Teddy, the indigenous leader of the F/C branch of the Simon City Royals wakes up on a hot Chicago August day in 1979, ready to lead his crew to a meetup of several factions of various gangs around the city. The goal is to forge new alliances, but not everyone is on board. If Teddy and his friends are going to survive the day, they need their wits about them--and maybe a little help from Coyote. Told in shifting perspectives as the F/C SCRs head into unfamiliar territory, this is a clever, violent, surprising work of autofiction. With more turns and divergent paths than an El map, the novel spans a day in Teddy's life, and launches us far forward into his future.

Reading this was a fascinating and, at times, challenging experience for me. I lived in Rogers Park and Uptown, but the Chicago I lived in was so different from Teddy's Chicago. At first, I was thrown by this--what did he mean Edgewater was unsettling? the fuck? that's where my favorite coffee spot is.--until I realized: that's kind of the fucking point. The Chicago I lived in as a white girl in the 2010s came out of the Chicago Van Alst represents so fully and beautifully in this book. Before there were gentrifiers and the Red Line, there was Teddy's world. But the thing that ties my Chicago to his is the absolute love we both have for the city, its neighborhoods, its people, its beauty, and the El that connects us all.

I noticed a few readers unsettled by the violence and the references to gangs and handshakes Van Alst doesn't explicate for the reader and to that I say: not everything was written with your comfort and frame of reference in mind. Take this book for what it is: a window (perhaps not a mirror), an invitation into a world that may seem unfamiliar but is rich with characters and story. Persevere with this one. It's well worth it.