Member Reviews
This book had me so emotional, and rooting very hard for Evelyn and her children. This book is amazingly written, and will hopefully make ppl think that not all homeless people are unemployed or lazy. Thank you for this great piece of work. It was amazing.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed the story of Eveyln and her children. The mostly downfalls of her one decision to give her children a better education has serious consequences.
After moving away from her family, Evelyn with her children and boyfriend rely on her aunt and long term hotels to house them.
Then the boyfriend gets abusive to her eldest son and Evelyn flees.
Eveyln holds down a full time job, volunteers at the childrens schools, but is homeless. No longterm solution other then sleeping in the car or trying to get a hotel voucher.
I liked that this is a real story, that this shows the struggles of homeless working mothers and their children.
What I didn't like was that it was very detailed in the first part. Then all of a sudden Eveyln is living in the Door of Hope shelter. IT was such a 180 turn that I had to go back and reread several pages, thinking that I had missed what happened.
At this point in the book, it was really hard to follow what all was going on and how the two women were to interact.
I felt that the author did a great disservice to the reader by NOT including the steps that Evelyn made to get to the shelter and how she interacted with Wendi.
This was a half finished book in my opinion. The later half needed just as much attention as the first.
Seeking Shelter is an excellent piece of journalism that follows two families that work to overcome homelessness while raising their families in the Los Angeles area. Evelyn and her family moved around the city from shelter to shelter and motel to motel, giving readers a glimpse of what life is like for the homeless in Los Angeles. The author gives a detailed account of the numbers and the reality of its growth in the city.
Based on one woman in particular, Evelyn's journey was one of extremes. With six children in tow and no matter where she found herself living, her main concern was getting a good education for her children. A private woman, Evelyn asked for little help, keeping her circumstances between herself and her kids. She was forever afraid that her children would be taken away from her by social services. Despite little education herself, she made education a constant priority for her children. Everything she said and did was based on that. Her love for and strong relationship with her kids and their deep concern for one another greatly impressed me.
A well-written and eye opening account of what it's like to raise a family at the poverty level in the U.S. A must read.