Although this is a coming-of-age story for the main character, I don't consider it to be young adult content due to the language. I was surprised to see it being called YA. As a middle school librarian, there is no way this would be appropriate for my school...maybe upper high school.

I enjoyed the novel a great deal. The author developed the characters very well. The digital copy I read made the switching viewpoints difficult to keep up with, but hopefully, the actual book will be easier to read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the advance copy.

I chose this because of reviews that sparked my interest, but was surprised that it was actually a YA novel mis-classified as general adult fiction. To me, YA implies an updated tale in the fairy tale model, with an appealing heroine cast out on her own who makes her way through travail and hardship to an ultimate reward. Well, to classify this book as YA some of the language would have to be cleaned up surely, but Venus is appealing and her prince is not what you'd expect.

I don’t often get excited about a YA novel, but this one has me wanting to tell everyone that they need to go out and buy the book. When I started the book, I wondered how in the world it got a YA classification—the main character shares a birth year with me, after all, and I went over the hill a few years ago.

To top it off, the protagonist states up front that she doesn’t believe in God. Which doesn’t necessarily disqualify the book for me—I like to hear people’s different opinions. But from the opening lines of the first chapter, I realize that Heather Black has hit a home run.

Thirteen year old Venus Black sits in an interrogation room and realizes that she wet her pants. She also realizes that she’s done something so heinous that she can’t look at her action or she feels as if her life will go careening out of orbit.

The reader immediately wants to solve the mystery and get inside the mind of Venus Black—good girl, straight-A student, and murderer. A rich cast of characters, from Venus to her mom Inez and half brother Leo to a tattoo artist in Oakland and his daughter each reveal a tiny portion of the fragmented puzzle of what happened that fateful February night.

Every parent, teacher, police officer, social worker, counselor, psychologist, pastor, youth worker, and older teen should read this book. (Caveat, the language gets a little salty, but it’s not gratuitous). If you know a kid or have a kid, or work with kids, you need to read this book.

I always gravitate towards books that have regular people in situations that test their morality or "what would you do" type scenarios--and this book over delivered on my hopes in that regard. Venus was a great character and the other characters in the book supported the story so well. I loved this book so much. Five stars, easily.

Over my lifetime, I’ve read hundreds of books that had a profound effect on me. They’ve made me think. They’ve made me feel. They’ve made me reflect. This thought provoking novel made me feel a gamut of emotions and reflect upon the evils of the world existing around every corner.

Venus is the all American pre-teen. She loved to gossip with her friends, had a lust for learning, and loved her little brother to the moon and back. Her life is shattered by an act she commits turning the thirteen-year-old into a criminal. The specifics of Venus’ crime are not disclosed in full until later in the novel. Through her first person point of view and the third person point of view of several other characters, the story of the tragedy unfolds.

One aspect of the novel that almost over shadows the crime is the disappearance of Venus’ mentally impaired younger brother, Leo. The main story is told over a period of six years as we learn the fate of Venus, Leo, and several other characters. While there is so much pain experienced by Venus and her family, what ultimately holds the bonds of this story together is the love they share for each other despite the horrific agony they’ve fought through.

I cannot fully express my love for Lloyd’s storytelling ability. As an adult and having gone through the trials of adolescence, I could understand the fear and anger that coursed through Venus. She was betrayed by someone who was entrusted with her safety and in her young mindset didn’t foresee the ramifications of her actions. The ripples created from one second changed the lives of Venus and her family forever.

As a debut, Lloyd excels above and beyond any first time author. While this poignant story has come to a beautiful conclusion, I would love to read more from this author. Her ability to place you in the mind of the character is the tell of a magnificent author. Lloyd has struck gold with the story of Venus Black and I look forward to her doing it again.

I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Venus Black is a thirteen year old girl that kills her step-dad and is sent away. Around the same time, her younger brother Leo, who is autistic, goes missing. Are the two incidents related? This is the biggest news that has hit the community and six years later when Venus is released, she has to try and pick up the pieces of her life and find answers to what happened to her brother.

A lot happens in this novel, as we see Venus’ point of view and slowly find out what caused her to kill her step-dad and become estranged from her mother. We also get Leo’s point of view and what his life is like before and after Venus is sent away.

Although, listed as a crime mystery, this is more a young adult coming of age, feel good type of story. The language (except for a few scenes) is written as though for the younger crowd. Other than the murder, nothing is horrible. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this story and was rooting for both Venus and Leo, but it just wasn’t a great novel.

