Party Girl

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

What begins as a fascinating first-person account of life through the eyes of a female L.A. gang member rapidly unravels due to undeveloped characters and a dangling story line. Kata and Ana have been inseparable since fourth grade. Now 14, the two routinely escape from their homes at night to enter a world of sensual dance contests in abandoned warehouses as a team called "Outrageous Chaos." One night, after taking the top prize, the pair sneak across turf lines and Ana is killed by a rival gang. Now the gang is after Kata. While Ewing (Drive-By) effectively draws readers into the teenagers' world, she often breaks with Kata's narrative to fill in the facts ("Some [girls] even tried to get pregnant... so they could face out, quit the gang life and collect their welfare"). Kata's relationships with other characters go unexplored (e.g., an explanation for Kata's strange tie to Pocho, Ana's boyfriend, at the end of the book seems tacked on; Kata's alliance with her gang is never developed). And the visions that earn her the name "Dreamer" are poorly integrated into the novel. But perhaps of most concern is Kata's pronouncement, "I quit the life," with no explanation of how she will dodge Ana's killers, who are still in pursuit of her. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Kata and Ana have been inseparable since fourth grade. Kata helped Ana learn English when her family came to L.A. from Mexico, then Ana helped Kata keep up with her schoolwork whenever she had to take care of her mother. The girls, now 14, dreamed together, danced together, and joined a gang together. They are together the night Ana, who confides to Kata that she is pregnant, is shot and killed by a member of a rival gang. Kata narrates the progression of her grief: her anger, desire for revenge, and her guilt over luring Ana into "the life." Kata relates the events that eventually give her the courage to rise above her difficult circumstances and strive for a positive future. Ewing writes convincingly of Kata's gritty life in the barrio with her alcoholic mother, her desperately hopeless homeys, and the release and joy she finds in dancing competitions. Kata is one tough cookie. She needs that toughness to survive. But she finds in herself the additional capacity to care for others, whether it's her dissipated mother, the gang member who tries to hide the pain of his mother's desertion, or the boy who seemed to have won Ana's love. In just over 100 pages, Ewing makes readers care for Kata and wish her well.-Miriam Lang Budin, Mt. Kisco Public Library, NY

Maeve Visser Knoth

When Kata's best friend and fellow gang member Ana is killed in a drive-by shooting, Kata looks first for revenge and finally for a way to make sense of the loss. Although she and her friends have been to many funerals, and expect that dying young is the price they will pay for living on the edge, Kata cannot imagine surviving without Ana. Her mother is an alcoholic who has a string of men but no energy to raise a daughter, and her fellow gang members are as quick to cut one another as they are to argue about respect or sleep with one another's lovers or chase down and kill a rival gang member. As the short novel unfolds, Kata tracks down the boy she is sure killed Ana, only to find out that her life need not be defined by gang boundaries and that her assumptions about who the enemy really is are not all correct. Like the characters themselves, the novel is a mix of sophistication and innocence. The grim realities, while not romanticized, are tempered by a gently hopeful ending. Ewing's novel does not make for light reading, but she creates a portrait of a girl and a society that gives some substance to the brief reports of gang shootings on the evening news.
--Horn Book

Kirkus Reviews

Ana and Kata have been friends since fourth grade, so close that they had become a part of one another. When they dance at the battle of the go-gos they move in perfect synchrony to the pounding beat, and nothing exists but the music and each other. Then Ana is gunned down by members of a rival gang, and Kata is torn between her desire for revenge and her yearning to "face out" and quit the life. In a relatively small number of pages, Ewing captures the pulse and rhythm of the setting, from the Los Angeles neighborhood and snatches of conversation in Spanish, to the staccato footsteps of Kata and Ana in their hot pants and five-inch heels. The fast-paced narration features some riveting action and close-ups of a world where teenagers literally have no futures. Unfortunately, Ewing doesn't give relationships, family situations, and emotions more than cursory psychological summaries; readers never feel . . . that they have slipped into the characters' skins. Nevertheless, this is a gripping look at a fascinating, often ruthless, urban world.