Venus Black is a teenager, a straight A student, and wants to be an astronaut. Then one day she commits a terrible crime and is sent to a juvenile detention center. She won't tell anyone why she committed the crime. This is the story of how she comes to terms with what she did and the people in her life, helped by a fine cast of secondary characters. That's probably one of my favorite things about this book: the other people Venus encounters are so well developed and play such an important role in Venus's life.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free e-ARC of this book.

Was a little bit all over the place and hard to follow. The narrator was a bit confused as well, I thought. Not well written and the plot was super slow.

I actually really liked this book. It was all my favorite topics tied together but also kind of dumb at some points. BUT I loved Leo's perspective and I really felt drawn in and connected to the characters.

My Name is Venus Black is a thoughtful story about a girl starting her life over. She's from a dysfunctional family and has committed a terrible crime - but is likable anyway. I spent the majority of the book trying to understand her and rooting for her to succeed. Heather Lloyd has written a powerful story reminding us not to jump to conclusions about people and that even if someone has done something bad - it doesn't make the person bad

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Shortly after 13-year-old Venus Black is arrested for killing her stepfather, her brother, Leo, goes missing. Six years later, Venus is released from prison with only a suitcase to her name. With her brother still missing and still being unable to forgive her mother, Venus has no family to return to, either. Venus knows that she will never escape the shadow of her past if people know who she is, so she decides to start life under an assumed name. As she lives her new life, however, she realizes she can never let people in unless she makes peace with her past.

Parts of the book are a first-person narrative from Venus's perspective, while other parts are third-person from the perspective of other characters to get a full view of what is happening. Despite the title, the book almost felt like its main focus was on Leo's story because much of what happened to Venus is already in the past by the time you are 30% through the book. I think this is supposed to be a YA, but with murder, foul language, underage drinking, and other illegal things, parents of younger teenagers might want to hold off on letting their kids read this story. There a few parts of the story that likely require some suspension of disbelief, but overall, it was an enjoyable book.

I loved this story. I don't know how plausible or appropriate it would be for schools, but I did enjoy the characters.

Venus Black has just committed a crime that will change everything. At 13, she finds herself responsible for the death of her step-father. We don't find out why until much later. The story unfolds over many years. We meet her the night she is arrested. While she is awaiting her day in court, her younger brother Leo goes missing. Years later when Venus is released, she tries to start a new life. But she soon finds that her past is something she can't escape.

Another NetGalley read (Thanks again) that caught me a little by surprise at times. Venus Black is not your average teenager and a her and her brother, Leo’s, story unfolds, it reminds you that things are not always what they seem.
Leo’s voice was one of my favorite aspects of this story. Leo is autistic, so he sees the world differently. His voice is simply wonderful and refreshing to read. It takes you into his head and helps explains what looks like temper tantrums on the outside are really a reaction to a stimulus that has caused him pain. It was well-written and not overdone, sort of like Leonardo DiCaprio’s role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. It could have gone horribly wrong and come off as insensitive and offensive, but it doesn’t. While the attention was on Venus and her actions, Leo was left on the back-burner at times and looking at the story through his eyes helps paint a picture of Venus that would not otherwise be painted.
I was not surprised when the entire story as to why Venus shot her step-father came out. The way it was setup early on, to me, gave away the reason even though it was explicitly stated until later on in the book. I’m not going to give away any of the details, that would ruin the story, but it felt a little cliche and I wanted something more of a surprise there than what I got.
The pacing was steady, which I prefer. All too often, books start out with a fast, in-your-face pace and it’s hard to keep that moment for 500+ pages, not impossible, but hard. Then there are books that are so slow to start that I sometimes have to convince myself to give it more time and not throw in the towel within the first 5 chapters. This one was neither, so it was refreshing to have a story told evenly from start to finish.
There were times I wanted to yell at this book when the characters started making stupid decisions, but I had to remind myself that this was set in the 1980s. Things are not now what they were then for better or worse and I had to step back and remind myself of that at times.
In the end, it’s hard not to root for Venus. She just wants to move on with her life and take things one day at a time. How can you not support that? We find out what happened with her step-father and even why she flat out refused to speak about it for so long. We find out what happened to Leo as a result and eventually, although not easily, we watch Venus and her mother come to terms with everything and restore their relationship. The world isn’t all black and right and sometimes the lines between right and wrong are blurred and curved instead of clear and straight. My Name is Venus Black looks at those lines and how each situation is different from the next because every human being is unique and reacts to their surroundings in their own individual way.

