in Staten Island, NY. She is the middle child and first daughter of a pastor and his wife who loves her role as First Lady. As you can tell, just mentioning her parents professions as someone being in raised in the church this book was gonna take us on a wild ride. Well, if you thought that…you are absolutely right!
At this point, if you have not read this book…stop reading and go read it. This is a fascinating book and it also intrigues me to know what other people thought of the book. If we have the same impressions, what do you think should have been done? Favorite characters, favorite scene, just everything in general. I want to know. So since I posed these questions to you. I will also answer and give my complete opinion of things.
I also want to mention that I do have a video posted on my YouTube page (https://youtu.be/jEpfFf8MTu0)…be sure to check it out.
My first impression of the book was, I loved the way it started out. It gave me the ending without spoiling the book but also drew me in to want to find out how we got here. Once I started reading (first chapter really), I was intrigued with the way Brooklyn thought. I immediately went back to a sixteen year old girl and what I was doing and thinking. Now, wasn’t raised in the church like that, we went to church from time to time and I am very familiar with God but it was not to the extreme that Brooklyn and her siblings were intertwined. I can understand wanting to do the right thing and also being so curious that its hindering to want to wait two more years to explore the world. She had nothing to stimulate her search for more. I feel Brooklyn was so spontaneous and curious that it kind of got her hemmed up in a bad way. Had her parents given her some freedom to explore more things or even have extracurricular activities she would have been in a much better place than she found herself in.
My favorite character in the book…hmm, thinking about this so many months after I read it I would say Brooklyn in some ways. I think the fact that she was ambitious. She got into a lot of trouble but she had a fearlessness about her. Now, when I think about some of the things she did, I do think she was not the smartest student in the class and a lot of it was because she was so sheltered. There were several parts of the book that broke my heart. The part where her mother was basically “Mommy Dearest” and also when things happened with her brother (that dad…whew, and he was a preacher). I am telling you without telling you exactly what happened if you haven’t noticed). I want you to go read it!
I think there was a lot to dissect in this book and the fact that there was not a perfect character in it…kind of like real life. In my opinion I could see this happening in real life. It was just a lot. I felt bad for Brooklyn by the end of the story; although by that time everything that happened was pretty much self inflicted. The same reason she ran away from home at sixteen was the same reason that got her in her ultimate situation. Ambition and no real plan…also scheming. Gots to be more careful.
