[Subdue] Halsey Street by Naima Coster - 3 stars

[Jen K]

Penelope is living a bit of a lackluster life in Pittsburgh. She bartends and paints/ draws for herself, occasionally going home with the another bartender but not always. When her dad gets drunk and falls again outside the local bar in Bed-Stuy impacting is already deteriorating health, she feels guilty enough to go back to the neighborhood to look after him as her mother, Mirelle, left him after the earlier, more serious fall.

The story is of family relationships and their larger impact on life. Both Penelope and Mirelle and even her father struggle with what their childhood could have been and feeling a bit owed by how their childhood actually was. All the characters were fairly awful and it was hard to feel for any of them and so many choices seemed a bit odd or out of place, especially the ending. She did do the father/ daughter relationship fairly well and it felt quite true but it was a difficult story.