This book was amazing. Interesting characters, great writing, and a truly memorable story. Venus is a 13 yo who is charged with a shocking crime and sent to Juvenile Detention. She is released 5 years later to find her younger mentally handicapped brother missing and she is extremely angry with her mother as well. A beautiful story that unfolds slowly so the reader can really experience it. I don't want to give away too much because this book is definitely worth the experience. Sometimes painful, but an honest, emotionally-charged and very fulfilling book. Definitely worth your time! Thank you NetGalley!!!!

A misunderstood teen, who faces the consequences of her actions, learns to find peace and understanding in a world where there seemed to be none. She finally finds herself, the real Venus Black.
Lloyd's characters are real and raw, they claw at your heart strings. The relationships are forged and developed as the story unfolds, and you find yourself rooting for them as individuals and as a part of each other.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. This started off slow for me, so slow that I almost set it aside. At first, I had a difficult time getting into the story, but I am very glad that I stuck it out. This book turns out to be a very touching story about family and resilience.

A heartbreaking story of Venus Black, who commits a shocking crime at the age of thirteen, and her developementally challenged younger brother Leo, who goes missing just days after Venus’s crime. Told from the points of view of Venus, Leo, their mother, and more, this story highlights the deep holds that both family and the past can have over people, especially after a trauma. An intriguing, quick, and difficult-to-put-down read, this book paints a fairly accurate portrait of blame, guilt, anger, autism, and the downfall of good intentions. However, I do feel its portrayal of Venus’s own guilt over her crime was a little lacking, and I found the ending to be a bit too quixotic.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is the story of a young girl , Venus, and her special needs younger brother, Leo. Venus is sent to juvenile hall for some time and while there, her brother disappears. The story revolves around these two characters and also their mother, Inez. Without giving away the story, I will say that I found the story to be very heartwarming and also I enjoyed the way the characters tried to work through their feelings over the incident that started everything and trying to find their way to forgiveness. I will look for future books by this author.

Oh this book. Intriguing from the start, the big mystery of why took so long to get there that it was almost frustrating. When the reveal did happen, it was maybe worth the wait and it had me gasp.

Venus was such a great character. I was a bit disappointed in her mother (but so was she) and what felt like an unrealistic lack of searching for the brother... the ending wrapped itself together perfectly and was a satisfying ending.

Venus Black is quite a character! After all she's been through, you'd expect her to be more damaged than she is. The book opens with her arrest for shooting and killing her stepdad. We don't know why until almost the end, but it's pretty apparent that she has good reason. When she's narrating, she just tells it like it is. Young readers will be able to relate to the inner thoughts of this teenage girl, and those my age will be drawn in by the dynamic between all the characters. If you enjoy psychological suspense, you will like this one.

Never be afraid to pick a book outside your preferred genre. I've found quite a few excellent reads by doing just that. This is one of those I never would have picked because it is a young adult title. I generally feel that they're all cheesy and predictable. Call this one an exception.

3.4, as I ride the bus home from high school...

At first I said a middle schooler would love this book, but I’m changing my tune a little. I’m thinking this is more for high schoolers. But saying I thought a middle schooler would like it wasn’t totally off the wall. For four years, I’ve been tween-sitting two kids who are now 11 and 13. I honestly could see both of them liking this book. But the subject matter—a 14-year-old kills her stepdad—might be too heavy for a teenager of any age.

The 11-year-old I sit for loves me to tell her stories. As soon as she gets in my car, she yells gleefully and loudly, “Story!!” and I have to wrack my brain to come up with a good (and G rated) story from my past, because of course she only wants true tales. She tells me she wants to hear tragic stories because they “make me feel.” She is so funny and cool I can’t stand it! She reads big fantasy series multiple times, which endears me to her even more. Also, she reads over my shoulder. If I’m reading something dicey or dark and there are f-words, I shut the book fast, which she thinks is unfair. She and her 13-year-old brother think nothing of the f-word, although they don’t use it themselves, so I shouldn’t worry about corrupting their innocence.

The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking how I’d absolutely let her read over my shoulder. The writing is simplistic and the story is indeed tragic (but with hope sprinkled on top), so this would be just up her alley. But given the crime, I’m not sure her mom would approve. And there is at least one comment that would have made me clamp the book shut pronto-like. I’m thinking that that comment would have to be deleted to make it an acceptable YA book.

