I'm surprised that this book hasn't been more widely reviewed. The story was an interesting overview of the challenges abused and neglected children face in the juvenile justice and foster system. It read like a memoir and was engaging but sad to read about the obstacles Nadine faced. Although it's written for a younger audience (grades 8-12), I found it interesting.

Such a beautiful book! This novel read like a memoir and it gripped me with Nadine's difficult circumstances right from page one. All of the characters were nuanced and well-drawn, particularly Nadine herself and her little sister. I liked the realistic depiction of the complex social worker / justice system that Nadine had to jump through to reclaim her life from her emotionally and physically abusive mother and stepfather. I loved that there were many people (cops, social workers, teachers etc) whose compassion came at just the right time. This book is a must-read for anyone who would like some insight into what kids mired within the welfare system have to overcome.

Thanks, Netgalley!

This was such a beautiful book!
To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.

This book tells us the story of Nadine, a girl who takes on the role of her sibling's caretaker at the same time she tries do be good but no too perfect in order to escape from her mother's abuse. Stuck with an abusive mother, a boyfriend of her mom who keeps a lot of the welfare money to himself, and a situation that doesn't allow her to be her true self and focus as much in school as she wants, she has to run away.

Nadine's story is heartbreaking, and it is so important for everyone to be aware that this type of situation is so present everywhere and we should always try to better the lives of these families. Nadine as a character really grew on me, and I think is impossible for anyone to read this book and not feel affection for her. I loved to see her grow from a pre-teen to an older person - a child, nonetheless, who had to endure so many things. Nadine is very intelligent and smart - I loved the details about her having a list with her new words - and also a bit impulsive, just like any child! Sometimes Nadine is annoying, dramatic even, and that's what makes this book so good - Nadine's portrayed as a real child, who is not perfect, who sometimes doesn't know who to react, who is afraid...We feel the same frustrations as her, the same happiness as her, we root for her throughout this whole story. In the end, Nadine regains the control of her life, but while also having to make many sacrifices regarding her education and family. This ending - not too happy nor to sad - turns this book even more realistic, because in real life many ending aren't as happy as we wished.

Regarding the writing - it was simple and easy to read. I liked the dialogue and the breaks when Nadine thought about the words she had learnt. It captivated me and I read the book in 2 days.

The main thing I would have love to see was a smoother transition between the years while she grew, and I wanted to see more of her relationship with her siblings after leaving her biological mother's house - in a way, it felt as if she just forgot them a bit, but I do understand the difficult position she was in.

Regarding mistakes/formatting, there were some typos and some misplaced commas, and in some pages the dialogue of two different characters were in the same line, which sometimes made the reading a bit harder.

Also regarding the cover, I think a more modern look (examples: with minimalist drawings instead of real photos - as in covers like Evie Dunmore's USA covers) would help in catching people's attention to this great book!

First, from the standpoint of “Nadine” evaluated as a novel, the author made a very believable setting with characters to fit in a likewise very believable plot. She makes you cringe with the hard-scrabble events that take place in this city setting since you know they happened to many thousands of Americans at that time—and previously—and still do to this day. The realism is a real strength of this book.

However, the main strength is not the literary aspects, but like so many well-informed writers before her, the author has a social and political message to deliver as well: our nation’s children are suffering needlessly through no fault of their own and there are solutions to this that are achievable. And the book is an exposition of how that can be achieved. Since that seems to be the purpose of the book’s existence, the main evaluation that should be given here is of how that goal is delivered.

Intended audience
At first, it seems that the author is trying to reach everyone—from kids in similar situations and the parents involved to people who are skeptical of paying for public services, and many others involved in the various roles she has introduced—but there is a difficulty with that. If the intended audience is too broad, the effectiveness of the story can be diluted. For kids interested in Nadine’s, or her siblings’ situation, the story is quite long. Even though they may identify with her in many ways, many will want to just find out what Nadine did to escape, how she found a way forward and forget the rest. However, I strongly encourage them to stick with Nadine to the end—even skipping over some of the detail that slows things down for them, if needed. The reward at the end is worth it.

For parents, greater understanding of Nadine’s problems made is possible by the excellent characterization presented. Parents who keep an open mind, and even find identification with some aspects of the adult characters, can find reminders of how their actions can affect their children. Regardless of one’s relationship with their children, the story presents an opportunity for us all to gain a better understanding of how cycles of misunderstanding can start, and be repeated through generations.

I think the greatest audience potential is for those members of society who are not personally involved in situations such as Nadine and her family. This means two groups of people: those involved in social services and the voters who make choices on support for social services. Readers who are social service personnel of all types will greatly appreciate the author’s positive presentation of their jobs and how they carry them out. Citizens who vote on whether or not to support such social services—directly monetarily or through elected representatives—are probably the greatest audience that the book has the potential to reach: in both numbers and the ability to allocate funds. And I highly suspect this was the author’s primary intended focus.

