My Book of Life by Angel
By Martine Leavitt
Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Poetry
Personal Rating: 10/10

This was an incredible read! I first herd about this book in my Young Adult Literature class and decided I absolutely had to get my hands on a copy. This book covers a very gritty and difficult subject, and it's written entirely in prose.

Angel was sixteen-years-old when she met Call at the mall--a young man who charmed her with free meals and the promise not to turn her in for steeling shoes. Eventually Call introduces Angel to his special "candy" which she becomes aggressively dependent on. Her father kicks her out of the house and she moves in with Call, not seeing who he really is until it was too late. As a favor he asks her to hook up with a few friends of his, and then a few more. Now Angel is trapped working the streets of Hastings and Main, a place where the girls of the street are slowly disappearing or showing up dead. Only once Call brings an eleven-year-old girl home and tells Angel to show her the ropes of the street, does Angel work up the courage to get her and the little girl away from Call.

This book offered a very unique perspective on a topic that is hard to read about.  Angel's story is very heart wrenching and full of themes about hope and forgiveness. Even though this book does center on prostitution, it was not a dirty book at all. The author wrote with minimal description in order to get the point across but not make the story nauseating. But I still would not recommend this book to anyone under sixteen, because of the topic. I loved books like this that are written in prose because it makes the story so much more powerful, in my opinion. It also makes this a very quick read.