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Title: Brooklyn Streets Meet Wall Street
Author: James Jimmy Richardson
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:

"Brooklyn Streets Meet Wall Street

My Thoughts....

I found this read 'interesting, riveting, entertaining. thought provoking with plenty of drama' that will keep you turning the pages to see what will be coming next for Josh Robinson in this urban fiction read. It was a good read about this African American whose dream came true for him as he is given a chance to work with financial investments on 'Wall Street' and getting most of all what he wanted in life and that was wearing a suit. However, in doing so Josh will be presented with some 'mistakes, struggles and tough choices' before he is able to get to where he wants to be in life. This author does a good job in giving the reader a good description of how it was to grow up in Brooklyn, NY really poor having to struggle very hard making it, with crime being all around dealing with murder, drugs that seem to bring out a hard world of violence. How was Josh able to be away from all of the violence that was around him and have the life he really wanted? To find out the answers to that question and so much more you will have to pick up this novel to see how well this author brings it all out to the readers. The reader will be given a well developed, portrayed and with believable characters that will keep one entertained in this well written story of 'high finance and even a sweet romance.'

I'm not normally one for witch stories, but these are brujas. I have to admit that I don't see a lot out there that mix magical realism with Latinx characters, so I just had to give this one a shot and I'm so glad that I did. The reviews of several other book bloggers, particularly diverse book bloggers may have helped too.

That blurb doesn't really begin to tell the reader the half of it. Don't get me wrong,  I don't expect spoilers in the blurb, but simply saying that she hates magic is a little off, in my opinion. She hates magic in that Elsa from Frozen kind of way. She's not ridding herself of a measly amount of power that isn't all that useful anyway or some part of herself that she doesn't feel like she identifies with. She's ridding herself of the dangerous power that she feels overwhelming her ability to control it and out of fear of what might happen were she to lose control. Sure, there are some other reasons in there and they are perfectly understandable 'I wanna be a normal girl' reasons, but I feel like those would have been manageable if not under the colossal weight of her power.

The setup is done well and I felt like I had a good grasp of the characters and where everyone stood when the plot took off. Then there's Los Lagos and the insanity ensues. I enjoyed the darkness of it. Rather than Wonderland, which is what the back cover uses, I found Los Lagos reminded me of Oz. There is an order to things, no matter how unsettling they are and the inhabitants know what that order is. Moreover, each one is just trying to do the best they can within their circumstances in much the same way as the inhabitants of Oz. they have their own motivations that are not tied to our protagonist which makes them a bit unpredictable to her and to the reader.

The worlds that stories take place in are one of my favorite parts of reading, it's why I tend to lean toward paranormal and science fiction and one of the things that's been a new joy to historical fiction. I loved the world building of this book. It's not just Los Lagos but also the world building to create this community of brujas and integrate them into Brooklyn. It's beautifully done.

I look forward to the next installment!

The story is good, but it's really the writing that makes it magnificent.

The book is written in a wistful sort of way and kind of rambles sometimes and keeps the reader in that feeling of being in her stream of consciousness. Its poetic in the way that it discusses some of the harder topics, like the denial we can experience in childhood about what's going on in the world or that hides truths we can't handle yet. I loved the way her mind wandered sometimes from one thing to another and how it effected the way that she remembered things.

Most of all, I love that it was a true story of the lives of girls. Each girl is different, but they all go through those things that all girls go through. They deal with those things that we deal with and Woodson uses that poetic style to include these things without dwelling on them or having to describe them in unnecessary detail. Her writing lets you really feel the story in a way that is unusual. I appreciate writing in a way that walks the reading through that feeling of things we remember rather than life as it happens. I also enjoyed this way of writing with The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness.

The path of each girl wasn't unexpected, though I didn't know which would go which way and there were several others to choose from. This is just the way of things, down to the ways they drifted together and apart. This will be one of those books that could easily be used to describe the way of life at the time it is set. I wouldn't even say specifically for the place that it was set because the lives of the girls are relatable to just about every group of girls I've ever known. It's late 20th century America in the city. There are some truths that may keep it out of high school classrooms, but I could easily see it brought into the college American Literature class. I would certainly use it. This and her memoir written in poetry, Brown Girl Dreaming.