First published 2021
Fern escapes into Soul Train to avoid her mother's addiction and rotating boyfriends. Gwin finds solace in Prince's music despite her church's disapproval. Jesenia excels at her gifted school, brilliant beyond her years. Their separate worlds collapse when Boss Man kidnaps all three, imprisoning them in a crumbling Queens house. Years later, rescue finally comes. Crowds gather on the street to stare and pretend they knew nothing. Miss Metropolitan stands among them, the local advice columnist who calls herself a newspaperwoman. She lives directly across from the house of horrors yet claims complete ignorance. Only two women emerge from captivity. The third girl remains missing. The survivors must navigate a new trauma as the public transforms them into symbols. They struggle to build lives while carrying their unrelenting past. The mystery of their missing friend weighs on them. Miss Metropolitan's willful blindness represents a community that failed them. The story moves between past and present, revealing how the ordeal began, unfolded, and continues to shape these women's lives.
Genres: fiction, drama, abuse, african-american, crime, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Queens, Soul Train
Period: Present, Past
432 pages · Kindle Edition · Henry Holt and Co.
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse, kidnapping, mental-illness