I couldn't put this book down! I had a soft spot for and empathized with most of the characters, except Inez. I couldn't get to liking her at all, even if she's just a realistic character with flaws and all. It did read more like YA than regular adult fiction, and lots of details were glossed over. By the end of the book, everything was tied up overly sweetly. Still, I really enjoyed the younger characters in the book along with the time setting.

Gripping from the first page. It made me run the emotional roller-coaster I usually avoid. I don't regret one second of reading this book. Emotional, gripping and unexpected.

This novel of a 19 year old released from prison and trying to rehabilitate and change her life is more a young adult novel than any other genre. I was impressed by the character portrait of "Venus", her drive, her ingenuity, her optimism, and her determination. I thought the storyline rather simplistic and the dialogue a bit young, so YA fits again. It was an entertaining though not riveting read for me.

A teenage girl kills her stepfather, followed by a long ripple of unfortunate events. This is a story about a broken family, good people making some poor choices, and the rebuilding and growth from it. I enjoyed the reality and insight of a child with autism which was blended into the story so well, and appreciated the unconditional love and dedication throughout the book. Thank you NetGalley for the copy, all opinions are my own.

I am not going to lie, one of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because it was based around many places that I have lived throughout my life. There is something about being able to actually picture the places that are described in the book that make a book that much more enjoyable for me. I was happy that I chose to read the book, because beyond living within 10 minutes of most of the places the book took place in, this was also a very enjoyable story.

It included something for everyone.. mystery, character development, romance.. What more could you want?

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A great debut with well fleshed out characters. It gave me hope, sadness, happiness, just all the feels- which is exactly what I was looking for from this book. I’ll definitely read more from this author.

Truly an amazing coming of age story about a girl who appears to have it all!

Her teachers think she's just an extraordinary straight A student. She is not only well liked by teachers but by students alike.

Her home life is something else, though. Her relationship with her mother is strained at best. Her younger brother is developmentally challenged and then goes missing.

Venus is then charged with a horrific crime and spends the next five years of her life in a juvenile detention center. When she comes out, she's completely changed including her name.

A great story of family troubles and the power of forgiveness.

This was such a surprising and different book for me. Every page made me wondering what would happen next. Fantastic book. Thank you for allowing me t0 read this and write about it.

Great read, I fell in love with all the characters. I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Netgalley.

Holy POV changes Batman! I really don’t like books that bounce around in different times and point of views, so this book already had that against it from the start then there was the fact that the storyline seems to go in every direction but the right one. This is another book that I started and stopped and put down because I couldn’t get into the writing.
When Venus finds herself in Juvey for crimes committed in her home, she goes through most motions that anyone in that state would go through- anger, frustration, the blaming stage, and hate. Most of the hostility is pointed in her mother’s direction. When she is released, she sets out to find her missing brother. That’s where things start to become farfetched and I lost interest. It took several attempts, but I struggled through until the end.
The book was not completely awful it was just written in a way that couldn’t hold my attention. I didn’t really love any of the characters and I felt out of my element while reading it. Not sure who I would recommend it to.

2.5 Stars* (rounded up)

Venus Black is in Juvvy. What got her there? Well, she committed one heck of a crime. One she refuses to talk about. And boy, is she angry. At everyone under the sun, but especially at her mother. Her actions, created equal and opposite reactions, and now, her younger brother Leo, who has autism, is missing. Now things are bad bad bad. Five years later, Venus gets out, having obtained a fake identity, which she hopes will help her stay under the radar even though she is extremely recognizable. Her main goal is to find Leo and bring him home. As for her past, well, let’s just see if we can forget about it.. shall we?

