This is a good first excerpt. I can handle Jo's extreme internalized misogyny and comments about women because of the ending of the excerpt and what I know the story will become, as long as the author follows through on addressing it all. What I am disturbed by, unfortunately, is the author's use of race in her excerpt so far. She is white, and describes a child as the picture of blond-haired blue-eyed 1950's innocence. She also makes the protagonist's competition for male attention from the get-go the only Black girl at her school, though I'm assuming there will be at least some awareness of the dynamics of such a situation. The first comment, however — I was aghast. Is talking about race in such a way supposed to be quirky? I can only hope this may be another component to Jo's complex character that will be addressed later on as well.