Coming of age can be a beautiful thing, but for Venus Black, it was a dark and emotionally tumultuous time, a time of pure hell, pain and brutal loneliness. Venus wouldn’t talk about the night she committed the most shocking of crimes, not even when she knew it would shred the fragile bonds that stitched her family together. Not even when her brother went missing, because what good would it do? She was guilty, she would pay the price, but was it really her debt to pay?

Five years later, still just a teen, Venus is released from prison, alone, broke and with nowhere to turn. Discover the strength of a young woman who is determined to make a fresh start, to keep her past in the shadows and to never be hurt or betrayed again. Will it mean sealing her heart off from the world? Can she do that and learn to heal?

Ghosts from her past will haunt her until she sets her demons free and to do that, she must discover what happened to her brother and reveal the truth of the night the lights went out on her young life.

MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK by Heather Lloyd is the tale of a young girl in her darkest moments who must claw her way into the light through her own pure grit and determination. Along the way, she will learn the true meaning of love, trust and hope, but not until she has taken on more than her share of pain. Witness Venus grow in strength and character through the raw and riveting words of Ms. Lloyd in this superbly written study of humanity at its worst, best, strongest and most endearing. More than one soul will be saved by forgiveness, more than one soul will be forever changed by the actions and chain reactions of one fateful night for one young teen who had no one to keep her safe.

I was completely taken by the power of Heather Lloyd’s pen. The beauty of this story is in its stark nature, its emotional turmoil and finally in a renewed faith in a world that holds the key to hope.
Strong characters, heartbreaking scenes and untold secrets, sometimes life can be unfair, sometimes it teaches us strength and courage, MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK is a perfect example.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Random House Publishing Group!

Publisher: The Dial Press (February 27, 2018)
Publication Date: February 27, 2018
Genre: Coming of Age | Family Issues | Crime
Print Length: 368 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

This is a story about a failed family due to inability to communicate and lack of trust. A your girl's life is destroyed by a stepfather and a mother to afraid to face the facts. It is also about redemption and the struggle to survive in a judgmental society.. The characters are interesting and likable.
The story is well written and interesting,

This was such an amazing story! It was artfully narrated by several different main characters. Although dealing with a lot of painful issues, the hope for humanity and happy endings was crystal clear.

As I appreciate with young adult fiction, we are spared any graphic details. Some pieces of the past aren’t revealed until the ending so by that point, I felt very connected to Venus and her brother Leo.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and publishers for an advanced readers copy of this wonderful book!

My Name is Venus Black was such a great YA novel!! Don't let the easy breezy writing style fool you into thinking its just another badly written coming of age book. This novel will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. Told in multiple perspectives, this book will entertain, captivate, break your heart and make you furious all at once.

At the age of 13 Venus Blacks life is forever changed when she shoots and kills her stepdad and is sent to juvenile prison. During the chaos of the aftermath, her young mentally disabled brother goes missing and is nowhere to be found. More than 5 years later, Venus is still reeling from the pain and guilt when she is released back into the world to try to rebuild her life and learn how to be an adult on her own. She still hasn't given up hope that her brother is still out there somewhere waiting to be found and returned home. While trying to plan out her future it seems she is still being weighed down heavily by her past. This is a book about second chances, family, regret, forgiveness of others and of ones self.

Venus was a strong character who had plenty of faults but she was so much more that the crime she had committed. The author did a great job of mapping the details of her character as well as the supporting characters in Venus's life. The only character I wasn't too sure about was Tinker. I have no idea what sort of role his character was supposed to play besides and aid to the storyline. I don't understand his motivation in doing what he had done at all but maybe one day i'll re-read it and it will become clear to me.
I really love how the author doesn't try to force any feeling or judgement on you. I was free to decide how I felt about Venus's actions, whether she was guilty or innocent. I was free to decide a few other conflicts as well which I can't go into details due to fear of spoilers. I can just appreciate a writing style that allows its readers to come up with their own conclusions.
Its a highly emotionally charged read but I do recommend it to those who want a different kind of YA novel or for those who love powerful books. I really did enjoy it and would give it a solid 4/5.

I am giving My Name is Venus Black 3/5 starts. The writing was very good and had an easy flow. I did get bogged down a bit between the switching points of view from first person to omniscient. For me, a more defined switch would have worked better, especially if they had been made more even. As a debut novel I was impressed with the writing, especially concerning several difficult topics. YA is not really my go-to genre, but this was very readable for me; did not feel sophomoric in the least. I will certainly give the author another read, when her next book comes out.

I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. For that, I would like to thank Netgalley and Dial Press.