While this is a novel that had potential, unfortunately I felt that it was kind of all over the place and it just never came together. In order for me to invest in a novel, I need to care about the characters and Venus and her mother left me wanting. There were also several plot points that I felt were far-fetched - if only I could suspend my belief. That said, several peripheral characters saved the day, Tessa, a friend of Leo’s and Piper, a young girl who befriends Venus. Talk about stealing the show! Piper ran away with it.

I read this with my GR sister Lindsay. Reading it with her also made the experience much better. Thanks for that Linds!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, The Dial Press and Heather Lloyd for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and NetGalley on 5.12.18.

From Goodreads: “Venus Black is a straitlaced, straight-A student obsessed with the phenomena of astronomy—until the night she commits a shocking crime that tears her family apart and ignites a media firestorm. Venus refuses to talk about what happened or why, except to blame her mother. Adding to the mystery, Venus’s developmentally challenged younger brother, Leo, suddenly goes missing.” It also says, “In this gripping story, debut novelist Heather Lloyd brilliantly captures ordinary lives upended by extraordinary circumstances. Told through a constellation of captivating voices, My Name Is Venus Black explores the fluidity of right and wrong, the meaning of love and family, and the nature of forgiveness.”

I want to note straight off that I got this ARC from the publishers by accident. See, I got an email from a Penguin Random House publicist offering me copies of a few of their February releases. So, I clicked on the cover of this one, and it automatically ended up on my NetGalley dashboard. That made me feel obliged to read and review it, and now that I have done, I’m glad that I did, even though this is far from a perfect novel.
Let’s start with the problems I had with this book. To start off, Venus tells her story in first person, which is fine. However, using this mechanic, the narrator can’t be omnipresent, so this meant that Lloyd needed to move to third person narrative when delving into the action of the other characters. That is also totally reasonable, but it can be problematic if the author doesn’t do something to ensure that the two different points of view are kept distinct, in one way or another. For example, Michael Ondaatje, was able to overcome this by making the action that the protagonist couldn’t know about as part of the protagonist’s imagination. Other authors will alternate chapters to distinguish first from third person sections. Lloyd, however, did neither of these, and I found it disturbing and confusing when the point of view slipped between first and third person within chapters and sometimes even within the same paragraph.

The other problem I had with this book was its ending. There’s a whole section before the epilogue which attempts to tie things up nicely. While that can be good, the fact is that several of these solutions to felt highly unlikely and unbelievable. All things considered, with what happens in this book, I think this book would have had a much more powerful ending if everything after the titular line is said by the protagonist (sorry, can’t say more, to avoid spoilers) had been left out, and gone straight from there to the epilogue – which was outstanding. I believe that life isn’t tidy, and therefore fiction doesn’t need to clean things up for us. Furthermore, I also believe that authors do us a favor if they leave us guessing and imagining for ourselves what happens to these people after the end of their novels.

That aside, I must praise Lloyd on what was otherwise a very powerful and complex story, with very sympathetic characters. One of the things that made this book special is how Lloyd went about telling us what Venus did on that fateful night. Instead of giving us the whole picture in one fell swoop, Lloyd gives us crumbs all along the way. This keeps the readers guessing and while trying to understand everything about what happened, we also slowly get to know Venus better. I would go so far as to say that this is one of the most admirable examples of developing a compelling character I’ve ever read. All the characters here – not just Venus – grow and change throughout the book, without it ever feeling forced or unrealistic.

To top all that off, Lloyd also gives us a multifaceted story, with conjoining plots and timelines. This could easily have been confusing, but as Lloyd did with Venus’ crime, this all gets carefully pieced together by the end of the book. Admittedly, because of the book’s title, initially I did get slightly frustrated that this novel didn’t focus solely on Venus, but when I realized that this would have left out a very essential part of the plot, I decided this wasn’t a problem here, and in fact, Lloyd turned it very much into a major advantage.

All told, this was a very happy accident for me to get this book. As far as characterizations and plots are concerned, this book was spot on the money, and written in a deceptively simple, but gripping prose. That I had a problem with some of the shifts in the points of view, and could have done without some of the ending, doesn’t mean that other readers won’t be able to ignore this (or disagree with me) and fully enjoy this novel. I think for all this, Lloyd has proven herself to be quite a talented writer (and one to watch out for), and I’m recommending this book with a solid four out of five stars.