TAKE ME WITH YOU
by Vanessa Carlisle
A New York City sex worker investigates the disappearance of her stepfather in Los Angeles in Carlisle’s novel.
Kindred Powell has carved out an interesting life in Manhattan, where she works with her girlfriend Nautica at a BDSM dungeon. She’d previously worked as an exotic dancer, which wasn’t the career she expected, but as Kindred says, “You don’t get recruited by the escort agencies from a secret roster of girls-who-got-hurt.” She grew up poor in Studio City, California, with a White mother who worked two low-paying jobs and her boyfriend, Carl, a Black man whom Kindred considers her true father. Carl played a large role in the life of Kindred, who’s White, introducing her to endless lessons and books about Black liberation and justice. Unfortunately, Carl ended up in prison for selling marijuana, and her mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Kindred’s feelings about economic and racial injustice intensify after Carl’s incarceration, but she’s forced to move to New York with a friend to find work and her own way in the world. As time passes and Kindred gains skills and experience as a sex worker, Carl goes missing in downtown LA’s skid row. She knows she must return home and take risks that she’s never taken before to find the man who influenced her and never got a fair shake in life. Carlisle’s discerning novel ably demonstrates the various ways that the United States can be an unforgiving place for people with limited financial means. The sex worker plotline is one that many readers may find familiar, but Kindred’s lifelike backstory about her early years in LA gives the novel ample weight. Carl’s indefatigable voice adds layers of substance to Kindred’s story, and the details of his experience are both illuminating and heartbreaking. Overall, though, the story might have been more effective if it had focused more on Kindred’s growth rather than on the gravitational pull that LA has on her.
A realistic and unsentimental take on race, class, and justice as seen through the eyes of an uncompromising protagonist.