The language and writing are beautiful and artistic. Although I enjoyed listening to the narrator read the audiobook, I almost wish that I had a physical copy because sometimes I would start savoring the prose -- the descriptions and the atmosphere -- and I'd lose track of the story itself (especially because it's non-linear, jumping from present day, back to the 70s when August is a girl, over to her childhood in Tennessee, and back again). I think I would have appreciated it more being able to linger a bit more over those passages if I could stop and think about them while re-reading or flipping back to other passages, as well. 

The story itself is primarily a flashback, told after August sees her old childhood friend on the train. And then it's part coming-of-age tale, part exploration of family (both in the truest sense of the word as well as "found" family), and part cautionary tale. August and her girls grow up in Brooklyn where they walk up and down the streets, arms linked, bumping their way through life together. They are always together and rely on each other for everything. When their families of origin don't quite measure up, the girls are their own family unit. But there is an incident that changes all of that, and it has to do with the other Brooklyn. The other Brooklyn is a dark place full of drugs, boys and men with groping hands, expectations of their maturing bodies, missing mothers, disappointing fathers, clashing cultures, etc. They navigate all of it together before it ultimately breaks them apart, sending them on different paths.