Wow. Magical and unforgettable with a perfect smart heroine who deserves to be remembered.

Lola is a clever and interesting book.
Mysterious from the beginning, the reader is glued to the page trying to discover what is going on. Very enjoyable.

I need to be honest with myself - I will not finish this book. There is nothing particularly wrong with this book, it is more that I am the wrong reader perhaps. It isn't really my genre and the writing isn't quite strong enough to make up for it.

This book focusses on a gang getting entangled with the mob and everything just spirals out of control, or more truthfully has always been spiralling out of control. Lola is the focus point here and her character has been compared to Walter White. I don't think I read far enough into the book to really see that connection - but that comparison also was one of the problems for me. Because while I did actually watch all of "Breaking Bad", I did not enjoy that experience and I started disliking Walter way earlier than anybody I have talked to (third or fourth episode) and that made it a very different story for me than for others - my feeling for Lola were similar. I think I was supposed to root for her but I just couldn't because she never felt like a fully fleshed out character.

Another thing that got to me was the constant "telling, not showing" (as an aside: I never really knew what people were getting at with that expression, now I do), I didn't feel like the author trusted me enough to fill in the blanks - and my favourite kind of literature allows me exactly that.

But still, I can see lots of people enjoying this book, so you should all check out somebody else's review to get a better idea if it might be a book for you. Because like I said, this is very much a wrong person for the book/genre thing.

Lola took me on an addictive journey through the drug cartel business of Los Angeles. The book itself being "unputdownable" due to the unique plot and style.The main character impressed and depressed me at the same time, yet above all proved how strong the self can become due to unimaginable hardships and horrors throughout childhood.

I got engrossed and deceived by humanity by reading this. Meanwhile, I was impressed by the literary style of depicting thugs and gang street life. Lola, the character, is exactly how she should be, in my opinion, exactly how one would become had they been through similar experiences. Lucy is mirroring young Lola, and Lola finds through the little girl her goal in life. They end up having only each other as meaningful persons. It's heartbreaking.

I highly recommend this. Expect cold-blooded murder and drug addicts acting inhumanely. Expect an eye for an eye attitude and survival of the fittest.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.