Customer Reviews

Bling

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Lucrative recording contracts, shopping sprees, singing stars, paparazzi, sex, and life lived on the hip-hop edge. This is what you'll find in BLING, the splashy debut by Erica Kennedy. The story centers on Mimi, a twenty-something girl from Ohio who dreams of getting a record contract. She and her singing friends travel to New York to make the dream come true. The road the Mimi travels is one she could never predict and her life changes almost instantly when she hooks up with a hip-hop producer named Lamont.

The book is filled with short chapters and the plot moves at a fast pace. BLING is a likable page-turner. It provides a fascinating glimpse of the recording industry and can provide as a textbook of sorts for those who aspire to become a part of the hip-hop industry. There are tons of characters in this book, and at times the lines are belly-aching funny. There's plenty of fresh and hip characters who all talk the latest lingo, all of which may have you think you're reading from the pages of VIBE. Most of the characters will make you try to guess the real-life counterparts because there are plenty of similarities between BLING's subplots and actual hip-hop celebrities.

The only distractions are the mountains of background information about the minor characters. These narratives somewhat diminish the action and intensity of the story, but nevertheless BLING is an out-the-box hit; it's a recommended read that should appeal to those who love urban fiction, hip-hop music, and rags to riches African-American stories.

The beginning of the book does move at a fast pace, and keeps you interested. Things kind of go crazy in the last third of the book. The ending is actually a let down, very boring. The entire thing between mimi and Lamont was just way too forced.

I am from Ohio, and did not really like the way Mimi was played as some backwoods, country hick. Very stereotypical of east coasters to portray the Midwest that way.

There was a point where the number of characters became confusing. And some of the side stories like Sum Wun, and Rayshaun (I was looking for his character to really play a part, then..nothing!) and others definitely needed a good editor.
Her use of adverbs to describe dialogue became really irritating.
he said hesitantly
she said irritably
Again, the sign that her editor did not do their job.

I am disappointed in this book. It seems as if the writer just strung together a bunch of stereotypes and real life situations (names changed to protect the guilty)and called it a book. The writing seemed fake and titling the chapters after rap songs was just corny. I should have known something was wrong when, out of all the good hip-hop in the world, she reprinted lyrics by 50 Cent. I don't think this book is imaginative or creative at all.

I just read this book today and it had some very entertaining parts indeed, I found myself laughing out loud several times. My only complaint is that there were to many characters involved who didn't seem to have any relevance to the story's plot. Character's such as Nate and Jordan to name a couple only make the book unnessisarily long and I found myself wondering why they were even included in the first place. But by all means, if you know anything about the circus that is the hip hop industry today or are just curious this book will certainly be amusing either way.

I was a little weary about Bling once I saw the size of the book. Not to stereotype, but I've noticed that most of the realy large books I read tend not to be written well, as if the author thought size will make up for lack of substance. But I was thoroughly surprised by Bling. Ms. Kennedy wrote an excellent first novel with a great cast of characters in an tight industry that I enjoyed hearing more about. I really enjoyed Mimi's struggle between a personal life and business, along with the record exec's view that he made a star, therefore he owns the star. I always love a well written book about African-Amercians by an African-American and Ms. Kennedy did not disappoint me.

A truly worthy first novel, Erica Kennedy's Bling shines from start to finish. I was rolling on the floor laughing most of the time, which by the way, made reading difficult and disturbed my neighbors. The characters are three dimensional and real. The conspicuous consumption is exceptionally entertaining. The nonfictional characters are hilarious as well. It is easy to see why this book is considered The Great Gatsby for a new generation. I am recommending it as a compare & contrast assignment to all my students who are reluctant to read Fitzgerald. I especially enjoyed two quotes: one about J. Lo and the other regarding Instyle. Instyle will always be my bible and J.Lo will always be the homie. PEACE.

The plot: A pretty biracial girl named Mimi is persuaded to ditch the rest of the girl group that she had been singing with since high school (back in Toledo, Ohio) in order to sign a solo deal with Triple Large Entertainment, one of the biggest and most successful labels in hip-hop. A little hesitant and more than a little naïve, twenty-year old Mimi leaves Ohio for the bling life of New York.

First, we watch Mimi get a makeover. When her appearance is appropriately "bling," Mimi is introduced to the public as the Princess of Triple Large. She parties, she makes mediocre records and sings silly hooks on other songs. She sleeps with the thirty-eight-year-old, womanizing CEO of Triple Large and enthusiastically falls in love with him. Eventually, she grows up a little bit. She dumps CEO days before their wedding. In the end, she becomes a neo-soul singer and songwriter and wins a Grammy for Album of the Year.

Four hundred and forty-nine pages, but I can barely remember a significant thing that happened. I didn't really think that I got to know most of the characters, especially Mimi. Granted, there are a lot of colorful characters, nearly too many to keep their stories straight. I concentrate on Mimi because I believe that she was the primary character. For the same reason, I expected to get to know her - what made her laugh, what motivated her, what she thought about when she was alone - and how she could be so freaking naïve! Although I suppose that I was waiting for Mimi to stand up for herself, I remained fairly indifferent to what might happen to her.

In the end, I wasn't moved to cheer for her or against her. Overall, reading the book was like watching a hip-hop soap opera. Or a hip-hop magazine come to life. If you are not into that kind of thing, this book might be a little much for you.

And I mean this is a good way! I spent many summers reading my moms Jackie Collins books while she was away at work and trying to put them back where I found them so she wouldn't notice! Once I got old, I would try and figure out who was who in her books, since they were supposed to be based loosely on real life people and events. It's the same thing with this novel, which will probably gain "cult like" status like "Flyy Girl" and "The Coldest Winter Ever".

I think the main character, Mimi, is a mixture of Beyonce, Ashanti, Mariah Carey, and Lauryn Hill maybe. Her girl Lena seems to be Paris Hilton-ish, especially when I read about her "crawling on the floor of the club looking for her diamond studded cell phone with a short skirt and no underwear". Totally sounds like something Paris would do.

The older guy being forced out of his record label, Tommy Motola (sp?) maybe? Didn't the same thing happen to him? And I'm thinking that Daryl guy is Jermaine Dupri kind of sort of.

Some of my guesses may be way off, but it's fun to guess, and the book was pretty good. It was a good "train" read, something to make the long commute faster. This was a great first book and I hope to hear more from the author.

I enjoyed this book but am going to try to write a fair review of my assessment of the book. Clocking in at over 500 pages, "Bling" needed a better editor to trim some of that fat. The story could have been told at a much quicker pace. Like a lot of the banter and conversation of side characters like Witchy, Grimey and some of the other role players made me skip multiple pages to get back to Mimi's part of the story. She was the most interesting character, she was from Ohio and we readers are kind of made to feel that she is a bit naive, but at times she seems quite street and knowledgable. Like she is hip to game is what I mean. The story "Bling" is really good and it reads more like a movie. It would be a great movie and I'm sure there is one in the works. A lot of the characters of course reminded me of real life players in the hip hop game, the very first time I read about Ridikulous I thought about Ludacris. Both words are almost synonyms and the way that Ridikulous is described is almost the way Ludacris is as a rapper. But nonetheless, I liked this book alot, but there were just too many characters getting airplay that weren't that integral to the overall story. I often found myself thinking okay, Imani is this person, Lena is this character, but this is by no means Erica's fault, her editor just let it fly like this.

This book was okay. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers about they're being too many characters. I often found myself stopping & thinking..."Okay, who is that again?" There also wasn't a lot of excitement to me. I wouldn't read it again & probably wouldn't refer it to any of my bookreading friends.