The Light on Halsey Street, source
Hi! Welcome to my blog where I will be reviewing books selected from theAmerican Library Association’s weekly planner for July 2023-December 2024. For my final book of the blog, I will be reviewing The Light on Halsey Street by Vanessa Miller.
**********SPOILERS AHEAD****************************
The book follows the lives of two childhood best friends, Lisa Whitaker, the pastor’s daughter, and Dana Jones, who has had a turbulent childhood.
Dana’s mother is a drug addict and is frequently unemployed causing the family to move as she cannot pay rent. Lisa and Dana remain friends in their Brooklyn, New York neighborhood until Lisa watches Dana and her friends rob a shoe store.
Lisa feels uncomfortable with the crowd Dana hangs out with and distances herself during their senior year of high school. Dana, without Lisa’s good influence, falls deep into a bad crowd.
Bed-Stuy Neighborhood Brooklyn, NY, source
Dana begins dating a guy from a rougher area who drags her further into this life of crime. He justifies his actions and Dana falls in love with him.
Dana spends time in rehabilitative centers for her behaviors. Once released, she begins making products to sell at local Brooklyn hair shops.
As she becomes wealthier and makes a name for herself, she sometimes runs into people she knew in high who have become drug addicts begging her for money on the streets.
Lisa enters adult life and stays living with her father in their Bed-Stuy apartment with her husband and daughter. She works as a director for a social services organization until identity theft steals her career away. She becomes very angry and resentful, determined to find whoever caused her this pain.
Lisa shifts from the positive Christian woman she has been since early childhood into a bitter woman mad that her career has become ruined. Her husband and father try to calm her and get her to be grateful for what she has.
Their lives cross throughout this identity theft scandal.
Testimonial, source
I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys books told from multiple perspectives and across different time periods. This book also covers topics such as drugs, friendships and consequences, even years in the future for actions. This was one of my favorite books I read this year and a perfect one to end the blog on. Overall, I would give The Light on Halsey Street by Vanessa Miller 9 out of 10 stars.