Just Say No!: A Novel [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Omar Tyree (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

Omar Tyree, New York Times and Blackboard bestselling author and winner of the 2001 NAACP Image Award for literary fiction, delivers a powerful story of two childhood friends lured into the sex, drugs, money, and madness of R&B stardom.

Darin Harmon and John Williams, two good church boys from Charlotte, North Carolina, have been best friends forever. Both use their God-given talents to breeze through high school, and both are awarded scholarships to North Carolina A&T State University; Darin for foortball and John for music.

During their sophomore year, John, the introverted momma's boy, showcases his musical genius in a homecoming talent show that changes both their lives forever. John's romantic crooning earns him the nickname "Loverboy". As his R&B career begins, he asks Darin to tag along as his manager. Darin wants no part in the music scene and has big dreams of his own, but when he suffers a season-ending football injury, he hops on the "Loverboy" bandwagon. The two set out to turn John into an R&B superstar. For Darin, dealing with John's rising fame proves a difficult challenge. The more the two adapt to the dangerous celebrity lifestyle of big-time money, fast women, and recreational drugs, the harder it gets for both to "just say no!"

Just Say No! is destined to become another urban-American classic from Omar Tyree.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The pitfalls of success swallow up a young soul singer in Tyree's latest, a buddy story about a pair of African-Americans from North Carolina who rocket to stardom together after leaving college to enter the music business. Darin Harmon is the narrator, a college football prospect who sees his career go up in smoke after an injury and decides to manage his best friend, a talented singer and musician named John Williams. Williams comes from a church music background, but when he starts singing and writing songs, the romantic "Loverboy" persona he invents quickly lands him a record deal, a concert tour and a series of bestselling singles and albums. Williams can't resist temptation, though, and his problems start with pot addiction and slowly progress to include increasingly dangerous sexual adventures, leaving Harmon with the dubious task of trying to keep his best friend's hedonism under the media radar. Eventually Harmon tires of Williams's antics, and when he quits to get married, raise a family and become a producer, the pace of Loverboy's slide accelerates until he finally lands in a Maryland halfway house after a drug arrest. Tyree narrates the somewhat predictable story at a slick, superficial level, relying on at least a dozen rather redundant sex scenes to keep the plot moving, although he does delve briefly into Williams's troubled relationship with his extremely religious but hypocritical mother. The sex, drugs and rock-and-roll angle will seem familiar to white readers, but Tyree's major contribution here is framing Williams' efforts in the context of other soul, rap and R&B artists to produce an informative and entertaining variation on a formulaic music yarn. (Aug.)Forecast: Tyree's books are tried-and-true crowd-pleasers, and the music-themed plot of his latest a Black Expressions main selection and a Literary Guild, Doubleday and Quality Paperback alternate selection should attract an even larger audience than usual.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Darin Harmon and John Williams struggle to preserve their lifelong friendship after John achieves musical superstardom. The two boys meet in grade school and eventually attend the same African American college on scholarships Darin for football and John for music. John's smooth R&B performance at a college talent show wows the crowd and earns him the nickname "Loveboy." When he decides to quit school and devote himself to music full time, he asks Darin to be his business manager. As John becomes more and more successful, the two young men succumb to the usual pitfalls of success sex and drugs. Will they stop their downward slide before it's too late? Libraries with a strong Tyree following can safely purchase the well-narrated (by the author) abridged version; the formulaic plot runs a bit thin in the almost 20-hour unabridged program read by William A. Quinn. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743508297
• ISBN-13: 978-0743508292
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,944,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Omar Tyree is a New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, journalist, screenwriter, and public speaker. A renowned business figure, he has published seventeen books, and his articles have been published in the Washington Post, Essence, Upscale, and the Washington Times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brothers enjoyed it, August 16, 2001

By 

"positivebrother" (Newark, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Say No! : A Novel (Hardcover)

