The book of my choice was White Lines, by Tracy Brown. To my surprise there were several different things that I liked about this book. From the end to the beginning I was unable to keep it closed. There were several incidents that could’ve ended the main character, Jada’s, life. All of the characters actions were incredibly believable because things that occurred in the novel are things that happened to regular people on a regular basis. I believe that I could be friends with anyone of the people described because a few of them are people that seem like they’d be there for you no matter what.
There was more than one important incident in the novel. The first incident was when Jada was the eight months pregnant, and she sat in a hotel room and snorted cocaine for three days straight. I feel that this was the most important incident because she had really reached rock bottom, after the several lows she had already put herself through. After she gave birth to her son and she saw the horrible condition she and her son were in, she finally noticed what she did. What this incident did for Jada was it made her turn her life around. After she was released from prison, she tried as hard as she could to get custody of her son, get back her mother back into her life, and go back to school to get a better education. The best part of the situation was that she accomplished everything she tried. She got full custody of her son, became the best of friends with her mother, became a writer at an independent women’s magazine, and finally got her life settled and back on track.
I believe that main character’s actions were believable because the things that occurred in the book happen to millions of people around the world on a daily basis. I think that when Jada’s mother caught her having sex with Mr. Charlie, is an unfortunate situation that people get caught in all the time. When she was amazingly in love with Born and she relapsed on the cocaine and actually lost Born to her addiction. I know a person that she was addicted to marijuana, and had access to it because her boyfriend sold it and she stole money from him. Once her boyfriend found out that not only was she stealing his “products,” but she was also stealing his money. After they spent days fighting over the situation they split up and she was left broken without anywhere to go. After she dealt with all of her hardships, she finally got back on her feet and was able to salvage her life.
There are several people that I would love to have as a friend in my life. The one character that I connected with was Sunny. I didn’t connect with her through the things she had, but by her personality. She was there every step of the way towards the end of Jada’s ordeal with crack. Sunny was there when Jada was going through her custody battle and she was even the one to take care of the one “problem” Jada had in her custody issue. Jada was there for Sunny when she lost the love of her life, and Sunny was there when Jada lost the love of her life. I would be friends with Sunny because of the fact that she’s an upbeat person that is full of life and is there to give a push when needed.
After reading this book, I would love to read several more novels by Tracy Brown. If I had to grade this book I would give it an A+. This is the most real and down to Earth book that several people could relate to on several different levels. Some people could relate to this book and some people that have read this book could’ve changed their lives.