Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in a quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.
With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.
Author: Ruta Sepetys (Website, Twitter, Facebook)
Publisher: Philomel Books
Buy online: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Book borrowed from the national library
(Actual) Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Out of the Easy is the most anticipated second novel by Ruta Sepetys. Basically, the story is in a girl's points of view taking us in how her world of chaos revolves around her. Josie Moraine who is a daughter of a brothel prostitute, Louise Moraine. Josie's (Jo) hope is to attend one of the prestigious college in the East, Smith. However, the path to where she would like the road she pursue in getting seems not in her favor. Moreover, impossible to achieve. The expenses are inarguable and costly. With her mother not being there, all left alone to go on her own way and worst case scenario - her mother taking every assets and everything away from her.
Will you bounce back and fight for what is right or are you going to live lifeless and knee-bend all the while when people toss you around like a puppet they see in you? Is there a way to get out of situation where everything that surrounds you are chaotic, tranquility loss in life, endless of problems and lies? Will you back down or are you the type of person who is filled with courage even without seen by anyone, is alone in control of what they want in life?
I surprisingly didn't shed a tear because the character herself is one steel tough that I ought be like. The author did a story that is inspiring and real.
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anyone else these pages must show."
I just realized that in whichever way you come from, in life, there's no easy way out of things but experience them, learn, grow, and move on. I learned it the hard way too that's probably why I can relate and I really find the book cover appealing! The context or situation of how the book is going to be like, can be well be predicted or guess just by analyzing it. It's relevant and in my opinion, that's really a good catch to readers! The book cover had given me an idea how I wrote the photo essay I had to do last week. I will share it with you how I did the write up and I'll post the photo at the end of the review.
"Decisions, they shape our destiny."
It's a mixed of many different characteristic traits that I absolutely enjoyed reading because each character is unique just everyone of are. My favorite characters would be Willie.
Willie is the madame of the brothel. Though you might have to judge her pretty in an instance however once we get to the bottom of who she really is, she is not really the type of madame that most of us would probably have imagined - insensitive. She is not insensitive. She can be sarcastic and naggy but that's only her way to earn the attention of her employees - to remind them that she is the boss, is why she's behaving towards them quite strictly. Perhaps, she wants the best for them too but she can't be too emotional in front of them. Moreover, working hard in their work is their necessity as it would be a win-win situation for all of them. Willie's also straight forward and honest. Whatever she's thinking, she'll blurt it out not behind your back but truly right at you. No lies. I like that she is trustworthy and softhearted in the inside too. You can count on her, whatever it is.
"They got everything that money can buy, their bank accounts are fat, but they ain't happy. They ain't ever gone be happy. ..."
We all know that one of the definitions of resilience is "capable of returning to an original shape or position". In this photo: apparently, the girl is in a cell/cage and a boy attempting to get the the girl out of the cell/cage.
The cell/cage represents the life the girl had spend behind the iron bar, one that has its limitations. Until the girl came to a point where she holds on to the iron bar that could be she will not let anything dragging her down even more. She still has left hope for beyond her struggles. She endures the hurt and griefs she felt.
The little boy, her only friend from the other side is one who is also an optimistic that he is determined to help his friend out of the misery life his friend is going through.
Even though we faced the biggest storms ahead of us whether we get tossed around - we should not let these difficulties bring us down but to always bounce right back in life!
The only thing that needs improvement is that me looking at the camera, because me posing looking down like that could mean another thing - "giving up" or the hope is not there anymore. Oh well. Maybe in the next photo essay we're assign in, I'll remind myself to have a clearer vision of what I really want to project out through photographs and get it right eventually. I'm still not certain whether the title of the essay is appropriate. Guess I'll leave it that way for now. Also because I know there is somehow resilience in friendships.
Before I end this review, it's absolutely different from the first novel Ms Sepetys had written. I love the idea of getting the readers into a thrilled ride and some kind of mystery solving along when I reading. It was really a pleasant read.
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