I am NOT crying. I'm just sweating through my eyes. This book touched me right in my heart.  My emotions are a chaos tears, screams and relief happiness. My Name is Venus Black is a masterpiece of sadness and humor, filled with life lessons about forgiveness, revenge, understanding, and second chances. I read it in a time span of three days. This is a book that will stay with me forever. I loved this book along with all the characters.

There are so many things in the book that was done so well that I chose some of my highlighted favorites. First, I loved the idea of correlating the different type of 'nice' between a pervert's nice and a kind person's nice. I don't know if this was done on purpose or not, but I liked it. Second, there was a brief mention of The Missing Children Act set in 1982 which I found compelling because it brings up the debate of whether or not twenty-four hours is too long to report a missing child.

The ending was wrapped with a perfect neat bow atop with everything falling into. A happily ever after ending.

Review will be posted: On February 03, 2018. The Blog name is: Un Maniaque Bibliophile
Link: https://bibliophilemaniac.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2266565860?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

The thing with coming of age books is that they need to focus on such heavy character development. They aren’t really page turners where action is constant. A reader must be patient. The story of 13 year old Venus starts out traumatic.

At first a little slow, suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking about Venus and where her journey would take her next. The pain I felt for her and how her life would turn out. Would it always be despair? Could she begin again? Would society allow her to? Could she ever reconcile with her mother or find her younger brother?

What grabbed me hardest was how it makes you think about the notion of family. What makes a family? Biology? Perhaps...yet often we find our family in the places and people we never expected.

Whether you're sixteen or sixty, My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd will be a novel that stays with you for awhile. Thirteen year old Venus Black kills her stepfather and finds her life turned upside down when she realizes she'll be spending the rest of her middle and high school years in juvie. In the midst of this, her developmentally handicapped brother Leo is kidnapped from their neighbor's home. When Venus gets released as a nineteen-year-old, she starts a new life in a new place and hopes to escape from the life she lived for the past six years. In the process, she's never forgotten Leo, but she has no interest in forgiving her mother for her involvement in her case. While Venus's story is being told, Lloyd thoughtfully crafts Leo's whereabouts into this story as well. For awhile, they are two separate threads that you know will eventually be intertwined. The way Lloyd has written these characters, you immediately feel empathy for them and will ask yourself "what would I have done?" as multiple traumatic scenarios arise. It's beautifully written and a story not to be missed!

A story worth reading about a young girl's haunted memories, one bad decision, and the repercussions of that fateful night. When she tries to hide her real identity, she slowly realizes that her guilt and past resentments are a roadblock to discovering her true self-worth.

Good character development and an easy to follow storyline. There are some slow spots along the way and that's why I give it a three star rating.

What a wonderful debut of a book from a an author that I will be keeping my eye on for further books. The story is emotional and heart wrenching at times. The plot is very solid. The characters are people you become emotionally involved with because they are so well fleshed out. This to me is very definitely a book to pre order and have waiting for you on release day but don't start it until you have a chunk of time to dedicate to it because once you start it is very hard to put down. Happy reading!

My Name is Venus Black was a really good read. I read it over a few days and I just wanted to know where the story was going. Venus Black's history is very sad, and you don't find out until the end what actually unfolded that puts her into the youth detention center. I loved Leo's story and how the book ended. Something small that I didn't like about the book was that Venus didn't sound her age, especially at the beginning. She was supposed to be 13 and sounded more like a 17 year old. Otherwise I thought the book was really enjoyable and probably relatable to some young people. Definitely a page turner!

While not based on actual events, this book reads like it could be, It's an interesting take on not so much the WHY of an event that we read about in the news, but the AFTERMATH. What happens to a family when the ultimate crime hits them- do they bound together or fall apart? But more importantly, WHY? And while the reader begins to imagine, as her jury did, what actually happened between Venus and her step-dad, the truth when it comes out will shock you. The book may be aimed at the YA crowd, but I think it is JUST as important for adults to read. It might cause quite a few adults to re-examine what might be going on in their teen's life, and that is a good thing. The book is an excellent character study (I can't beleive it is Heather's debut novel!!) and you'll find yourself rooting for Venus, and then in turn for Leo, that they each get their happy ever after.

This new book comes out at the end of the month, but be sure to add it to your book list! It's going to be a hot topic, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a movie version of it in the future, but you need to read the book first!

Wow, this book, just wow ! Loved it ! Could not put it down ! So different from any other book that is out there ! You can't help but like and pull for Venus even after she has done something horrible. This family went through so much. People do awful things, but sometimes for a good reason ? I love how the story all came together ! Yes it is a little sad but the ending is so worth it ! Get this book !!!!!