I was pulled into Venus' story immediately. I really liked how the story was told from different points of view. There were times where I didn't like Venus or her mother but in the end I felt good about where the story was going and feel it was the best possible outcome. I don't know how believable the premise of the novel was, but I was still sucked in and enjoyed the quick read. This is one I'll recommend.

This one gets 5 stars for full emotional engagement.

The book opens with Venus Black, then 13 years old, charged with a terrible crime. What we know is that she is furious with her mother and worried sick about her 7 year old brother Leo who has an unnamed condition that is likely autism. What we also know is that Venus’ crime tailspins into another terrible crime. The book then jumps ahead a few years to when Venus is released from the youth detention centre as she tries to find her place in the world.

I can’t say much more about the story without giving away spoilers and this is one that is worth experiencing as it unfolds. What I will say is that, except for the very end, there is nothing predictable about this story. At first, I thought it would be focused on Venus and her crime, but it turns out to be as much about what happens to Leo.

My Name Is Venus Black is written in very straightforward language. But the characters and their relationships are so well depicted. And the emotions feel real and not simple. How do you forgive yourself for the consequences of terrible decisions? How do you forgive other people?

My Name Is Venus Black would probably work as young adult fiction, but it certainly worked for me. I completely fell for Venus and Leo and a couple of the other characters.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

3.5/5 The book goes back and forth between telling the stories of Venus, a teenager who shot and killed her stepfather, and Leo, her mentally handicapped brother who disappeared around the same time Venus was locked up. If you like emotional and heart-felt stories, then this is the one for you. It's full of people making difficult and emotional decisions and leading difficult and emotional lives. For me though, it was a little on the slow side. I kept with it because the writing was good, but I wish the pacing had been faster.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK by Heather Lloyd in exchange for my honest review***

3.5 STARS

At age thirteen, Venus kills her stepfather for reasons she will not say. Broken, she refuses to see her mother Inez. Then her autistic brother Leo goes missing. Six years later Venus is released from juvenile detention, hoping to find Leo and move on with her life.

I loved the premise Heather Lloyd created. If not for bad editing, I would have rated MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK higher. Points of view shifted Waugh in chapters from Venus’s first person to various other characters’ third person points of view, which I found confusing and unnecessary. If Lloyd had started new chapters with the POV shifts, the story would have flowed more seamlessly.

I wanted more backstory to Venus’s crime and her time incarcerated. MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK skipped important moments in the book that would have given a better opportunity to embrace the character. Readers are told about changes in Inez, but we aren’t shown anything to back up her transformation. The ending could have been more compelling if Lloyd had shown those scenes. MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK starts off slow and builds in excitement before the resolution.

Connecting with Venus on an emotional level was difficult, because she was so closed off. Lloyd did a great job showing Venus’s growth incrementally. I always wanted a good outcome for her.

MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK will be enjoyed by readers of women’s fiction and has crossover young and new adult appeal.

This book started a bit slowly for me. I couldn't see what made the protagonist Venus so hesitant to discuss what lead up to her crime. The specifics continued to be hinted at and not specified until the last third of the book. The story starts from the point of view of Venus. Throughout the story, this point of view changes many times from Venus to Leo, Inez, Tinker, Tessa and Tony. I didn't feel as if there was a lot of differentiation between the characters. The novel felt a bit detached and lacked a lot of emotion. I would have expected this from Leo but I would have liked to see more emotion from the rest. The story felt too easy and clean compared to the circumstances the characters were experiencing. The story was ok. The character development was ok. I felt the subject warranted a bit more grit though. The story picked up at about 70% in and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit more once the character Inez began giving us her view point and that emotion I found lacking began to surface. I really liked the ending and some of the poignant life messages offered by Venus. I still think it was all tied up a bit too neatly but the overall story was good and definitely worth the quick read.

This was such a good book. The characters were very well developed and it was very well written. Venus, Inez, Tessa, Tony - they were all good people who just made some bad choices and they were all bound by their love for Leo. You really understood their motivations for their actions. I liked how the author drew out the reveal of what led Venus to shot Ray - it made her story that much more tragic.

I loved this book! It took me a bit to get into the story because there was a “mystery” as to what happened at the beginning. As the story progressed and new characters entered I began to forget about the missing piece and just enjoy the story for what it was. At times the story took turns I was rooting against but I can say wholeheartedly that I am satisfied with the ending. It was a great read and a definite not to be missed book for 2018!

I enjoyed this book. It’s main plot is unusual. Venus is finally released from prison for killing her stepdad. It takes awhile to get the full story of why the murder happened. I really enjoyed her brother Leo’s story also. Well written about an intelligent young lady who copes with her life.

