Genre: YA Contemporary
Published: March 10, 2015 by Balzer + Bray
Length: 208 pages
Source: Balzer + Bray (ARC)
“What do you do if you’re in trouble?
When Michelle runs away from her drug-addicted mother, she has just enough money to make it to New York City, where she hopes to move in with a friend. But once she arrives at the bustling Port Authority, she is confronted with the terrifying truth: she is alone and out of options.
Then she meets Devon, a good-looking, well-dressed guy who emerges from the crowd armed with a kind smile, a place for her to stay, and eyes that seem to understand exactly how she feels.
But Devon is not what he seems to be, and soon Michelle finds herself engulfed in the world of child prostitution where he becomes her “Daddy” and she his “Little Peach.” It is a world of impossible choices, where the line between love and abuse, captor and savior, is blurred beyond recognition.
This hauntingly vivid story illustrates the human spirit’s indomitable search for home, and one girl’s struggle to survive.”
Little Peach was just WOW. Fast paced, beautifully written, eye-opening… this book should be read by everyone. The words just flowed smoothly and the main character, Michelle felt like she was talking to you. Everything was just executed well and I couldn’t ask for more. The author, Peggy Kern did a fantastic job writing this story and she definitely did her research with this topic. While reading the book, it clearly shows that the author put in hard work and effort to the characters, setting, and plot.
The characters felt SO REAL and that’s what I loved about it. Readers will probably wonder “why can’t they just run away” etc. and I think it’s because they feel so hopeless and they think although people will help them, they will still abandon them in the future. Prostitution is something that they can come back to so they feel like it’s a place “safe” enough as the main character says which is sick. Michelle mentions throughout the book that “Daddy”, the prostitution recruiter, will keep her safe because her own mother abandoned her.
This novel is just so sad because these teenagers and a 12 year old were being brainwashed by the “Bloods” (recruiters). Throughout the story, you could feel how Michelle and the other prostitutes want enough of this already but they can’t because that’s the way they know how to make a living. Overall it was a fantastic, heavy YA read and I recommend it to everyone mature enough to read this.
