Kindle Edition Amazon The Troubled Oyster Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Self Type: Fiction Pages: 27 Copyright: Jan 1, 2014 Price: $0.99 (eBook) Cleo becomes a street savvy youngster who is somewhat melodramatic. Her fast paced life of crime builds paranoid within her mind, and all things dear to her she keeps close.  Baby Girl Book 1: In the Beginning is the first book in this series. Follow Cleo on her epic saga which begins when she is abandoned by her mom at twelve. She has no other family which she is aware of, and in order to survive she leaves her home and lives on the streets. She meets some interesting characters and gets into some amusing predicaments all in the name of survival, such as jumping trains, being chased through the woods by a crazy man with a loaded shotgun and witnessing an unspeakable crime. After a few months on the streets she runs into another group of kids, Einstein is the oldest and a leader in the group, they form a family of sorts. For survival and money they lean towards a life a crime which inevitably breaks up their family and sends Cleo and Einstein spiraling into their own adventure. Eventually they settle into a “normal” life however their pasts can’t be hushed forever …  Excerpt The city lights dwindled into sparse street lights and trees. My lungs were filled with exhaust fumes, and my body felt as though it had been pounded with a jack hammer. The truck finally slowed, turned and abruptly stopped, our heads slamming into the back of the cab. The door creaked open and a heavy foot hit the ground, and then another, his footsteps cumbersome along the pavement. Next they halted and lumbered their way back. With the truck bed so junky we had nowhere to move. Looking at each other and then the huge hairy hand that forced its way over the truck bed, we both jumped out and ran. “What the fu…?” he called, but we were gone. We ran into the woods surrounding his house. When I finally rested myself against a tree, my side felt as though knives were poking into it. Einstein fell to the ground, both of us panting. “This is eerie… hmm… What is it that happens to teens alone in the woods?” Einstein asked widening his eyes into basins of fear. “Nothing more than teens alone in the city with all types of nutcases,” I replied. “Really, haven’t you ever been to the movies?” he asked, a look of curiosity flashed across his face. “No, never,” I replied. I could hear the sadness in my own voice.

Fast-Paced, Exciting, and Beautiful
Baby Girl is a quick-paced short story following the adventures of one brave and street-savvy adolescent. Abandoned by her mother, Cleo has to learn to fend for herself and ultimately survive.

Descriptive, raw, and captivating, author Elle Klass does a great job of leading you through the mishaps, turmoil, and journey that the main character undergoes over the span of roughly a year.

Shorter structured sentences keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, as the pace is heightened and drops you like a rollercoaster into the harried, disjointed life of Cleo. Concise but beautiful descriptions, like “a stream of shrapnel flowed out of the barrel” or “rubber ducky yellow” made the story a visual treat.

I hungered for the author to include more vivid details and reference the other senses such as taste and touch, but otherwise, I could see exactly what the author had wanted me to.

I recommend this short story to anyone looking to escape into the adventure-packed landscape of one rough-around-edges teenager.

Baby Girl Blues?
Baby Girl by Elle Klass is a urban fiction novella centering on the exploits of Cleo, a pre-teen urchin who lives on the streets and scavenges for food wherever she can find it. She comes across a trio of child vagabonds with whom she forms an alliance, leading Cleo along a thrilling yet dangerous new path in this engrossing piece of ‘street lit’. The author weaves a tale of adventure as well as addressing the topic of the growing community of homeless kids and their daily struggle for survival.

Klass never loses sight of the fact that this is a foursome of childhood friends, united in a bond far stronger than those forged in schoolyards or institutions. The theme of loyalty resonates throughout the novella as Cleo and her friends entertain fantasies of moving to France, despite the impossible odds facing those as destitute as themselves. Their dreams of travel entice them to live as hoboes, riding the rails across the country and foraging as best they can in the cities through which they pass. They travel as far west as Seattle before planning to cross country to New York in order to sneak onto a freight ship to France. Yet their best laid plans avail them nought as misfortune and tragedy catches up with them at last. It forces Cleo to move on alone as Book One of this series comes to a close.

The major male protagonist, Einstein, is aptly named as the leader and mastermind of the quartet. The group is split asunder by inevitable circumstances which lead to an epiphany for Cleo as she realizes her destiny as Einstein’s kindred spirit. Their relationship develops as they begin maturing together and come to a deeper understanding of the real world, along with the promise and responsibility it entails. When Einstein is taken from her, it is a different Cleo who emerges to face an uncertain future. Baby Girl by Elle Klass helps us realize what it takes for our unwanted children to find their way on their own.

A new voice,
What I found most interesting about this story was the author's style. It purports to be the confessions of a homeless teenage runaway girl. I found it sometimes difficult to remember this is fiction. The story is told in a matter-of-fact, unembellished style that might be used by such a narrator. Remarkable events are told as if the teller sees nothing unusual in them, such as burglarising wealthy homes, or living in an abandoned warehouse. The effect is a more difficult feat to pull off than one might suppose--at least for a mature adult. A story that might have been sentimental and maudlin in the hands of another writer left me with a subtle sense of horror. The book is presented as the first half of a Young Adult novella. It is that, but I believe it may be appreciated even more by adult readers. I just finished Book 1, and will plunge at once into the second half.