On Sale Date: February 14th 2017
Pages: 336
Age Range: Young Adult
Fabiola Toussaint and her mom have just landed in the USA. They have traveled from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Fabiola was born in the States but she and her mother moved back to Haiti when they where little. Now they move back in search of a better life, as their life in Haiti was getting harder, especially after the devastating earthquake.
But when they land in the USA, everything goes different as planned. Fabiola get's separated from her mom as her mom is put in a detention center and is denied entry into the country, because she earlier stayed in the country longer then her VISA allowed. Now Fabiola has to navigate and decide on her own what to do. She is picked up by her aunt and nieces from the airport, and as planned, she is going to stay at their house in Detroit. But her nieces are load and obnoxious, and soon she learns that her nieces also are involved in some serious bad things. Her new life at the corner of American Street and Joy Road is different then she expected, and she learns that her aunt paint a much better picture of the USA when they still lived in Haiti, as Detroit is a city in some sort of gone glory. Not the rich country she expected, but jobless people and buildings that fall apart and a lot of crime, shootings and drugs.n the family’s house on Detroit’s west side, Fabiola struggles to maintain her connection to the Haitian vodou of her heritage while striving to fit in and make a life of her own. Fabiola’s relationships with her cousins, new friends and love interest are strikingly poignant and raw, leaving her vulnerable to heartbreak and pain while she attempts to reunite with her mother.
For the most part, I enjoyed reading American Street. The storyline was good, and Fabiola was a well created main character. During the book the reader discovers where Fabiola's cousin's earn their money from; drugs.This leads to a heartbreaking part where Fabiola loses one of her new friends, who she recently started seeing, Kasim. There is also a private invastigator who Fabiola meets, somehow this woman knows everything about her mom's situation and wants to help her, if Fabiola gives her information about the boyfriends of one her nieces.
For most part the story continued on a nice pace, altough at the end it really slowed down and the story was slow and lacked pace, it really took to long to reveal the ending.
But overall it was an interesting read with a good storyline.