Plot
Nadine and all other characters are well-developed through first-person narration. The author knows the real-life characters very well and presents their fictional counterparts believably—likewise with the settings. Those fiction essentials are very well done. I do have some issues with the plot, however, and I believe these are tied to the author’s seeming goal of trying to reach a broad audience.

The overall plot is good, and even inspiring regarding Nadine’s struggle to control her life, especially in the vivid home scenes. At places, though, the pacing becomes bogged down with detail that makes the reader want to get on to the next scene and not lose the momentum that the author has developed.

One of these places is with the processes of social services that are detailed. I get that the author wishes the reader to understand what is involved: how tedious it can be but that it is necessary to protect the children, and that it does work. However, getting that understanding across shouldn’t jeopardize reader patience, otherwise, the message won’t get delivered. The character of Nadine could easily summarize much of this in her thoughts, such as by giving a detailed example of one instance, to vent her frustration with the whole process, and then moving on (some of this is done by the author, but more is needed).

The same observation and suggestions hold especially for the details about the educational element of processing the children for appropriate placement. It is an essential part of the narrative and is a goal of the author for the reader to know that this is available for children in need. Yet, Nadine can do a lot of thinking as she is processed through the system and reflect upon what the result is for her siblings. Her character can be used extensively here to summarize how she feels about it all (the author has already laid the groundwork for this to be done more extensively).

If the author wishes to address a broad audience, then, reducing excessive detail by having Nadine summarize or dismiss much of it in her mind will improve the pacing and keep the message of the book forefront for those readers less willing to wade through all the detail. Otherwise, the audience will be more limited. It all depends on what the author intends.

Other Issues
Nadine’s reflection about words as an aside to her character is good, for the first few times, but after that, it gets intrusive to the narrative flow. Maybe some thought by Nadine when she makes the last aside that she will continue to work on words—and leave it at that—would be good. Later on in the story, when she makes reference to her notebooks of words, etc, it is enough to get the point across that she is still doing her thing and is an exceptional kid because of her curiosity.

In quick dialogue exchanges, the author puts the two speakers' sentences into the same paragraph, which makes it confusing as to who is saying what. The standard is for each speaker to have a separate paragraph, regardless of how short their sentence; that should be adhered to and would help a lot.

There are a few typos of an extra space before commas and sentences broken into two lines because the paragraph break was wrongly placed. These can easily be found and corrected.

Also, since people do judge a book by its cover, something visually more dramatic or symbolic might add to persuading potential readers to look further.

In general, then, the entire novel is a sensitive exposition of how children feel about the challenges of living in a family broken by similar, or worse, previous situations of their parents’ family life—the consequences of which are passed down through generations, unless society as a whole makes interventions to stop the spiral of repetition. It is a story well worth reading, understanding and acting upon.

(This review was made possible by an ARC copy provided by Netgalley for an honest opinion.)

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publishers of this book, for a complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Nadine in the Tenderloin would have benefitted with a round of editing: minor changes in grammar, spelling, consistency etc. The protagonist’s characterisation could use some work too, as her behaviour in crises changes from time to time, and some tweaks could result in a very well-rounded novel.
The plot is somewhat meandering but enchanting the entire time. You can’t not read it. I enjoyed the writing (accents in novels are usually not my thing, and it took me a while to get accustomed to it, but it sat well at the end of the day). Somewhere towards the middle of the novel, I felt the writing and the depth of the characters dip a bit, but it recovered soon enough.
While we’re at it, I personally feel the cover and blurb could use some work too. I also really wish Nadine would stop ‘bursting into tears’ all the time.
Nadine really comes to life, as her reactions to the world around her and towards Marina and Ted reflect her experiences with her mother: take, for instance, the fear that she will be kicked out if she does anything wrong or her willingness to accept that a new child would replace her. While her fears make her more polite and flexible to change, the origins of these seemingly “good” behaviours lie in her insecurities and instinct that she will always be a last priority, and that she can never be truly comfortable, or truly herself, around other people.
As the book follows Nadine over a significant period of time, and that too during her adolescence, I felt that an increase in her maturity would have reflected well. I liked that her habit of picking up new words petered out gradually as she incorporated them into her everyday vocabulary, and that this habit would slowly die out as she progressed in school and felt challenged by her academic work.
About the ending, <spoiler> it felt bittersweet to me. Nadine deserved a happier childhood and adolescence. Her teenage years ended too soon, with her having to support herself and move out at such a young age just to be free of her mother. Though it was technically a happy ending, I couldn’t help but feel a little heartbroken for Nadine. </spoiler>
Nadine is an excited, slightly rash, highly intelligent, and mildly annoying child, but this is what is important: that throughout the book, she is just a child. I came away from this book having questioned many things, but one thing I was sure of was my affection for Nadine.