I am fortunate to work in an environment with other professional black men. Sometimes we have the usual picnics, birthday gatherings, etc. This time we decided to find a book with African American male characters that we could relate to. Well Omar Tyree's "Just Say No" was our decision. Of course we had some guys who didn't want to read fiction. However, this was something that we were going to try. Within the first few day's this book about two very good friends started becoming the focus point of our conversations during lunch or just in passing. Our group of seven gave this book 4 stars out of five but my personal vote is 5 stars. John "Loverboy" Williams and his best friend could only make us think about our friends growing up and the friendships that we have developed at work. I know this isn't a typical review but I consider this to be one of the best books that I have ever read. This is the first book written by Omar Tyree that I have read. Because of this I decided that it's okay for my daughter (12yrs) to read Flyy Girl and I picked up one of his books for my wife (No, Not Single Mom:) but Sweet St.Louis. They're both enjoying the books and we all agree that we like his writing style and the messages that he hides in the books. Well I guess that means that now I am an Omar Tyree fan. I will call his work faction.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just Say No - Just say yes to reading it., August 17, 2001

By 

Billy D "Billy D" (NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Say No! : A Novel (Hardcover)

I just finished reading my first Omar Tyree book called Just Say No. It is a book that I could not put down. I liked the fact that it showed a deep friendship between two African American males. As an African American male reader of many books, it was good to read fiction that gives my perspective of various aspects of life. Nothing against Black Female authors. I love many of their books too. It was also good to see references to places that I've visited as I live in the Philadelphia area. The book made me proud to live here, although I was born and raised in New York.

Although I don't work in the music industry, I am very interested in the financial and marketing aspects of it. The book shows a behind the scenes look of how a star can be created and how it takes more than talent to become a star. Of course, John "Loverboy" Williams was a very talented singer and song writer. However, he became too wrapped up in giving the fickle public what he thought that they wanted in order to keep their attention. His need to please and later to be immediately gratified became destructive not only to himself, but to his friend and manager Darin.

There are religious themes in the book that I found enlightening. Also uplifting was how Darin matured throughout the book based on learning the importance of honesty, loyalty and faith in God. The book discussed but did not glamorize the sex, drugs and violence that exists in the music industry. It showed it for what it is, but showed how the risky experiences that John and Darin had were not worth making a lifestyle out of as we see many entertainers doing these days.

Just Say No is a book worth buying and reading if you are into what I call "faction" books. The book could have easily been based on the story of artists and groups like: Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, The Temptations, The Nortorious Big and Tupac Shakur. The only negatives I can mention is that the book has many music lyrics in it that I thought were overdone. It made the book longer than necessary. The way the book ended was apparent a bit too early in the reading. The book also discussed strong reasons why someone may not want to put a family or friend in a psychiatic ward that some may not agree with. Other than that (and I had to think hard about the third criticism), It was one of the better books that I've read this year so far.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OMAR WRITES A GOOD ONE THIS TIME!, October 10, 2001

By 

Analytical Man (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Say No! : A Novel (Hardcover)

Omar Tyree gets criticized because he doesn't write on the level of a Terry McMillian or Eric Jerome Dickey. His inability to write prose rich with compelling characters and vivid description (like McMillian) or create those exciting page turning plot twists (like Dickey) have been some of the weaknesses of his previous work.

This time around, Omar Tyree's novel, Just Say No! is his best and most entertaining work to date. Tyree is beginning to realize his potential as a writer by giving us a story of the ups and downs that a singer and his best friend / manager encounter as they work their way up the charts in the exciting fast lane music industry. Omar takes us backstage and behind the scenes for a fascinating look at the groupies, drugs, and pitfalls that come with success. The bond of friendship between the two lead characters is touching and most will identify.

The book is a fairly fun read, yet has a few flaws worth mentioning. These flaws make me rate this book a three star instead of a four. One, Tyree wastes time describing drum beats and lyrics of songs. This isn't effective and has no emotional impact on us because music is meant to be heard, not read! Tyree is not a very clever writer of poetry or song lyrics. (The title itself, Just Say No! is corny and lacks creativity.) He probably should have kept mention of lyrics to a minimum. Also, towards the end, the book starts to become a little preachy and this slows down the pace of the story somewhat.

Should Omar now get the same praise as Terry McMillian or Eric Jerome Dickey? No! Not yet. However, Just Say No! is still worth reading because it is a good book. It is written in a simple, direct style, and this will probably be the best book he'll ever do! His next book is a horror novel called "Leslie", so things will probably go downhill from this point on!