At the Edge of the Haight

Full review to come ...

At The Edge Of The Haight is a new adult fiction novel that is sadly very realistic. Katherine Seligman does not provide answers or solutions. Seligman showcases the lives of homeless people in San Francisco, California in the section called The Haight.

I would like to say that I have no experience with this lifestyle, but I do. Seligman does not address families living on the street, but the young people who end up there. In graphic detail Seligman describes the harsh environment and the hunger. There is nothing pretty about living on the streets, but for some there is no other choice. Seligman utilizes Maddie, Ash, Fleet, Hope, Root, and Shane to showcase some of the “whys” and in Shane's case sometimes you will never know why. For many outsiders, they cannot accept not knowing or even the knowing. Seligman does not shy away from this dichotomy.

There are no heroes in At The Edge Of The Haight. There are just kids trying to control their own lives in this way. Some do not do well inside of four walls and feel trapped. Fleet is one of these souls and is actually my favorite character. Fleet is steadfast yet lost at the same time. I have seen many people on the street who are very similar to her.

The Haight is slow-paced and told from Maddie's point of view. Seligman does not make her wise or even incredibly foolish. Maddie is just another person escaping her past life of being invisible. Her mother has mental health issues and the last Maddie sees of her she is in a half-way house. Maddie's father disappeared when she was very young. Maddie lived with her cousins until she graduated high school and then she left Los Angeles and went to San Francisco. A place she didn't know and with no one she knew living there. She found the nearest park to sleep and there began her new life at eighteen-years-old.

There is no huge drama. Seligman just shows the reality of the now. At The Edge Of The Haight gives readers a glimpse into some of the mindsets of those you may step over as you walk down the street. Read this book and illuminate your world with the souls living in The Haight.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

This was a powerful story following Maddy, a homeless 20-something who hangs around with her other homeless friends in Golden Gate Park. You get a detailed picture of their lives and how they manage to make do despite hardship. While walking her dog, Root, Maddy becomes witness to a crime, upending the dull but predictable life she had lived until then.

I've never been homeless or lived anywhere with a large homeless population, so I appreciated the detail the author included about how Maddy and her friends lived. I really felt like I got to know them and their lives, their associates, their hangouts, where they go for food, their interactions with cops and tourists. I liked the insight into Maddy's thoughts, and the motives for why her and her friends are on the street. It was a nice look at a subsection of the population I don't know much about.

On the other hand, I felt like the plot the author was trying to tell alongside this snapshot of homeless life fell flat. I don't understand what switched in Maddy's head to go from actively avoiding anything involving the crime to becoming a junior detective on the street. I didn't like some of the characters, particularly the ones involved with the crime. I also somewhat didn't like Maddy turning her nose up at all the opportunities the author wrote into the narrative for her to change her life, and actively encouraged her friends to do the same. Maybe it's a product of the homeless mentality, I don't know. The book also just....ends. There's no real conclusion to Maddy's story, which I guess we're meant to just infer as being the same as it always had been.

In short, the writing is really well done, but the story woven by that writing just isn't compelling. That, coupled with unlikeable characters and motives prevented me from rating this much higher.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.