DNF. I really wanted to liked this book, but I didn’t sympathize with Patsy and couldn’t get into this book. May try again another time.

Patsy's mother Mama G "found" Jesus when Patsy was still a girl. She gave all her pension money to her church and refused to shop, clean, cook, or give her daughter any attention. Patsy's stepfather gave her attention, so much attention that she got pregnant. That baby was cut out of her.
After that, Patsy's only love was Cicely. They discover sex together. But Cicely left Jamaica for new York, and Patsy didn't hear from her for a long time.
Looking for love, Patsy "goes" with any boy who wants her. Roy falls in love with her and calls her Birdie. He gives her a baby, too.
But at 22, Patsy is not ready to love a baby. when Tru, short for Trudy Ann, is 6 years old, Patsy follows Cicely to New York, who has finally written to her, gushing that they can be together, and how wonderful it will be. Patsy leaves Tru behind, with Tru's father and his wife, promising Tru she will soon be back.
Patsy gets to New York and Cicely picks her up and takes her to her upper middle class home.
But Cicely has lied to Patsy: she is married to a cruel man who wants Patsy out of their basement guest room ASAP.
One night he beats Cicely, and when Patsy intervenes, Cicely lashes out at her, protecting her husband. This is when Patsy realizes the terrible predicament she is in: no job, no place to live, no money or papers to go back to Jamaica. And worst of all, she has to live with the lie she told her little girl, that she would be back, when she never had any intention to.
This is heartbreaking, and while it is fiction, it's representative of so many immigrants' lives, who come to the U.S. believing the stories their friends who preceed them here tell, too embarrassed to tell the truth about how cruel life is in the U.S. ( )

Well, that was EMOTIONAL. ( )

This was a memorable story of a young woman from Jamaica who followed a dream to the US and then had to fit herself into the challenges and nightmares and exhaustion that comes with being undocumented and having no one to turn to. I was rooting for Patsy. She made some choices that were very harsh - leaving her young daughter behind and staying out of touch which was devastating for the child - yet, she was courageous and determined, and put her own disappointments aside in order to grow. ( )

This was a bit of a slow start for me, but it pulled me in before too long, and I got really wrapped up in learning what would become of the main characters. I felt too as if I was seeing into a bit of Jamaican immigrant culture that I've not had access to previously. It put me in mind of a few other books I've valued over the last few years, including The Year of the Runaways, Behold the Dreamers, and Americanah. ( )