A wonderful story of a young girl trying to escape her horrifying past. What she discovers is that changing your name doesn't make you a different person. You still have your past, your anger, your sorrows, and even your love. Whatever guilt you felt as the old you, is and always will be a part of you.
This is also a heartwarming story. One that brings tears of happiness to your eyes. It's a story of forgiveness, and letting things go for live of a child. A story of how you can be family, even if you aren't related by blood.
Excellent read. Exceptional storyline, great characters.
5 Stars!

This book had me from the beginning. Venus, such a young smart girl whose life becomes so disruptive and sad. If only, if only, if only. Don’t we all think that at times. Through a story filled with sadness, a little suspense and finally happiness in the end I would highly recommend this book.

Awesome read! I think this is a debut but you can't tell. It was a very nice read.

'When I trace my life back to make it so Inez never met or married Raymond, I always get stuck here. Because what would I do without Leo?'

Venus Black, once a curious, intelligent young girl, committed a terrible crime, and now her mother Inez weeps and begs for answers. This display of emotion from her mother makes her uncomfortable, it’s unwelcome, too little far too late. Venus knows one thing, there is power in silence, and she refuses to tell anyone what happened and why. That she is locked up at all, when the real criminal is her mother is enough to make her want to punish her more. There are many theories she chews on, as to the exact phenomena that put her here. As she says, “Nothing is as it appears. It’s like that with space. Objects that look round might not be, and stars that look close to each other might be billions of miles apart. And it’s the same with people. Only instead of standing too far away to see the truth, you’re probably standing too close.” It seems to be so within’ her own family, and inside of herself. But now… her mother shows up and confesses that her little brother Leo is missing. If there is any shame, it’s that the choices she made leads to the vanishing of her beloved developmentally disabled little brother. Venus has always been his center, the calm of every storm that blew through their lives. Her love of astronomy has been a bond the two shared, Leo with his unique mind and way of being in the world found comfort in counting stars beside his sister Venus. There is no one whoever took him could know that, how necessary it is for him to count. How could her mother be so careless? Time becomes torture, the brilliance of her curious mind is all she has to think of ways to find her brother, even if it means breaking more laws. The universe has other plans. Who would take Leo, and what would they do to him once they realize he isn’t ordinary, that predictable routines are vital to his peace of mind? Like a prayer, all she can do from her imprisonment is will him to “go home… go home”. She may as well be all alone on a cold planet, her pleas dead as the stars.

Years pass and Venus is released, trying to build some semblance of normalcy she changes her identity and becomes Annette. Doing so may be the only way a murderer like her has any hope for a new life. She makes friends, finds a job, and just when she falls for a man she realizes everything is doomed. There is no pretending that she is normal, that her body can respond to love or male attention the way normal girls do. The cracks in new life are already appearing when she sees a milk carton with her brother’s information on the back, and she loses it realizing she hasn’t even bothered to look for Leo. Reporters have no trouble finding her though, for all her subterfuge, for their big story and it happens, in this life she built, she is exposed. Having denied her mother any place in her life, the mystery of Leo is the one thing that forces Venus to her mother’s doorstep.

What about Leo? What I love most about this novel is that Leo has a big place in it, he isn’t simply brought in and snuffed out. He lives a parallel life, introducing the readers to Tessa and her father. Everything is a tangled mess, and this novel has people committing crimes they never intended. Leo is trapped in a before life vs after and there isn’t a character you won’t feel sorry for. The best stories are where right and wrong are cloudy, where what we want has to take a backseat to what is best for the ones we love most. Inez is troubled, flawed and trying to fix everything that got so screwed up, trying to forgive her daughter and herself. The reader does see the struggle she too suffers with.

Everything is broken, and everyone has their own blame to shoulder. The children in this novel all make enormous decisions that cause grief and also salvation. Some of the characters are motivated by selfish reasons, others by fear that set off a chain of events that reach far into the future. As much as I’d like to pick my thoughts apart and express why I loved the way Leo’s story diverges from Venus and Inez’s, I don’t want to given anything away.

I think the why and how in the action Venus takes in relation to her stepfather will throw some readers and make sense to others. My sense of reasoning ties into a young mind that doesn’t feel protected and fears for her brother, extremes are different in children than in an adult mind, they don’t fully think things through nor really understand the scope of every action. Children won’t see a way out, they haven’t lived long enough to know through experience things can get better, especially if the person in charge of protecting them denies their truth when they tell it. There is a numbness I think, inside of Venus when she commits the crime, a train of thought that, well if it isn’t happening then if I do this, well then it will mean nothing, right? The boogie man isn’t there anyway, according to the grown up.

Leo by far was my favorite character. Wonderful, add this to your TBR pile for 2018

Publication Date: February 27, 2018

Random House

Heather Lloyd's debut YA novel, "Young Venus Black," is a gripping work that follows the young protagonist over seven years of her life. Lloyd also deeply develops the character of Venus's younger brother Leo, who is autistic. The reader meets Venus, who spends her teenage years in a juvenile detention center for committing a shocking crime. Additionally, her younger brother also goes missing.

