When Property Of was published in 1977, Kirkus Reviews described it as “that precious commodity, the first novel of great promise.” In telling the story of a young outsider who is obsessed with her gang-leader lover but unwilling to commit to becoming one of “the Property of the Orphans”—the tough girls who belong to the boys on the avenue—Alice Hoffman explores hard truths about how difficult it is to love another, and yet how much more difficult it is to pull away.