Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

"My Life on Craigslist" by Alaxandra Ares is a fun read for those stuck in young adulthood in a place which appears unwelcoming and unmotivated to offer assistance on how to begin to move responsibly through life. 25 year old Emily Thompson is living in a small apartment in New York's East Village. Having recently lost her job in an art gallery, she has no way to support her meager needs. Having tried conventional means of obtaining a job, she turns in desperation to becoming an escort. It seems to be a well-paid and easy job, but Emily soon discovers that most of life is not as it seems. She looks for love in all the wrong places and for some time the reader wonders if the woman will ever learn to make appropriate choices. Her choices are those available via Craigslist on the internet and it seems to take the young woman a long time to understand that other choices may exist, choices which would move her to a more mature outlook in life. But, along the way, the reader is treated to fun times, questionable choices and the hard knocks that come with those choices.

Ares is a budding author who has a knack for highlighting the neurotic, maladaptive and vulnerable people in New York's vast cavern of possible characters. Emily is a loveable character in that she appears to learn from her own choices and she begins to move toward promise rather than despair and a sense of helplessness. Many young adults will relate to her needs for freedom which are competing with the need for safety and comfort.