Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Williams (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune) once again returns to a Houston, Tex., neighborhood (this time Fifth Ward) for this disturbing novel. Her story centers on 14-year-old China Cup Cameron (named by a physician's assistant since, at the time, her teen mother "could care less"), who herself became a mother at 12. But in the first chapter, China's two-year-old daughter dies, and she takes on an enormous debt to pay for an elaborate funeral service. The debt forces her to take a job as a coat check girl at a strip club, dressed in a skimpy bathing suit, and she quickly sinks into a dangerous and destructive world. Readers may be overwhelmed by all the tragedy. (In addition to her daughter's death, China's mother died three years ago, and she lives with her uncle, who became wheelchair-bound after he was attacked in high school.)With vivid details (when China's daughter dies, the old women send her broken china since "in the olden days it was tradition for poor folks to decorate a grave with crushed pieces of their best servingware"), the author paints a tragic world of girls having to grow up too soon. But the dialogue is at times stilted and even China admits she can't "quite get my head around" the painful—and confusing—set-up to which she falls prey. Unfortunately, readers may have a hard time relating to China's story. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-China, 14, has learned to be a devoted mother after an episode of "messing around" with her best friend, Trip, resulted in her pregnancy two years earlier. Growing up in the same African-American Houston neighborhood as the characters who peopled Williams's earlier novels, China has never had an easy life, but when her daughter unexpectedly dies, she refuses to rely on any counsel except her own in coping with her heartbreak. Since her mother died years earlier, China has lived with Uncle Simon, who is wheelchair bound. When she insists upon taking a job at a strip club to pay off the baby's funeral bill, he chooses to keep their home life peaceful rather than attempting to control her actions and risk alienating her. Trip stands by her even when she denigrates his mother, refusing to accept her efforts to push him away. Williams is a master of character development and genuinely realized emotional growth. Her plotting almost boils over with big problems, but China is so compelling and engaging in her responses to situations that readers will care more about cheering her along than about the author's operatic predilections. The end of China's story isn't neat and complete, but is nonetheless satisfying. Teens with a taste for books by Connie Porter and Rita Williams-Garcia will want to get to know this teen.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Voice of Youth Advocates

Once unwanted by her own troubled teen mother, fourteen-year-old China Cup seems to be caught in a vicious cycle. At first she appears to be striving despite having to raise a daughter she does not want. The teenage father, Trip, nourishes his ambition to become a writer for a science fiction series and is relieved of any obligation to the child. China takes full responsibility for Amina with the help of Uncle, who is wheelchair bound. Just when China has accepted that her life revolves around her daughter, Amina has an unexpected and fatal negative reaction to medication. China is devastated but determined to give Amina the best funeral possible. Against her uncle's advice, she uses her legal status as an adult to purchase an expensive funeral that the family cannot afford. She commits to paying for it, vowing to get a job, but the only place to make fast cash is at Obsidian Queens, the local strip club. Before long, she has quit school and is considering moving from her job behind the counter to performing on stage. Williams's fans might be disappointed because the book lacks the author's usual depth and polished writing style. The plot is not convincing, several characters are not well developed, and Williams struggles to give platform to so many social issues-drug abuse, child abuse and neglect, and exploitation. It is difficult for her to fully treat any of them. Readers might do well to revisit Connie Porter's Imani All Mine (Houghton Mifflin, 1999/VOYA October 1999) or Rita Williams-Garcia's Like Sisters on the Homefront (Dutton, 1995/VOYA April 1996).-KaaVonia Hinton-Johnson.

ALA Booklist (Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2005)

As in When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune 2000) and its sequel Shayla's Double Brown Baby Blues (2001), Williams' latest work tells a grim, unsparing story of young people in a gritty neighborhood. When her two-year-old daughter dies suddenly, 14-year-old orphan China pours her guilt and heartbreak into a lavish funeral she can't afford. To pay the enormous cost, China finds work checking coats at a strip club (permissible since her guardian has changed her legal status from a minor to an adult). China endures strong harassment (explicitly described) in exchange for the large tips until she finally understands the gutting costs of her decisions. Too many contrivances weaken the rambling plot (a closing conspiracy is particularly distracting), China's motivations are not well developed, and graphic scenes in the club veer toward the gratuitous. Still, what will capture and hold mature teens are the strong, colloquial voices of China and her friends; the raw, honest details of China's world; and the provocative questions: Is the separation between childhood and adulthood about more than just the loss of innocence?

Horn Book (Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2005)

After her mother's death and a pregnancy at twelve, China Cup Cameron is now thrown the worst tragedy imaginable: the sudden death of her two-year-old daughter. China responds by shutting down emotionally--a credible response to grief that unfortunately distances the reader as well. Nevertheless, readers will be drawn in by the portraits of strong individuals working hard to re-shape their lives.

Kirkus Reviews

Only 14, China's two-year-old daughter is the center of her universe. It's hard to be a good mom, and yet China knows that she's learning what it takes. However, all the care in the world can't prevent Amina's tragic death due to an undiagnosed heart problem. Unwilling to attend the funeral, China insists on an elaborate and expensive coffin. Once she's committed to an impossible debt, she quits school to work at the counter of a raunchy strip club in her Houston neighborhood. It's no mystery where the plot is headed and incredibly obvious that all the things China tells herself only bring her closer to disaster. A big plus is the realistic rendering of the dialogue in vibrant language without resorting to incessant swearing, yet the heavy telegraphing by the author of the discoveries ahead may make some readers impatient with the slowness of stubborn China to realize the truths abundantly evident around her. Those with a taste for gleams of sunshine in their grit will find this just the ticket. (Fiction. YA)