AnonymityAuthor: Janna McMahan
Publication Date: January, 2013
Pubisher: Koehler Books
Book Description:
She’s not just a random homeless girl. Lorelei is street smart, elusive and manipulative. She’s a survivor, always on the move. Always one step ahead of the danger in her past.
Emily’s a hard-partying bartender in downtown Austin with problems of her own. When she meets a handsome reporter looking for a photographer, Emily volunteers her camera skills. As she follows him into the sordid world of gutter punks, Emily finds an unexpected friendship that will redefine her life. But Emily realizes too late that each of her attempts to help only puts her new friend in ever increasing peril.
Can she unravel the mystery of Lorelei’s past and find a way to protect her? Or would the girl be better off unknown and on her own? Anonymity is a gritty, harrowing account of young people who live life on the edge when all they really want is a safe place to call home.
Idgie Says:
This is a really heart-wrenching, but interesting, book to read. Janna did an incredible amount of research to write this book and it shows. The dirty hidden underworld of homeless teens is here for all to see. The sad part of it is how many of these kids aren't on the street for drugs, but for difficult home lives, lack of communication, poverty, abuse... so many things that a child shouldn't have to deal with.
Janna takes these truths and reasons and does an excellent job of incorporating them into a gripping fictional story that educates as well as entertains. Children are adaptable, and in this book so many of them have adapted very well to living on their own, on the edge of society....and dangerous situations.
Not a happy book, but one that adds that spark of humanity needed to help understand a part of society that perhaps we should give more than just a passing glance to as we walk by.
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Reviewed by Idgie. If you would like to have the Dew review a book, please contact me at dewonthekudzu@gmail.com