Let's Rave

Okay, so you know after you read an awesome book you feel like you need to scream it from the rooftops and give it to the person next to you on the subway? Yeah, well, I just had a moment like that with this book.

Drumroll please.....

Out of the Easy
By: Ruta Sepetys

Breakdown

This is a YA novel set in 1950's New Orleans, a town with the tagline "the big easy." See what she did there with the title, clever huh? It is the story of a girl named Jo who is struggling with deciding her future, and getting the heck out of Louisiana. She is the daughter of a prostitute who works at a brothel with a Madame that is more of a mother to Jo than her biological mom. Much of the story takes place at or around the brothel, mostly focused on her toxic relationship with mommy dearest and her mobster boy-toy. There are a few love interests, friendships, and as always, life altering decisions and dangerous midnight adventures that almost kill someone, and one night that actually does.

The reader is eased into the story but quickly taken on a wild ride through the lives of good people, bad people, and worse people, along the sidewalks of the French Quarter. Jo is an honest, endearing, and headstrong girl, and a kickass narrator. She is witty, sweet, and knows exactly what she wants, just not how to get it. Jo also finds love, not only romantic love, but family love and friendship. The characters are alive, literally jumping off the page, they also have good qualities as well as bad, making them actual humans, not like a lot of the bull characters that we see in books where everyone is either perfect, evil, or dead.

Much of the story uses the setting as its crutch, which is jazz-age Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, which was a hub of jazz, crime, and glamour. Sepetys does a flawless job making the reader feel like they're walking the streets of the French Quarter right next to Jo, describing everything accurately and eloquently, street signs and all.

The whole daughter-of-a-prostitute thing may seem a little offsetting, especially in a YA novel which are notorious for either too vague or WAY too descriptive sexual content, but this is a classy, yet informative book. There was no part that made me wince, or wonder, or totally grossed me out. Sepetys writes as though the reader is mature, which I think all YA readers appreciate. She doesn't cheat us of any imperative information, or drown us in tacky sexual innuendoes or situations. One of the things I love about this book is that every line was promoting they plot, there was no useless detail or awkward humor, simply beautiful, funny, reliable writing.

It'd been a while since I'd read a book that immediately sucked me in and held me tight, but when I picked this bad boy up, I was hooked. I remember starting this book sitting beside a pool, hot as heck, sipping a virgin Pina Colada, and ending it beside a pool, pitch black and cold outside, with an empty cup and full heart. This story made me so happy and tied up every thread of the story line, it was great. Especially after having just finished a boo-worthy book, this novel gave me the boost I needed and restored my then-fading faith in YA books.

I will always smile when I see this book in Barnes & Noble, recommend it to friends, and think about Jo when I drive through Louisiana. This story will stay near my heart and will touch yours too. I cannot rave enough about Out of the Easy. Put this sucker down on your summer reading list, it's a definite must, and one of my all time favorite YA books.

Seriously though, you should go get it, like, now.