Despite the soap-operaesque theatrics, this novel is engaging on the human level as well. We get to know the various players and how their lives are affected by these catastrophic events over the course of many years. We see how actions and reactions cause them to change and evolve.

A new novel in the YA fiction category is always a welcome addition to a teacher's library of recommendations for students. My Name is Venus Black perfectly lays out a sorrowful story, making it accessible to young adults. Venus is a middle school girl in a town north of Seattle when the story begins. She commits a crime and is sentenced to six years in a young offenders facility and the reader goes through that experience with details we can digest. Incarceration means Venus leaves behind her mother, Inez, and her young brother, Leo.

Venus hates her mother, mostly because she chose to marry Raymond, who Venus thinks is a creep. She is angry with her and carries that anger as she does her time in the correctional facility. On the other hand, Venus almost breaks from being separated from Leo. To make everything worse, Leo goes missing.

Venus works hard to save money so that she can move to California when she gets out at age 19 and she needs to look for Leo. Venus changes her name, gets a job, and rents a room as part of her overall plan to leave her mother behind. The sweet spot in the story is that Venus, now Annette, finds another child at the house where she rents a room who needs a babysitter. Annette shows massive empathy toward the raucous girl who lost her parents in a car crash. Her uncle is taking care of her because she has few options with the rest of her family.

Leo's story is one of caring and empathy as well. A young girl and her father become significant caregivers in Leo's life. Again, a young girl who doesn't have a perfect life reaches out and finds ways to connect with a child who has autism and poses a mystery to most adults. All the characters in MNIVB are well developed and relatable, even the mother, Inez. The plot flows with a well-paced sense of urgency and suspense. I love this book for both young adult readers and adults. We can all learn about reaching out to give children our love and attention when they need us most.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dial Press for the opportunity to read and review this e-ARC.

My Name is Venus Black was a wonderful surprise of a book. Venus is a 13 year old girl living with her mother, step-father and younger half-brother when the story begins. There are indications that her step-father is abusing her in some way and she eventually ends up in a juvenile detention center until her 19th birthday, after she finally lashes out against him and kills him. She is essentially estranged from her mother and while she is serving her time, her younger autistic brother goes missing. The dialogue, the richness of the story and the development of all the character should make My Name is Venus Black one of the most anticipated novels of 2018.

I really liked this book! It was captivating and page-turning. All characters are fully formed and interesting. I rooted for them all at different points, even when they are painted as unsympathetic characters at other times. It is a great look at what family means, and the lengths one can go to for love in many different forms. Heart warming and a joy to read, I think this will be a bit hit.

This is a hard book to review because I'm not sure if the intended audience is YA or adult, and perhaps that shouldn't matter. As a YA, it seems readers should have spent more time with Venus in juvie and shown us the transition of Leo switching homes when his uncle left him with the neighbors. As adult, it seems the language and narrative could have been more believable because we didn't get to experience the mother's loss since she became a minor character and rather disappeared from the nov el for a long spell.

4.5 stars

I loved My Name is Venus Black. While I generally abhor suggesting that one book is very similar to another (if you like this one, you will surely like this other one… kind of thing), I do feel in this instance that this book is an exception. I feel confident that those who liked Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and A Man Called Ove will also like My Name is Venus Black (realizing that few books if any will rise to the genius of A Man Called Ove). Venus Black has had a tough life; my heart broke for her from the opening page of the book. She has committed an egregious crime (see my comments about this below) that is not fully explained until the end. While I would have preferred to have understood the nature of the crime sooner, I still very much enjoyed the story and loved following Venus as she slowly got her life back together. Venus is likeable, and I was rooting for her from the start. I also felt the side story with her brother Leo was a meaningful addition to the story.

I would have given the book 5 stars, but for a significant portion of the book I was uncomfortable because Venus killed her stepfather years before, and the crime is not explained fully until towards the end of the book. I loved her character and sympathized with her but was hung up on what caused her to kill someone. Once the crime is fully detailed, I was happy to find that my initial read of Venus’s character was correct, and that the crime had unfolded drastically different than I felt it had been presented.

My Name is Venus Black is a gem of a read, and I highly recommend it. Thanks to Random House, The Dial Press, and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book, although the plot was a bit contrived, as though the author was so intrigued by the introduction of faces on milk cartons as a way to find lost children that she had to write a whole book around the idea, and everything else was rather awkwardly crammed onto the plot. Nonetheless, the writing is engaging and the characters worth caring about.

The book was relatively engaging but unfortunately I don't think it'll end up being very memorable. I wish I enjoyed it more.