Let’s go to the Joy Jar first, because for sure there is a lot to like about this book. It’s tight, and the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic. The language, though simplistic, is utilitarian, moving the story right along at a good clip. The plot, about a girl who murdered her stepdad (no spoiler here; we learn this immediately) and a brother who is no doubt autistic, is unique and intriguing. I found the story engaging, and I did want to find out what would happen. There was some suspense, which was also a plus. Kudos to the author for such a unique plot. Half of the book takes place in Seattle, which is where I live, so I enjoyed reading about my city and a neighboring town. Venus lives in a section of Seattle where one of my daughters lives, so that was really fun to read about. There is drama galore, so my 11-year-old substitute grandchild would dig it.

But unfortunately I had to drag the Complaint Board out of the shed. You knew that was coming!

Complaint Board:

-YA all the way, baby. I’ve beaten this horse to death, so I can shut up about this! The fact that it’s YA isn’t a criticism. It’s a well-written YA book, like I said. I just don’t enjoy many YA books, so that’s the reason it earns a spot on my Complaint Board.

-I’d kill for a semi-colon. Or any complex sentence, in fact. The exciting plot is told with boring, simplistic language. This of course, was my biggest reason for thinking of it as YA. When the sentence structure is simple and there is no jazz or edge, I’m bored and annoyed and it loses points. Here, it sort of feels like a monotone. Included in this complaint is the occasional use of clichés, like “it wiped the smile right off my face.”

-Sigh. Just whose point of view are we hearing now? There are clunky, jolty point-of-view changes. The book is mostly told in first-person, but there are numerous third-person point-of-view changes, all within one chapter. I would have been a lot happier if each point-of-view change got its own chapter. As it was, it was jolting and sometimes confusing.

-Please tell me what happened! The details of the crime aren’t revealed until way late in the book. I’m not sure this was necessary, but I do know it was frustrating. Tell me already! It was unnecessary, fabricated suspense in my opinion.

-Not sure I buy THAT! There were a few things that I just don’t buy. [spoiler:] I don’t buy that Venus would be able to find Tony in Oakland. Seemed very far-fetched that she would decide to check tattoo parlors. And I thought it was super unlikely that Venus’s mom would think that the guy who came to look at her house for sale was Leo’s kidnapper. Also, I’m not sure I buy that Tinker would have kidnapped Leo; there doesn’t seem like much motivation. And my final beef re plausibility: No way would someone with just two hours of driving practice drive from Seattle to Oakland. [end of spoiler]

-Hand me the syrup. The ending was just plain Hallmark-y. That’s a big demerit in my book.

-God, oh God. Any hint of religion and I usually run, and the author brought God to the table at the end of the book. Not pages and pages of God, but enough to bug me. Just my own hang-up, I know. The fact that the very last paragraph of the epilogue is total God put the icing on the cake. Why choose to end the book on a religious note? You could end any book like that; it adds nothing to the story, in my humble opinion. I know, I know, tomatoes might be headed my way…

So as you can imagine, my hand is sore from writing on the Complaint Board. Let me repeat, though, that the characters are well-drawn and likeable —I was just not invested in them emotionally. And I was impressed that the author came up with this unique and engaging plot. But put the simplistic language together with the sappy ending and a dash of God talk, and it adds up to a 3-star read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

3.75 stars

I've backed off from young adult books lately...because they all seem to fall into a couple of categories.



or



Because magic penis fixes everythang. So when I pick up a book and the main theme is not like that I get a bit excited.
This book starts when Venus is thirteen years old. She has killed her stepfather and is facing the consequences. Then to top off the bad life she is having her mentally challenged brother Leo goes missing.



Later on Venus has finished serving her time and has to start life over.

Now all this was pretty good. It was towards the end of the book that I started to start wiping the bad taste off my tongue..thus the not five stars that I so wanted for this one. I'm going to spoiler tag my hateful feelings part of the book because I think it may just be me and it's one that you need to let just untangle as you read it.

(view spoiler)

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Heather Lloyd has created work of realistic fiction that makes readers question what they know about fate, faith, and family. In "My Name is Venus Black" we are introduced to a young girl who has done a very bad thing, for reasons we can just guess at in the beginning and then become more certain of as the story progresses. As Venus carries out her sentence and is released to begin a new life, we question a justice system that turned a victim into a criminal and left her with little choice than to start again under a stolen identity. Paralleling Venus's story is the story of her younger brother Leo. Leo is described as developmentally disabled, displaying autistic tendencies and behaviors. Leo's kidnapping that leads to another life in Oakland, California, mirrors Venus's new chance at a new life. As Venus begins assembling a life as Annette, she meets people that soon take the place of her family, even though she never forgets her brother or forgives her mother. Reading this book, I was unable to put it down, eager to see Venus, Leo, and their mother Inez survive traumatic events and learn to depend on their "family" support structures and faith in order to make it through. "My Name is Venus Black" is a tremendously satisfying read.

