Last Summer on State Street is an emotional ride that takes place in Chicago in the summer of 1999. Fe Fe lives with her very protective mother and her older brother in the Projects. Her high rise building is the next slated to be torn down and everything in Fe Fe’s life feels on the verge of change.
This is so beautifully written with fully fleshed out characters you’ll care about. Fe Fe’s life is so emotionally wrought through this period of time and the author did an incredible job writing her story. It’s an eye opening look that is a perfect YA summer read and an incredibly well done audiobook.

In my opinion, The Last Summer on State Street is a very moving and memorable novel that will remain with me for a very long time.

This story about a girl coming of age, FeFe, and her three closest pals is set in the Chicago housing projects in the late 1990s. The girls are subjected to a hostile and often traumatic atmosphere that forces them to mature prematurely.

Since the story is presented in retrospect from FeFe's point of view, the reader is treated to the innocence of a kid as well as the occasional wisdom of an adult. This was executed skillfully, and I appreciated knowing right away that FeFe had matured successfully.

There are trigger warnings for child abuse, sexual assault, and gang violence in The Last Summer on State Street, a novel that is nevertheless real, powerful, devastating, and optimistic. I can't believe it's your first book; that's incredible. Toya Wolfe, the author, is a native of the public housing complex that serves as the novel's primary location, as I learned from a little biography I read. Knowing that she was writing from personal experience added a lot to my enjoyment of her work. There was a greater sense of authenticity and depth to the work as a result, in my opinion.

Set in 1999 Chicago we follow FeFe as her family and neighbors prepare to move as their high-rise faces closure and destruction. The summer starts with FeFe double dutching with her friends, but the innocence can't last as her family and friends change with time and circumstances.

I loved this book. It is not a happy story but it is real and it was un-putdown-able. I was invested in Fefe and her friends. I felt for them all and I wanted to give them all a big hug. I wanted to continue to follow the family beyond the book.

I don't have too many words for this book other than I highly suggest picking it up.

Wolfe’s writing is BEAUTIFUL. So raw and real- full of emotion, pain and love. The POV of the story comes from the MC, FeFe who details her childhood and events that happened during that last summer in the Robert Taylor homes, housing projects in Chicago. I truly loved FeFe and how caring she was of those around her. I was thankful that she had women like her mother and Mama Pearl (a friend of FeFe’s grandmother) in her life because she gave her the ability to realize that her future is hers to construct and create! Gangs, drugs, violence and poverty are major themes which these characters live through and we see how their lives are shaped/changed forever. Shayna Small was the narrator of this book and she went above and beyond to bring this book to life! I can’t wait to read more by @toyawolves !

4.25🌟

This was such a stunning debut with so much depth! This had all the elements of what I love in a book: coming-of-age, strong friendships, and beautiful and complex characters!

The author’s prose was stunning and her storytelling was engrossing and compelling. I was so invested in reading about this time period, the 90s in the projects in Chicago, and appreciated it even more so it being an #ownvoices story.

This is one that will absolutely pull at your heartstrings!

Would recommend for fans of Brit Bennett.

Thank you so much to @netgalley for ALC and @williammorrowbooks for the finished copy!

Review of Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What an amazing debut novel. I am absolutely blown away by this one and the writing. I’ve struggled with how to write the review because I binged this one within hours honestly and mostly was just left with a feeling. I loved that the majority of the story is told from the perspective of a child. The subject matter is honest and raw and a bit tough. I absolutely cannot wait to see what this author writes next.

Quick synopsis: In the summer of 1999 FeFe is a girl living with her mom and older brother in Chicago. Her housing building is scheduled to be torn down soon by the housing project as many are that summer. Gangs are everywhere and life can be tough. This tells the story of FeFe as well as her three best friends as all of their lives take turns and change dramatically that summer.

I listened to this one and highly recommend the audio. Thank you to @netgalley and @willliammorrow. This one is out now.

I thought maybe this would be similar to the way I grew up-only set in a different location… but this story is harrowing and makes you realize how lucky you really are even when it doesn’t seem that way. To see so much violence so young…. And just consider it part of your every day life was terrifying. Growing up in the projects I could relate to-but beyond that I was very sheltered. Wonderful book that really struck a note and has stayed with me.

Thank you Net Galley for this ARC

#netgalley

Last Summer on State Street, Toya Wolfe's standout debut, is an evocative and nostalgic coming of age novel, following four 12-year-old girls as they spend their last summer together - the summer of 1999 - at the Robert Taylor Homes, the infamous Chicago high-rise housing projects which were slated for demolition amid gang violence, vast poverty, and sweeping crime. Wolfe's heart-wrenching novel is a testament to her childhood growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes, and is a story that will touch readers in the deepest parts of their soul.

