Customer Reviews

God Don't Play

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Mary Monroe returns to Richland, Ohio to visit with Annette and Rhoda, the heroines and survivors of God Don't Like Ugly and God Still Don't Like Ugly. This novel, God Don't Play, picks up some years later, where seemingly not much has changed. A middle-aged, overweight, "Plain Jane" Annette has been promoted to manager at the debt collection agency. She is still happily married to the younger, good-looking, Pee Wee, a successful barbershop owner and operator. Annette's best friend, Rhoda, is still the wealth y and much envied town beauty who is often shadowed by her 17-year old daughter (and Annette's Goddaughter), Jade, a younger version of Rhoda in more ways than one.

Annette's reticent world is shaken when she suddenly receives hate mail that attacks her physical appearance. She immediately confides in Rhoda and Jade. The hate mail continues and becomes more graphic and violent; it eventually graduates to packages with inappropriate and foul content delivered to her place of employment. Threatening phone calls reveal a woman who claims to be having an affair with Pee Wee. In the midst of all this, life happens and Annette must deal with family illness, disgruntled co-workers, gossiping neighbors, Jade's sexuality issues and a seemingly wayward husband.

As complex as it sounds, I found the plot to be largely single-threaded. It follows the antics of fretful, mild-mannered Annette as she (along with Rhoda and Jade) try to find out who is behind the harassment and uncover their motive. Because it was quite obvious to me who the culprit was fairly early in the novel, it was quite frustrating to read through the remainder of the book observing Annette continually miss clue after clue. It takes nearly 300 pages for her to "get it" (and even then, it is largely by accident, not from any deductive reasoning or investigating). There is a brief confrontation and essentially the novel ends with forgiveness all around with a hint of more to come - perhaps another novel?

For those unfamiliar with the series, this novel contains enough subtle references to plots and events that occurred in the other two "God Don't..." books to give the supporting characters some depth. For those who are familiar with the two previous novels, I think they will be pleased to catch glimpses of Scary Mary, Lilliemae, Betty Jean and other quirky characters. As much as I love Mary Monroe as a writer, I was a bit disappointed with this offering, thus the middle of the road rating.

Reviewed by Phyllis

APOOO BookClub

Nubian Circle Book Club

A tale of two sister friends, God Don't Play, is as complex as it is entertaining.

The author reverses common roles: it is the heavy-set, seemingly unattractive Annette who has the handsome and loyal husband, while the lovely Rhoda's spouse spends little or no time with her. The story reels with the fact that opposites do attract.

Even Rhoda's daughter Jada often wonders how her mom could be friends with such a "big person." Yet, Annette is one of those women who loves friends and family with a passion; a person who you either love her or hate her--with no middle ground.

A number of people become suspect when Annette begins to receive threatening calls and deliveries. Yet, the plot is like that of a person looking for her glasses that are right in front of her the entire time.

Mary Monroe's cast of characters doesn't leave much room for sympathy for any of them. Rhoda spoils her daughter Jada to a fault, and Annette dotes on them both, often to her own abandonment. Their husbands, Otis and Peewee, appear to be caught up with women who are surrounded by much drama. Yet, the story moves through all lives concerned, leaving you to wonder what they will be up to next. Only Mary Monroe knows the answer to that. One thing for sure, she will be letting us know for some time to come that God Don't Play.

Armchair Interviews says: Good story of people types that we all know.

. . . Tell Your Altered Ego To Moan Some More.

Mary, Mary, Mary. I'm shaking my head in total disappointment. You didn't put much thought into this story line. It was, well, boring and highly predictable. Some things are better put to sleep. This book really should have stopped after the first one. God Don't Like Ugly was brilliantly written. God Still Don't Like Ugly was just, "eh," tolerable. And this one was a rotten egg. Because you're my girl, I had to tell you the truth. So now suck it in, consider the critism and get back to what you do best--"The Upper Room" and "Gonna Lay Down My Burden" styled stories.

To be honest, this series wasn't a good series at all. Save yourself some embarrassment and end it here. You do so much better at individual novels that has closure. Nothing personal. So with that said---I love ya, girl.

I loved the first book, "God Don't Like Ugly" and expected "God Don't Play" to be something more successful for Annette than it showed. She was still a coward in some instances - letting herself be made a fool by a prankster and so insecure that she questioned her husband's fidelity with little proof than a pair of stinky boxer shorts! The honesty with which she talked about herself in the way she consumed food and how others saw her was fine but it seemed to go more negatively with each page. I found it disturbing that a 15 year old (Jade) played such a role in Annette's life even to the point of criticizing her, rather cruelly, I might add. Annette had everything going for her in her life and allowed one little idiot to almost tear that away from her. Thank God Pee Wee wasn't weak to allow her rantings and ravings to thwart his love for her and stood by her. I was quite disappointed in this book - simply from the standpoint that at some point in time, Annette could have overcome more of her insecurities around her weight - after all, she succeeded in being promoted at her job.

