I was really impressed by this one. It’s a coming-of-age story which, despite the title, is far more about sex than about race. A woman decides her boyfriend is too interested in her 13 year old daughter. Rather than dump the boyfriend, she sends the girl to live across the country with her ex-husband. There, she gets very into masturbating and then SPOILER ALERT is raped by the 37 year old man next door.
What makes it successful is that nothing here is black-and-white. For example, the father, despite he sometimes hits the girl, is somehow not portrayed as a monster. The girl thinks she has a crush on the man next door, even after the assault. It sounds bleak, and it is, but it is also not. You’d think this girl is a victim (because she is), but somehow, triumphantly, despite these very bad things that happen to her, she retains agency and energy. I don’t quite know how to describe it, somehow it was a fundamentally hopeful book. I guess you’d have to read it.