Mommy's Angel

Miasha, . . Touchstone, $14 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-4248-3

Angel is a 15-year-old growing up in Brooklyn with a mother who's hooked on heroin, while Marvin, Mom's boyfriend, supplies the dope and sexually abuses Angel. After Angel's brother Curtis is killed in a drive-by, Angel gets a job at a strip club in order to feed her sister and baby brother and keep the family afloat. When the strip club is raided, Angel must decide whether to prostitute herself to make ends meet. Miasha keeps things moving at a fast clip, but the basic empathy and understanding that pervade are the story's real appeal. Miasha (Secret Society ; Diary of a Mistress ) never loses sight of the basic humanity of all the lost souls that surround Angel. (June)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Joseph Earl Thomas

The magnificent first novel from Thomas (Sink, a memoir) centers on an Iraq War veteran who works in a Philadelphia emergency room. Joey, who grew up in poverty, relies on Continue reading »

Briony Cameron

Cameron debuts with an exciting and multidimensional story inspired by the women pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the 17th century. Jacquotte Delahaye, who is of Haitian and Continue reading »

Marcela Fuentes

Fuentes debuts with the astonishing story of two malas, or women who challenge traditional Mexican gender norms. The year is 1951 and Pilar Aguirre, who is eight months pregnant Continue reading »

Scott Preston

Preston’s blistering debut takes place in the farthest reaches of northern England, on “cloud-eaten” fells battered by wind and inhabited mostly by sheep. There’s nothing much Continue reading »