I'm grudgingly giving this book three stars, but really, it doesn't deserve it. The stars are for the actual writing.

But this is exactly the type of book I despise. Great writing and interesting characters that suck you in...and absolutely no resolution at the end.

There isn't too many reading experiences worse than getting down to the final ten or twenty pages and knowing, absolutely without fail knowing that there aren't enough pages left to clean the story up.

Damn it. I hate wasting my time with books like this. ( )

One of the most valuable things about fiction is that it encourages empathy. People who have grown up in "good homes" or people whose experience with the seedier side of life is, thankfully, limited, will find a character to empathize with. As readers, we ache with Sammie's vulnerability to her to father, to her mother, and to her foster family. We want to shout affirmations to her from outside the pages of the book but we know she can't hear us.

Having grown up in Greater Vancouver, I can identify with Sammie on a more personal level. In fact, I find it difficult to review this book with an "objective" point of view. For instance when Sammie bristles with indignation over Aunt Jemima's fake maple syrup and the way she feels that people look down on her as a welfare case--I get that. Also when the kids at the bush party are getting drunk and Sammie thinks "If you act like Marlene, you'll end up like Marlene"--I get that too.

But as a lover of good writing, I can say that Billie Livingston has really impressed me with this novel. There are some startling images that astonished me. "The sun is smashed open on the blue water like a broken piggy bank" is not only a knock-your-socks-off image of English Bay but it is also totally integral to the mood of the book. The way Sammie is confused about love: family love, "Jesusy" love, and boy-girl love--it makes my eyes sting and my stomach ache.

I am reminded of Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I loved as well.

One Good Hustle is beautifully written and completely believable in it's harshness. Until now, Sammie's story has never been told--not with this tender and brilliant care. I only wish I could write a review that would convince everyone to listen to pay attention to her, to surround her and help me try to communicate to her that she's smart, she's loveable, and that, with a little distance from her childhood, she'll be ok one day.

Thank you, thank you Ms. Livingston. ( )

I loved One Good Hustle.

Clean writing, simple, yet sophisticated, with characters so familiar as to feel neighbourly, with all that neighbours bring.

Sammie, Livingston's young protagonist, is written with such a confident stroke, I don't think I caught one misstep. She's heartbreaking in the toughest, truest sense, in part because she's one of those pained youths cursed with self-awareness that isn't yet paired with autonomy.

And while the circumstances of Sammie's upbringing are entertaining—hustling—(you'll find yourself wanting to take notes)–and provide a smart backdrop to the rest of Livingston's tale, the story itself doesn't hinge on those circumstances, a good thing. Instead, it stands firm, stubbornly so, on the two tiny legs of a precocious teen.

You can't quite call this a coming-of-age tale; it's just life. And some kids get thrown in at the deep end.

If you've ever watched from afar, or close up, as an adolescent struggles to find his or her way in the world, you should read One Good Hustle. You'll be at once wrecked and relieved.

Ps. It's possible to read this in one day, if you're looking to be completely immersed in something. ( )

I loved this one. In the same vein as a Complicated Kindness or Lullabies for Little Criminals, One Good Hustle, has a young narrator but is definitely not a YA book. One blogger likened the story to Alan Silitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and I think that is probably the closest comparison. It's a novel about class and the human instinct to assert its most authentic self. The book's narrator, Sammie is irascible, vulnerable, funny and sharp and worth every word. I love that the Giller jury finally made a choice I agree with. ( )

It's not that this book doesn't have redeeming qualities, but I am completely shocked that it is on the Giller Longlist. Makes me wonder what I missed when I read it. It tells the story of a young teen who has been raised in a home with two professional con artists. Her father bails on them and her mother becomes increasingly unstable to the point where the girl can't take it anymore and she moves in with a friend's family. There isn't much in the way of plot. It just shows how she struggles with her own personal demons that come of her upbringing. You certainly do sympathize with the character but really none of the characters had great development. I feel this would be better enjoyed by teens. It really felt like a YA book when I was reading it. ( )