It was their last summer of innocence. At the start of the summer of 1999, Fe Fe, Precious, and Stacia spend their days jumping rope and dallying in the types of activities that young girls on the cusp of womanhood do. This is a pivotal summer, one that will change their lives forever. The girls have been watching the only neighborhood they have ever known - the Robert Taylor Homes - be torn down around them and the families who lived there relocated to other parts of Chicago. They know this is likely their last summer together, and Fe Fe, the novel's narrator, finds herself grasping, trying to hold on to whatever lingering vestiges of her life and childhood friendships that she can.

However, the girls couldn't foresee what was awaiting them in the summer of 1999. Fe Fe introduces a new girl to their group, Tonya, who has been relocated to their building after the high-rise that she lived in was demolished. Tonya is quiet and introverted, and Fe Fe can't help but feel that there is more to her story than she is letting on. It doesn't help that Stacia, the daughter of a prominent Gangster Disciple, has it out for Tonya right from the start. As Fe Fe tries to be a good friend to Tonya, while also not losing the friends she has known all her life, she finds herself straddling a line that will test both her limits and morals.

Last Summer on State Street is a raw and unflinching portrait of what it is like to be young, black, and female, trying to hold onto childhood and innocence while your community is being overrun by cops, gangs, and drugs. Not only is this story powerfully eye-opening and resonant, but Wolfe's writing is beautifully poignant as well. She has the incredible talent of being able to take the difficult, grisly parts of life growing up in the projects, and paint in vibrant details, giving dimension and depth to the well-worn stereotypes and cliches of the black experience in urban America.

If you are given the opportunity to listen to Last Summer on State Street, it comes highly recommended! Shayna Small is incredible in her narration and does this story justice through her storytelling. She gives Fe Fe such voice, and brings to life the cast of supporting characters, utilizing inflection, dialect, and accent to flesh out the characters and make them feel real. This book was truly a treat for my ears!

A tender and heartbreaking debut coming of age story about a group of four young Black girls growing up in the Chicago projects and the summer that changed all their lives.

Set in the summer of 1999, Fe-Fe, Precious and Stacia love nothing more than playing Double-Dutch outside but gang wars and the scheduled demolition of their building bring irrevocable upheaval. The group dynamic changes when Fe-Fe introduces Tonya to the group, a mysterious girl who has dark secrets of her own.

Full of heart, the story celebrates the resilience of Black lives while not shying away from the hardships, including the incarceration of young Black boys, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy and drug addiction.

Great on audio narrated by Shayna Small and recommended for fans of authors like Jacqueline Woodson or Brit Bennett. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ALC.

What a fabulous debut this is. This is such a poignant tale, told from the perspective of a young girl, that pulled me into the world of the inner-city projects of Chicago in the 1990s. This tale was heart-breaking, but it's something the world very much needs to hear right now. I wish this author great success, and I look forward to more greatness from her in the future. The narration is top-notch as well.

Told from the point of view of a 12 year old child, this novel is about 4 friends in the fateful summer when CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) tears down the infamous Robert Taylor Homes, the public housing high rises they call home. The narrator did a great job of embodying the voice of a child living through uncertain times. Felicia is too young to really understand what's going on but smart enough to know that trouble in the form of police brutality, gang violence, drug abuse and deep poverty- surrounds her and the people she loves.

As a native Chicagoan who recalls the public housing buildings and the tragedy of their destruction and subsequent failing of the CHA to house the former inhabitants, I truly appreciate that this has been novelized and memorialized in historical fiction.

Recommended for anyone interested in the 90's, historical fiction, Chicago and female friendships.

What a powerful book. Last Summer on State Street is set in the 1990s in the projects of Chicago - a setting that I haven’t read much about before. While this is a fictional story, it read like a memoir to me, especially after knowing that a lot of the story came from the author’s personal experience. I felt so deeply for Fefe as she navigated living in the midst of gangs, drugs, and struggled every day with the fear of walking around her neighborhood alone. We follow Fefe as she lives the summer of 1999, struggling with friendships, family, and finding herself along the way. This book was a home run debut in my eyes. Amazing!!

It is the summer of 1999 and Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is about to have her life shaken up. Fe Fe lives in Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes with her mother and older brother. Throughout the summer, we see her shift from an innocent, jump-roping child to a young woman having to face the hard truths around her. Her friends lives are darker than she ever knew. Her beloved brother has become caught up with a gang. Violence in her neighborhood is widespread and frequent. Poverty rates are astronomical. The Chicago Housing Authority has designated her building as the next to be demolished with its occupants relocated.

