Customer Reviews

Got (Seven Weapon Arsenal)

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In the gritty, fast-paced novella, Got, D, a new writer to Akashic Books, deftly weaves a rare second person narrative of a nameless protagonist who cannot seem to catch a break. "He" witnesses his father's death and his mother demise by drugs, stays in various foster homes, and is finally rescued as an adolescent by a couple who give him a middle-class sense of family. But after his first year of college, he comes home to find them being carried out in body bags, and he again is an orphan, left to survive on his own.

He has a cushy job making drops for Tony Star; all he has to do is pick up and deliver and he gets a thousand dollars a week, enough to pay tuition and indulge in a beautiful sexy piece. Only this time something goes wrong, the money is gone, and Tony is threatening bodily harm, demanding his due. He has been got. Big time. He should have known better. Could he have been set up? He returns to the old NewYork neighborhood and enlists the help of his homeboys, Chief and Will. It does not take long for things to spiral out of control, leaving him wondering just what is up. Who is out to get him?

These 171 pages, a well-written tale, packs a lot of grit with a tightly woven plot. The second person point-of-view, rarely used in fiction works well; not every writer can pull it off, but D does it seamlessly without compromising the storyline. The gunplay and chase scenes against the New York City landscape, as well as the pacing, adds just enough drama to get one caught up in the reality of the characters. Fast-paced and filled with surprises, Got by D is recommended for those who love urban literature.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

This short first entry in Akashic Books' street-lit imprint capably sails through well-charted waters without delivering anything particularly new or interesting. Written in a somewhat awkward second-person voice, the story follows a 20something Brooklyn college student through one very unpleasant night. Although he once ran the streets, he's now more or less a square -- other than his weekly gig as a bagman for a local mobster. The story is set in motion when he falls prey to the dexterous tongue of a stripper and loses the money bag. What follows is a pretty standard "you got 'till dawn to get my money back or you're dead" tale, as he drives all over Brooklyn and beyond, tracking down the thieves with the help of two old friends (luckily, the one is a gun dealer and the other a hacker-extraordinaire). The college boy turns on the juice pretty quickly, becoming a killing machine over the course of the night, as the story unfolds at a rapid pace. For street lit, it's pretty well done, although rather predictable. There is a "twist" of sorts, although it will be pretty obvious to most readers (if not the protagonist). Overall, it's fine for what it is, but unlikely to leave any kind of lasting impression on the average crime reader.

Packed with a rare combination of drama and class, Got has all the elements of an urban classic in the vein of Carlito's Way and Bodega Dreams. Let the poseurs beware: In his first time out, D doesn't just raise the bar on street lit, he broke the damn thing!