A Book Review
Recently, I read what is and will be Tracy Brown‘s final gift to this world. Brooklyn is not just a tale of a struggling child turned teenager turned adult, it is the tale of what childhood trauma can do to a person who never receives the help they need.
There are things in life we simply cannot “pray away” without using the knowledge God gave us to seek someone professional to help us when our mental health fails us.
This book is a whirlwind of pain, destruction, and the ultimate death of a soul who just could not find peace.
The review posted on Amazon is as follows:
“I Didn’t Think It Would End the Way It Did
And I am honestly unsure how I feel about the cliffhanger. Knowing that the author is dead and a second part to this gruesome tale is nowhere in sight, leaves me feeling a bit angry. I also feel as though there was no other way it could end.
I am somewhat conflicted.
The book is insane! There were so many plot twists, I almost couldn’t keep count. Brooklyn was selfish–as a matter of fact, that is an understatement. She was downright ruthless and was forever crying wolf and “victim.”
She destroyed countless lives even right down to her best friend, Angel, and still thought the world owed her something. I have never known anyone like her, and I pray that I never meet anyone like her.
Her sister, Hope, had hope in her but Brooklyn was a lost cause. There was nobody or nothing that could save her. With each chapter I read, the more I disliked her and wanted her to grow up and recognize that the real world oftentimes takes a few struggles for you to survive it. And in that truth, it’s not the end of the world when those struggles take place.
I think the author did a magnificent job introducing a layered character to her readers who not only moved through various changes in her life but came back to the one place she never wanted to return to–home.
Ironically enough, it is the very place where she would breathe her last breath. I intend to give this book another read maybe a year or two from now.
I am certain I will find many things I missed this time and I look forward to it.
The author, if her spirit can feel these vibes, I hope she knows she nailed it with this book! God rest her soul.”
This book is the last of the three books I received as birthday gifts for my 44th birthday this past April. The author, Tracy Brown, will never get the opportunity to share her words with her readers again; she died in May 2023, at the age of 48.
A Cornered Gurl 
I remember when Tracy died, feeling a sense of loss. As a black man, I followed her writing career and was particularly impressed with her work in correctional facilities touching the lives of so many women. I appreciate you writing this review Tre. 🙏
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Thank you! When I started reading her work, I began the research on her life. She was such a force to be reckoned with.
The number of titles she held and the communities she helped staggered me. To die at such a young age with one’s hands in various pots on top of being a prolific writer, too, is just a heartbreaking thing.
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What a legacy though. Still.. gone too soon. 🙏
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I find relationships, especially online acquaintances disquietingly similar. Suddenly, there is only the wondering.
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🙏🏾💙
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It’s so sad that she passed so young but I’m glad she was able to publish some wonderful books before then.
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I am, too! I’d never heard of her before my coworker recommended “Hold You Down.”
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I almost want to get the books but I don’t want to be frustrated and feeling like something isn’t resolved. That leaves a void that penetrates my brain.
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I understand.
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Wow, that’s some review. It really captures the book and the author.
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🙏🏾💙
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😔 she died young
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She did! And I can’t find anything about how she died, but goodness!.🥺
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😕
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Only thing i found was a comment by someone on lipstick alley.com that she was battling cancer, but that wasn’t an official statement, nothing in the obit either
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Yeah, just wild for her to have been as accomplished as she was and no one mentioned HOW she died.
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Yeah that is odd.
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That makes me sad before I ever read the book. Makes you wonder if God saved her anyway because of whatever trauma she suffered to make her the way she was. I hope so.
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🙏🏾💙
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