At the Edge of the Haight

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.