I was so impressed with this book that I went looking for more by the author and was very surprised to find that Last Summer on State Street is Toya Wolfe's debut novel. While it is fiction, it reads like a memoir. The characters were wonderfully developed and scenes were expertly set up, drawing the reader directly into the story. Additionally, I listened to the audiobook and narrator Shayna Small was fantastic.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

An absolute out of the park homerun of a debut book. Truly can't believe Last Summer on State Street is Toya Wolfe's first book. It was intense and agonizing, yet hopeful. 

The book focuses on Fe Fe who lives in a Chicago high rise amongst a loving family, two close friends, and a supportive grandmother figure. However, everything changes for her in the summer of 1999. The city plans to tear down the high rise, disrupting her community, and Fe Fe introduces a fourth girl into her friend group, altering their dynamics. As everything in Fe Fe's life begins to shift, she needs to make hard decisions about who to keep in her life and the type of person she wants to become. 

It's an insightful coming of age story that will blow you away

'Last Summer on State Street' is the debut novel of Toya Wolfe, and is set in the summer of 1999 in a Chicago housing project, the Robert Taylor Homes. She focuses on the friendship of four girls, telling the story from the viewpoint of Fe Fe, who lives with her mother and older brother. It's the last summer for them in several ways - from nearby project buildings being torn down and families displaced to the affect gangs would have on Fe Fe's safety and her family. The book has gotten quite a few comparisons to Brit Bennett's 'The Vanishing Half', and for good reason. The storytelling in both is top notch and compelling, but listeners of the audiobook may also draw the comparison because the narrator, Shayna Small, is the same for both books. She is fantastic, and brings the characters to life in a beautiful way. Overall, it was a great book, and I can't wait to read more from Toya Wolfe.

For fans of Three Girls from Bronzeville, this novel will seem familiar, but oh so different. FeFe's last summer living in the Robert Taylor homes managed by the Chicago Housing Authority are filled with tension, friendships, fears and anticipation. As buildings are evacuated and destroyed, her own building changes and new people appear, while others change or disappear. Well written with great plot AND character development, highly recommended.

Summer 1999 — the Robert Taylor Homes (aka the Projects) on State Street on the South Side of Chicago. 12-year old Felicia (Fefe) is happy jumping rope on the third floor porch with her three friends: Precious, the daughter of a pastor; Stacia, member of the notorious, gang-affiliated, Buchanan family; and newcomer Tanya, the ultra-timid, obviously neglected daughter of a crackhead on the 10th floor. Everything changes during this fateful summer: The Chicago Housing Authority is demolishing all of the Project buildings on State Street, and theirs is slated to go next; her brother, Meechee, is taken by the police in the middle of the night in a warrantless raid; random gunfire becomes more frequent; and Stacia begins to favor the family business over jumping rope.

Labeled a novel, the story reads like a memoir, and it would be easy to believe that much of the story comes from the author’s personal experience as she was raised in the Robert Taylor Homes in this time period. The writing is excellent (I have no quotes as I listened to it on audio), and the reader is absolutely excellent — perfect pacing, differentiated and consistent voices for the multiple characters, and beautifully timbre in her voice. Told in the first person from Fefe’s perspective, we follow her through that summer and then on through her life for the next twenty years, giving her an opportunity to revisit the turning point that summer was and to get closure on some of the events. It’s a gritty and truthful telling with added introspective commentary as Fefe comes of age in the midst of gangs, police crackdowns, drugs, single mothers on the one hand, and a strong community, loving family, and supportive clergy, teachers, and neighbors on the other. I love the advice she is given, the wide array of people from whom she gets it, and what she does with it. Fefe is a success story — she gets out of the Projects and finds her vocation in helping others — unlike some of the friends she had who do not have some of the same advantages offseting the meanness, cruelty, and unfairness of the environment.

This is a coming-of-age story, not a political treatise. Her conclusion near the very end is that “We are not the originator of our misfortunes — we are all the victims of it.” Her point: people do what they have to do to survive. I would have been a little happier with some ideas on what creates these misfortunes and how everyone — including those who live amidst it — could contribute to making it better.

A Coming-of-Age tale of four young ladies growing up in the housing projects of Chicago's southside. This story is told from multiple perspectives. It explores many topics ranging from gun violence to gentrification. I personally love how it examine journaling as a coping mechanism and a form of self-care. This book is classified as an adult title, but would be suitable for many of today's youth who find chaos commonplace in their everyday lives.

Really enjoyed this one and how much I enjoyed it didn't hit me until several minutes after I finished reading it wwhile I was laying in bed reflecting on it. That's when I started crying because of all that happened in the book and how our lives are partly determined because of the enviornments we grow up in and the opportunities we are given. I enjoyed following this group of friends and seeing their paths they chose to try and survive.