This was a wonderful YA novel. I was able to connect with a lot of the characters, and thought the author did a good job of fleshing each of them out. I liked how she told parts of the story from many perspectives so the reader doesn’t have just one viewpoint. The book begins with a young Venus Black committing a shocking crime, her facing the consequences of that crime as well as how it affects everyone around her. As she is released from prison, she tries to start a new life at 19 years old, but her past is still with her and still affecting those around her that she has tried to forget. We are introduced to several characters in Venus’ life throughout the book, family, friends, and new family, all of which affect her significantly. Venus tries to figure out who she is, how to deal with her past, and whether she can forgive those who hurt her previously. This was such a great book, I didn’t want it to end.

I found this to be an engrossing read. The story focuses on the aftermath of the murder of Venus's stepfather. Through different perspectives, we see how love, guilt, and forgiven can impact so many people and how even good intentions can be seen in such different ways from those varied perspecitves.

Given todays environment, the Me Too movement, this book will be published at the right time. The plot fits the world as we know it today. Venus, unfortunately is a young adult while caring for a brother with autism's to deal with an abusive stepfather, with little or no support from the adult community. Thank you Heather Lloyd for an engaging first novel. I hope to read many more.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This book was a slow start for me I’m glad I continued to work through it. This story was named My Name is Venus Black so one would think that she is the main character, but not so her brother Leo with autism seems to be the one the story revolves around. I would have liked to have more about Venus. The story starts when Venus was thirteen years old she committed a horrific crime, this was due to her mother not listening to her cries for help. Venus is convicted of this crime and spends 6 years in two different youth detention centers. While in the detention center her younger brother Leo disappears and Venus can’t do anything to help him. I believed right from the start that there was more to Venus’s story and that came to light at the end of the book. One of my questions is why didn’t her mother speak up for her? Would her life have been different? Better? Even though this book is considered YA, I believe it is for all age groups. It is a very interesting read once you get past a certain point. Stick with it you will come to like the book.

This book had a good story and it kept my attention to figure out the whole story. There were a lot of details. Some of the details were necessary while some just seemed to drag out the story. I enjoyed the ending and the way the book was set up because it was told from different characters and didn't reveal everything right away. I really wanted to like this book, but in the end, it just fell short of expectations. It seemed to read more like it was supposed to be a movie instead of a book. There seems to be a lot of potential for this book, it just seemed flat and long since the story didn't seem to have a huge amount of depth. There were several parts of the book that were difficult to read through because they didn't seem to be advancing the story but more about character development and then those characters were scarce in the rest of the book.

This book was pretty good. I loved that the story seemed to revolve a lot around Leo who is a child with autism. I would have loved more suspense in the book around the crime that Venus committed. It seemed like an afterthought. Overall a good book about love and loss. I just wanted something a little more to give it 4 stars.

I was super excited to start this book, because the premise looked really interesting. I was sucked into the book quickly, but somewhere along the way it fell flat. I finished the book as I was interested to see what happened to the main character, but it seemed to drag on quite a bit. I would recommend this book with reservations.

Loved the premise of this - a young girl kills her stepfather and then while she's in juvie, her little brother goes missing. Although there's plenty of mystery, the big reveal of her motive doesn't come until the very end, which made me feel a little cheated. I also got a little frustrated with the constant back and forth between character perspectives (some are way stronger than others). Overall, this would have been a more satisfying read if it was classified as YA. It feels too simplistic otherwise.

Venus Black changed the course of her life -- and her mother's and brother's lives as well -- when she killed her stepfather at age 13. How they rebuilds is the focus of this novel; frequent point of view switches keep the pace clipping along. I have mixed feelings about this one; I wanted to keep reading to see how it all turned out, but I never quite felt that Venus was completely sympathetic. In fact, the most sympathetic characters were outside of Venus's family.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Venus and what happens to her when she is 13 years old. It also tells the story of her brother Leo, her mom Inez and a girl we come to know Tessa. Venus kills her step father at the age of 13 and is sent to Juvie for 6 years so we get to see parts of what life is like for her. We also get to see what happens to her brother Leo who is 7 at the time and from what I gathered Autistic. Inez has to deal with what has happened to Venus and when Leo goes missing she has to deal with that as well. I was so intrigued with this story that I hated having to put it down to go to work. I would recommend this book if someone is looking for a story that has you thinking and wondering "what if".