What the book makes apparent is that exiting gang life is far from simple as Danielle’s own struggle evidences and making a conscious decision is just the first step. A lack of strong parental role models, outsourced education via social media, opportunities to find and exploit those young people and children to separate them from the herd, make them fall guys, beat them into submission and worse, all of this is like cat nip to career criminals who know e xactly how to groom them to a life they would not, given alternatives, have chosen. A turning point comes when Danielle is arrested and – with the help of a probation officer – she begins to question whether she really is ‘top girl’ after all.

It's a very dark read however, and I had to pause it several times when something terrible happened to Danielle.My children have been the ‘token poor kids’ for parents in the school yard, teachers who pay little to no attention to those who are living in an area of socio-economic deprivation, and you can see how easily you become angry at the stereotypes forced upon you because of your post code. She has since advocated for women in the criminal justice system, speaking to judges and law enforcement about the role of women in gangs. If I was to raise a criticism it would be that at times found some of the language used, the dialect a bit jarring and I think often ‘slang’ talks struggles to be translated to the written word, but this was a minor point and at times this served to give voice to the author.

Her mother was a first generation immigrant so this might have been a kick back against what is seen as Western indulgence -apologies if I have read this incorrectly-and therefore she comes across as distant, even though she is home for most of Danielle's childhood. She came across as both ruthless(she admits being in it for the money)but also incredibly fragile and traumatized. Her resilience is something which is unbelievable, and her will to keep going in spite of this, as a teen mum, as someone who is now letting her kitchen out to local drug dealers to cook crack(and in the process, learning how to do it herself) all of this seems completely normal to her. No 13 yr old should see this’ ‘no 13yr old should go for that’… when talking about fights she had witnessed. I think it’s also important to note that she says time and again that she wasn’t trafficked into this life style she chose it and then she chose to leave it.I struggled to sympathise with how she didn’t seem to really fight for her son; she could easily have afforded a solicitor (given her income from drug dealing!