Hood Rat: A Novel [Paperback]

K'wan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

Hood Rat (n.): A woman of questionable repute, one who has been known to "get around" in the 'hood.

 

Yoshi is young, fine, and larcenous.  She lives her life playing on men's hearts as well as their pockets.  She learns the hard way that all that glitters isn't gold.  Billy, a former high school basketball star, is at the end of her rope with the opposite sex.  To her, all men are dogs, so she secretly seeks comfort in the arms of women, until she meets a man who makes her reevaluate her feelings.  Reese is an around-the-way chick, trying to keep up with the Joneses.  There's a revolving door on her bedroom as she tries to find the love she always felt was missing.  Her promiscuity leaves her pregnant from a one-night stand and Reese is faced with the task of breaking an age-old cycle, passed down from mother to daughter in her family, and standing on her own.  Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids, by three men, and riding the system all the way to the bank.  To her, work is a dirty word; between the multiple checks she gets from the government, and the games she plays with men, she's living the life of a ghetto superstar.  The game soon turns ugly when one of her "sponsors" snaps and decides to get some payback.

 

Harlem has never seen four friends as scandalous as these.  The neighborhood will never be the same again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

K'wan's latest (after Eve) is a meandering trip across Harlem with plenty of pit stops for vice and violence. Yoshi is a stripper who prostitutes herself for extra cash; Rhonda is a promiscuous and abusive mother of three; Reese is a scabrous, demanding kept woman; and Billy is an attractive, sporty woman with a healthy distrust of the men who live in their Harlem 'hood. All of the women get sucked into drama involving neighborhood rappers, drug dealings, abortion, fistfights, catfights, shootings, rape, AIDS or good, old-fashioned drunkenness. There's a bevy of minor characters, each involved in intersecting subplots, though these don't so much coalesce as run their course. The most interesting story involves Paul, a man who's trying to go straight and become an artist, and who's also dating a respectable lawyer named Marlene, but things are destined to end badly. None of the characters rises above stereotype and the plotting is mechanical, but the big draw here is the electric prose, which is imbued with profane, comic lyricism. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

K'WAN is the #1 Essence bestselling author of Welfare Wifeys, Section 8, Gutter, Still Hood, and others. He wrote his first novel, Gangsta, as a therapeutic release, and it went on to become an Essence bestseller and a part of urban-lit history. In 2008 he received the Black Author of the Year Award from Black Press Radio. He has been featured in Time, KING, The New York Press, and on MTV and BET. Besides an author, K’wan is also a motivational speaker, a mentor to at-risk children and the C.E.O. of Black Dawn, Inc. He lives in New Jersey.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312360088
• ISBN-13: 978-0312360085
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #284,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

K'wan is the author of Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, Hoodlum, Eve, Gutter, Blow, as well as the widely popular Hood Rat Series: Hood Rat, Still Hood, Section 8

His is also a contributing author in The Game, Flexin & Sexin, and Flirt

For more info visit www.kwanfoye.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hoodrat needs to be on your book list!!!!, November 5, 2006

By 

shyste(coast2coastreadersbookclub) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hood Rat: A Novel (Paperback)

Hoodrat is a novel about four friends living in the hood. Yoshi,Billy,Reese and Rhonda are four friends who get theirs how they can no matter who it hurts. Rhonda is the worst of all who is giving her baby daddy Paul a hard time for no reason and this leads to both their untimely demise. Yoshi is a stripper who lets a man know this is strictly business until the one unsuspecting guy,Jah comes into her life after a horrible attack to let her know she can be loved unconditonally and she realizes there is another way to get money. Billy is the confused broken hearted one who is longing to fill a void and doesn't know how to repair her heart until Marcus. Reese is peer pressured into doing drugs and eventually loses her reputation for not thinking and her ways lead her to a pregnancy and no clue of who the father is.

I loved this book because it needed to be written. My sisters need to wake up and take their place and do the right thing..not try to make it off the men in their lives and definitely learn to respect themselves. K'wan did an excellent job bringing these characters to life and by getting into the female mind. I think a lot of young sisters need to read this book because there is an excellent message to be learned. K'wan has done it again!!!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wake Up Ladies!, October 23, 2006

By 

Urban Reviews "Your Source for the Best in AA... (Online) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hood Rat: A Novel (Paperback)

Yoshi, Billy, Reese, and Rhonda are four scandalous friends. Yoshi doesn't have time for love from a man because she's too busy digging and emptying their pockets. But Yoshi will soon learn that everything that looks good isn't good for you. Billy is a former high school basketball star who has sworn off men. She has a little attraction to women until she meets a man that may make her want to give the opposite sex one more chance. Reese is a follower who is trying to find the love that she's been missing all of her life by hopping into bed with different men. But Reese gets a wake-up call when she ends up pregnant from a shameful one night stand. Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids by three different men including a teen daughter. She rides off of the system and different men for her own financial stability instead of working. But Rhonda's gravy train comes to a halt when one of her men turns the tables on her.

Hood Rat is an entertaining and thought-provoking novel by K'wan. K'wan expertly gets into the female psyche of these questionable women. If there was ever an example of how women should not act, then this novel is it. From Yoshi being a stripper/prostitute to Rhonda making her baby daddy's life a living hell for no reason, these women had no shame. My personal favorite character was Billy because it seems like she was a hood rat more by association than anything. She wasn't totally innocent but she had the most sense out of the group. This novel is definitely a wake-up to all women about the importance of self-love and how it influences their relationships with men and their children. Hood Rat is an excellent novel about lessons learned and the importance of making the right life decisions.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hood of all Hood, November 6, 2006

By 

Sherina P. Smith "Beautiful One" (Florence, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hood Rat: A Novel (Paperback)

I must say that this book was so good. I read it in one day. Its about four friends that get their money by any means. If it by lying about the father of their sons or sexing a guy because of their money status.If you love K'wan work i must say you need to get this one