Welcome to Litsy!

"My cousin shifted his feet awkwardly, the judge looking down at him with narrowed eyes, swathed in those crazy fucking robes they wear that make them look like giant babies more than anything else."

"The guy looked tired and overwhelmed, shuffling the papers he'd pulled out of his briefcase around like someone had woken him up in the middle of the night for a rousing game of UNO."

"Driving into town, I could see the exit for I-70 on my right. I thought briefly about the exit and what it would be like to get on it, to keep going. To stop somewhere nobody knew me and start over. But that was what people did in the movies."
Mood.

"He looked so drunk he made me feel drunk."

"His mother looked at me and then closed her eyes as if she'd taken a bite of something rotten and was too classy to spit it out."

"“I thought you were going to start dinner?” she said, looking exhausted, her button-down white blouse wilted like an old flower about to rot away and blow into the wind."

An intense, compelling book about a 16-year-old mixed race Apache, Chickasaw, and Cherokee young woman's harsh reality of poverty, teen pregnancy, and drug dealing. But there's also heart and hope in this book. Wurth refuses to solidify stereotypes and to provide easy answers. Instead she shows other unexpected options where Margaritte carves her own path. Some gorgeous writing. #NativeReads

"It was dark and I felt dark, ominous, like somehow all of this was my fault and I was about to spoil everything. I felt like a rotten, stupid thing."
No, it's your boyfriend who's a rotten stupid thing for saying he doesn't like condoms and swearing he never got pregnant with his last girlfriend and they never used condoms. Arg!! #NativeReads

"I was pretty high myself, and felt like I was sitting on the edge of a lake, the sun setting hard and fast, like it wasn't the sun at all, but a wild, terrible stranger who was ready to take me down with him into the dark."
#NativeReads

#booktober diverse books! Crazy Horse's Girlfriend took me a bit to get into but by the second half I was hooked. It's about a teenage Native American girl who is trying to find a way out of her stressful family situation and make a better life for herself. She did a great job building the main character, I really felt for the girl. The author is Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee. I hope the author writes a sequel someday! @RealLifeReading

This is a very quick but very intensely emotional and, at times, disturbing read about a teenage Native American girl who deals drugs to save for college and gets pregnant at 16. It provides a very salient look at alcoholism, abuse, teen pregnancy and motherhood, poverty, and a host of other issues.

Trying to finish my book for my diverse YA lit book club on this beautiful Sunday. I have a loooooong way to go! This is a gritty and raw read.