Amazon.com Review
"We used to sit on the playground and plan our weddings, tracing long flowing white gowns in the sand with sticks. Then, in sixth grade--I can't remember the day it happened--a stone rolled in front of our futures. We dropped the sticks and our dreams and started planning our funerals instead." This sad, resigned voice, wise beyond her teen years, is that of Kata, a girl who has just lost her best friend, Ana, to gang violence. Ana and Kata, inseparable since fourth grade, are on their way home from winning another underground dance competition, when Ana reveals she is pregnant. Although Ana is worried about her mother's reaction, both girls know this is good news--now she can finally "face out" and escape the gang life in which the two have become hopelessly entangled. Moments later, Ana is killed in a drive-by shooting, and Kata must cope with the loss of her other half ("it took two of us to make one person"), as well as her helpless, alcoholic mother, her murderous hunger for revenge against Ana's killers, and her desire to leave gang life forever.
Lynne Ewing, author of Drive-By, an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, spins a harrowing, captivating tale with Party Girl, which paints a clear picture of gang life with lovely, mesmerizing prose. Ewing's sense of drama is exquisite, and the realism is enhanced by her incorporation of Spanish, Quechua, and gang lingo into the dialogue. As readers live through Ana's struggles, they may be inspired to think more deeply about what lies beneath the tough exteriors of hardened gang members. For example, consider Ana's haunting recollection: "Sometimes when I was a little girl, I would play with my mother's hand, pretending her hand was a doll. She'd let me hold the hand, kiss the fingers, cuddle the arm while she drank her beers and smoked with her free hand and talked to dark men." While the ending may feel a bit too tidy for cynics, the final message of hope is a welcome relief after this grim, eye-opening walk on the wild side. (Ages 12-16) --Brangien Davis
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
What begins as a fascinating first-person account of life through the eyes of a female L.A. gang member rapidly unravels due to undeveloped characters and a dangling story line. Kata and Ana have been inseparable since fourth grade. Now 14, the two routinely escape from their homes at night to enter a world of sensual dance contests in abandoned warehouses as a team called "Outrageous Chaos." One night, after taking the top prize, the pair sneak across turf lines and Ana is killed by a rival gang. Now the gang is after Kata. While Ewing (Drive-By) effectively draws readers into the teenagers' world, she often breaks with Kata's narrative to fill in the facts ("Some [girls] even tried to get pregnant... so they could face out, quit the gang life and collect their welfare"). Kata's relationships with other characters go unexplored (e.g., an explanation for Kata's strange tie to Pocho, Ana's boyfriend, at the end of the book seems tacked on; Kata's alliance with her gang is never developed). And the visions that earn her the name "Dreamer" are poorly integrated into the novel. But perhaps of most concern is Kata's pronouncement, "I quit the life," with no explanation of how she will dodge Ana's killers, who are still in pursuit of her. Ages 14-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
