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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Aggravation, October 2, 2004
If the Urban Griot books are meant to interest men, then they should be real upset that Omar Tyree is insulting their intelligence. Tyree has a habit of elaborating on his points, but the Urban Griot treats his readers as if they're too dumb to catch onto context clues. This whole book is full of foreshadowing and then explaining obvious things. One of a million examples would be on pg. 24, 'The loud spectator overheard the girl's comments to the Blood and he decided to add to it with more humor. 'She said she got the house to herself, like whoa!' " #1 From the dialogue ALONE, I could tell that the instigator was trying to be funny. No need to explain it first. And he kept telling readers how to feel. Instead of letting me draw my own conclusion that someone is arrogant, he'd say "The arrogant guy..." The Urban Griot also needs to enact his action scenes before he writes them. If someone hits their car into the driver's side of another car, the driver flies into the backseat, and even if bullets hit the front car seat, there's material everywhere and still the frame of the seat. It's almost impossible to kick out the driver's side door from the backseat, especially it if's been crashed in.
Fellas, this author is playing you! As much as he may not want to gear his writing towards females readers, he sure did a better job of storytelling as Tyree, didn't go into the elaboration, didn't insult a person's intelligence, didn't force his opinions on us, and none of his books as Tyree (minus "Battlezone") made me frustrated that it wouldn't hurry up and end!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The player gets played!!!!, March 14, 2005
Janeia Goode is a college student who is intelligent, until it comes to her choice of men. She likes bad boys, and Molasses fits the bill perfectly. He is handsome, has money, is mysterious and is dangerous. How he got his nickname is pretty interesting, and will make you chuckle. Janeia finds herself falling in love with this man who is hired to kill and not feel bad about it. Janeia knows what Molasses does, but she sticks by him regardless. Janeia is that "Ride or Die" kind of sister. There is another thug that likes Janeia, but she is not feeling him, and that's Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill likes Janeia because "She is down for the streets even though she is educated."
Molasses gets around, his "job" has him traveling to Dallas, Brooklyn, and LA. He gets paid big bucks for he does. One job had him making $250,000. He has Five rules he follows, and 2 of the rules, he does not kill women, and he does not kill children. Molasses has a side kick named Charlie that helps him out by making sure Molasses has the "tools" he needs to get the job done. Molasses has this one officer on his tail, Officer Barrett who is investigating Molasses. He knows Molasses is up to no good, but Molasses is slick, and Officer Barrett is unable to find anything on him, but he is keeping his eyes on Molasses. Molasses has a mother who thinks he is an ATM, and never bothers to ask how he gets his money. There is one scene in the book where Molasses is in the hospital and his mother asks him how much money he has on him. Guess she was more concerned about the money, then the fact her son was almost murdered.
Janeia gets very angry when she finds out that Molasses is stepping out on her with another woman. Exactly what was Janeia expecting? He is a bad boy, and bad boys cheat, bad boys can't be held down by one woman, and Molasses never said "I Love you back", so Janeia should have licked her wounds and moved on.
Janeia instead decided revenge is the only thing that will help heal her heart, and the ending of the book will be predictable, but still a surprise. It was Janeia's choices that upset me. Maybe that was the point of the book. I was annoyed how the author pretty much had everything planned out so while reading I was forced to feel a certain way. Some of the dialogues made me groan in irritation. In addition I can't relate to the appeal of wanting a bad boy. I run from bad boys because nothing good ever comes of getting involved with one. I also had a hard time with the fact that Molasses would tell any woman what he does for a living. No hit man would ever tell a woman what he does. I'm giving the book three stars because it was interesting. This is the type of book you will read once and be done with it. If you can borrow it from the library you will be better off.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This Book Is WEAK!!, September 9, 2004
Omar Tyree used to be one of my favorite writers but as the years go on he displays more and more inconsistency in his writing. Writing with the pen name "The Urban Griot" and trying to be a part of the latest urban fiction genre does not hide the fact that this book was extremely weak in terms of character development and the lack of believable situations. I am clearly in the minority in comparison to the other reviewers but that's ok, everyone's entitled to their opinion.
The only reason I gave this book two stars is because the chapters were fairly short and I managed to get to the end of the book. I know that this is a work of fiction but this story was way out there. What expert hit man, in this case the main character Molasses, tells all of his business to women that he barely knows? Molasses was too flamboyant to be a successful hit man. The way he acted he should have been killed in the first chapter. The girl, I think her name is Janeia, would have made a better hit man. I also didn't believe what happened to him at the end. Once again, an expert hit man would not have come upon the surprise that he did.
Suggestion to Mr. "Urban Griot", leave this genre alone and please go back to writing interesting characters. Examples of your best work would be Flyy Girl, Sweet St. Louis, and Single Mom. I don't think this type of writing is for you.
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