Take a step back in time to 1950s New Orleans, Louisiana! Blues and Jazz ruled the music scene, the city became a cultural “melting pot”, streetcars were seen on every street corner, and the city expanded to new heights never seen before. Although, it was not without problems as segregation and racism were rampant at the time. With these in mind, Out of the Easy is a stepping stone into the period. 

Out of the Easy follows Josie Moraine, a 17 year old girl living in New Orleans.      

The daughter of a brothel worker, she wants to leave the Big Easy in favor of living a new life without being known as such. She works at a bookstore in order to get by. However, the mysterious death of a customer forces her to rethink her entire life and her path in life. Josie becomes attached to the dead customer and becomes involved in the murder investigation. As the investigation unfolds, she discovers a wormhole of secrets and revelations within the Big Easy. A classic historical fiction novel, Sepetys writes a compelling story about a girl torn between her current life and the life she wants to have. The overarching theme of the book is fate and how one can overcome what is predestined for them. Josie doesn’t want to stay in New Orleans and let her mother define her and her future. She longs to go to Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton,

Massachusetts after one of her friends, a student at Smith, recommends it to her. In the end, it is left ambiguous if she ever got in, as it is said that she got an interview with an admissions officer. It is also important to note that she was sent a rejection letter earlier in the story. Sepetys is a master of immersing the audience into the time period, and it was especially wonderful and made sense to set the narrative in a place like New Orleans. During the 1950s, women felt forced to get married quickly and to conform to the housewife role. Although some women did get jobs outside the home, it was still expected that they took up primary care for the family and stayed home. Discontent with this notion was growing and soon, this would materialize into the beginning of the next women’s rights movement or second wave feminism. This is also why I felt why 1950s New Orleans was the perfect setting for Out of the Easy, as it connects a lot of Josie’s actions and motivations with the time period at large.

This is probably why it felt truly unique and realistic reading through the book. The story didn’t feel forced and played off and took advantage of its environment to convey a story of emotion and rawness. The protagonist, Josie, is a complex character. The audience can sympathize with her due to her less than ideal childhood and her mother’s crude personality. Through the unfolding of events, we get a more intricate understanding of her personality, inner thoughts/feelings, and her actions and how they affect the people around her. A prominent recurrence throughout the story is that she is very self-conscious about her background and lies in order to be seen as “normal” to others. Her relationships are also shown with such complexity that they feel akin to the change in connections that we have in our lives. Josie also experiences heartbreak and goes through grief that Sepetys composes with realism. In the end, Sepetys writes Josie as an engaging yet imperfect person that a lot of people can resonate with. However, at times, the writing is flowery at best. Sometimes, there is a lot of imagery being used to describe a single action and it can become confusing. It’s better to use simple words to convey an idea instead of using overly specific language that can describe the same idea just in more time. There were also a number of unnecessary characters that it became somewhat tiring to try and remember everyone and the role they played in the story. 

Although it fits the setting of New Orleans with its vast diversity, it shouldn’t get to the point where the characters become like an enigma to the reader. It’s also hard to understand their motives, along with the complicated words used to describe them. Another issue I had with the book was that at times, the pacing was rapid and not able to get along, especially towards the end of the story. You would be at one location, then you would be at another, then someone would die, and then another monumental event would happen, all within the same chapter. I wished that these events would be better placed throughout different chapters, so that the reader would get time to breathe and reflect on what happened. Even though I have my thoughts and criticisms on how the book would have been better, it is still a solid and charming debut by Sepetys. It’s vibrant and lively, while also simultaneously being conscious and evocative. I recommend Out of the Easy to fans of historical fiction, young adult literature, mystery, and overall, of literary fiction.