Love & Haight by Susan Carlton is an excellent snapshot of the issues of an era; surprisingly captured by an author who wasn't even born yet in the time this story takes place. Despite its heavy subject matter -- abortion -- the author paints a shockingly honest depiction of teenage youth's life in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970's, still in the height of the hippie free love movement. It's fully immersing without turning cliche, which is usually a problem I find with most stories set in the 60's or 70's, so this was a refreshing change of pace. And while the whole story leaves you with this sense that the girl is going to have her mind changed and not go through with the procedure... I think I was most surprised that the story DOES go there. Nor does it make it out to be a horror story... it shows that life goes on even after such an event. But at the same time, it doesn't at all take the gravity away from the act, and is just all around well-written. I give it a big 5 star rating.
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