If you're familiar with Annette from previous novels you already know she's a pushover. I used to be sympathetic since I accounted it to the abuse she suffered as a child along with her negative body image. However, with this novel I wanted to jump through the pages and slap some sense into her for the way she allowed Jade to disrespect her. I understand her love for Jade - I love my children with all my heart, but as a woman raised by parents from the 'ole time South, I would NEVER allow them to talk to me or disregard my rules the way Jade did. Jade was way too involved in grown folks business.

She also needed a slap for the way she treated Pee Wee. She had tried and convicted him before she was even sure who was sending the hate mail. She should have confided in him when the mess first started. Instead she chose Rhoda, which is not unbelievable considering their history, but to confide in Rhoda's teenage daughter too??? Very IMMATURE, especially for a 40-something woman.

Overall it was a good story, as it had me taking everything personally like I really knew these people; my blood was boiling throughout. I guessed the culprit toward the middle, and I was getting so frustrated with Annette I couldn't help but peek toward the end to confirm my guess. That just made the rest of the story even more frustrating! At least it wasn't boring, but I did lose respect for Annette. I hope she redeems herself in the next novel.

I also found this book to be quite frustrating. The book was very entertaining but there were parts where you just wanted to throw it across the room and say DUHHHHHHHHHHH ANNETTE GET A CLUE!!! In the other 2 books she had been such a strong lady but in this book she just seems soo clueless and weak, taking her frustrations out on people with out getting all the answers, telling too many people her business it was a mess however I can't wait until the next book comes out. I will be reading it and i pray it's much better than this book was.

This has to be the worst Mary Monroe book I have ever read. The first two books in this series were sad, funny, heartwarming and more importantly interesting. This book took three steps back and was just plain dumb. The whole premise for the book seemed like a weak attempt to keep Annette dsyfunctional.

What I couldn't believe is that any author would make her leading character so weak and pathetic. Between Jade's unbelievable attitude and Annette's blind eye to her behavior, I wished I could slap the both of them. Also, what women in her right mind would be so hateful to her husband after the man obviously didn't give her any signs that he was unfaithful. Especially, with the type of history those two had. Annette was so crazed and over the top it didn't care if she found out the truth or not.

With that being said, there were so funny parts as usual, which perhaps would make me check out another book in this series, but Ms. Monroe needs to really sit up to the plate if she excepts to continue to series.

Like others have said, this book was predictable from the begining, and most of the book is recounting the previous 2 books in the sequel. I think she should have stopped @ book #2 since 1&2 were great. I found myself doing the same things that other readers said that they did like skimming thru pages just to get to the end.

I've read all of Mary Monroe's books and usually find them funny, insightful and entertaining. This is by far one of the WORST books I have read in quite some time, and I've read some bad ones. The story is like a cat chasing it's tail. The same thing over and over for how ever many pages this book is. It starts off w/ the main character getting these stupid juvenile letters that don't really mean anything, but somehow seem to turn this woman's life upside down. Her relationships with the other characters are shallow and meaningless. She has a daughter that she barely addresses in the whole book. Her mindset is very immature throughout and as far as I could see, she never learned anything. Again, I was just very disappointed

OK, I have ben an avid reader all of my life. It's so serious that I have to wait to order more books online because I have read the majority of "good" African American novels.

This book sucked bad!

The main character Annette was one the MOST pathetic, ignorant, unbelievably stupidest black woman I have EVER read about. The characters had less depth than the furnitue in this book.

It was EASY to tell that Jade was the villian because she was constantly described as the worse kind of female you would let in your world.

Miss Mary might as well have written a two-man stage play. She spent the whole time describing how stupid Annette was (but she was SUCH a nice person) and how sneaky and slutty Jade was so it was easy to tell what was going to happen.

Honestly, I only finished the book because I usually finish books I start.

I found myself chillin in Barnes and Nobles tonight trying to finish this stupid book so I can come home and vent on Amazon.com.

I have read Mary Monroe before but this book suck so bad that I just walked past her books in B&N.

The only way she'd get my money again is if she started writing Christian fiction.

If this is what her writing has evolved to I'd be better off trying to find substance in one of those Hoodrat Ghetto books that are popping out like wet grimlins.