Customer Reviews

Midnight: A Gangster Love Story

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(66)
3 star:		(68)
2 star:		(50)
1 star:		(85)

 

 

Like others have said, it is a prequel, it does get boring at times, and does appear unbelievable at others. However, it is a very ambitious and provacative novel. It's literature. It will make you think, it will make you question yourself. It may even have you considering changing the way you operate. It does calls American born blacks out about their behavior and beliefs - hell, all Americans for that matter. Midnight is vicious. Was it worth the wait? No. Is it worth $26.95? No. However, it is worth the read. It can generate some serious dialogue in our community. It's a very intellectual read that can and should be appreciated. It provides plenty to talk about if you can manage to finish it.
My biggest problem is it left me with too many questions, more questions than I had going into it. And, I'm just hoping it doesn't take another ten years get the answers.
Also, I don't think it should be referred to as a gangster's love story becasue nothing about Midnight, in this story, is gangster. Yes, he is a killer - solely for the protection of himself and loved ones - but NOT a gangster.
So, if you're looking to reunite with Winter and her family and will be highly disappointed if they are not there, don't waste your money. If your don't mind be taken on a journey that's overly informative yet sometimes dull along they way, then gear up. Midnight aint for everybody.

First off if you are looking for a sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever, this aint it, you will be very disappointed. Though the story is about the charachter Midnight from the Coldest Winter Ever, this book is about his life before the Santiagos. As a matter of fact the oldest he gets in this book is the age of fourteen. But let me tell you he happens to be a very mature fourteen yr. old, who lives the life of a well bred man who instead if giving into temptation resist it. I found him so captivating the way he lives his life, the culture, the religion, though I do not agree with everything of muslim faith i do believe that if we all could just live by this one law, no fornication!!! we would be much better off as a people, Dont You Think? My favorite charachter in this book after Midnight of course, is Bangs I found her as he did funny but also bold. As much as I respected Midnight for staying true to hiself and his beliefs I found myself a little upset that things could'nt and would'nt come together for Midnight and Bangs i really believe he would have made a big difference in her life a positive difference. so even though I was a little disappointed that this had nothing to do with the Coldest Winter Ever. I was not disapointed with this book not at all. All ive got to say is Sister Souljah you better be working on part2 Because you can not leave me hangin like this!!!!!!!

"The Coldest Winter Ever" is one of the best books I have ever read. Having said that, I was extremely disappointed with "Midnight". First off, the book was entirely too long to only have gotten to where it went. It does not take almost 500 pages to describe a mere 7 years in someone's life. Further, the story left far too many gaps, loopholes and contradictions for me. Midnight was selling drugs in TCWE. How does such an "intelligent", "disciplined" boy who "always makes the right choices" end up such a way? In addition, the first chapter talks about how women love him because of how they feel with his weight on top of them, yet he's a virgin who only sleeps with one woman the entire book through! That would be fine if "women" wasn't a plural word!

The entire wedding saga baffled me. What did that have to do with Midnight? And if his father was so rich, why were they so poor? Why couldn't they contact him? He wasn't dead? What happened to Umma (his mother) and Naja (his sister)? Did they move into the house? They weren't mentioned in TCWE. As a matter of fact, Santiaga treated him like his own son because he had no family! This was unreal!

If you are thinking this book will give you insight into Midnight's existence, you are sadly mistaken! If you are looking for some cultural understanding of the Sudanese culture, you may find it here. However, it is definitely not worth reading close to 500 pages to end up with a 14-year-old boy illegally married to a non-English-speaking, Japanese girl who's taken away from him without resolution!

Take my advice. It's not worth your money or your time! I am thoroughly surprised at Sister Souljah. While it was obvious she has a good writing style, she obviously didn't have a lot to say. As a result she led people on throughout the entire book, enduring a plethora of boring details, believing they would get somewhere in the book that simply doesn't exist. This book was so bad I am not even excited about a sequel. I am almost certain I would not buy it. With E. Lynn Harris, Zane, Eric Jerome Dickey, Sheila Dansby Harvey and other up and coming authors, she's going to have to do a lot better if she wants to stay in the game.

Midnight by Sister Souljah is not a sequel, even though it was initially advertised as being so. Later it was marketed as a prequel and the story of Midnight between the ages of 7 to 14. Prior to reading Midnight, I heard a lot of viewpoints...some favorable...some unfavorable. But, as with any book and author that I'm partial to, I will read for myself to form my own viewpoints. And, I did just that with Midnight.

For many, the beginning was slow and a turn-off. That wasn't the case with me...I actually liked the beginning and reading about the history and values of another culture/religion. But, about one-third of the way into the book, the pacing slowed significantly for me and too much of the same seemed to continue to be rehashed. I understood who Midnight was and why his religion was important to him as well as his heritage...but, at some point, I started to question how judgmental he was of Americans, particularly African Americans, and thought...'How many children, especially boys are really this astute?' Is this Midnight's voice or is it the voice of Sister Souljah. I kept hearing more of her voice, and as such, Midnight's voice did not ring authentically for me.

And then there were a number of loose ends...whatever happened to the father being the primary question, but there were many others involving topics such as home schooling, finances, catching babies (if you read the book you know what I'm talking about, mortgages, taxes, receiving blessings from Akemi's father... just to name a few.

Suspended belief aside, I was just spent and mentally and emotionally exhausted by the time I got to the end of the book. I almost felt dirty to be an AFRICAN-AMERICAN...just almost because the generalities portrayed about African Americans in the book didn't pertain to me...but that doesn't mean that I accept it as okay to condone the generalization of an entire group of people. I questioned why one group of folks was elevated at the expense of another...and was saddened and disappointed that so much of the book was about tearing down African-Americans. Did I take offense...nope...because Sister Souljah wasn't talking about me...but would I recommend this book to others...nope...because by the time I finished the book I realized that I didn't like any of the characters...but more importantly there wasn't a plot.

After I heard that Midnight wasn't a sequel, I wasn't expecting another The Coldest Winter Ever. But, I wasn't expecting a book with such a negative portrayal of African Americans either. For that reason, I'm rating this book a 2 as honestly while it might be considered well-written by some (despite obvious editing errors), it had other issues and it is not a book that I can recommend in good faith to others.

Turr-uh-ible!!!
Turr-uh-ible!!!
Turr-uh-ible!!!

Black women other than Sister Souljah apparently are the
scum of New York according to this book. None of them are worthy.

On top of that they're supposed to base their worth on being able
to have a Man and be part of his Muslim harem with their faces all
covered up.

What a great message for our daughters.

I guess being a fat-face chubby something like Sister Souljah
would make any woman dream of being covered up and repressed to
"SUBMIT" to her black massa kang.

This book left a bad taste in my mouth. Too much stuff in it that
just doesn't jibe like a 14 year old acting 40.

Knowing what I know about Sudan, I doubt if the brown Arab-looking
woman with straight hair in the photos who is supposed to be Midnight's
"mother" would be so proud to have a pure black son in Sudan.

Does the author not know that Khartoum brown Arab Muslims are slaughtering
millions of pure black Muslims in Darfur as we speak? For nothing more than being too black?

So how is UMMA the only brown straight hair Muslim in Sudan proud to have
a child who looks pure as black can get? Like I said, knowing Sudan I
just don't buy Sister Soujah's Muslim Fairy Tale.

The book is too long 500 pages. The author doesn't have the courage
to call out the black Hip Hop men who abandoned her Pro-Black Nationalist
rhetoric and got with anything but a SISTER so she takes it out on black
women blaming them for the fact that she never had a daddy. The moral
of the story claims if only we'd submit to Islam and be obedient to some
group of men we'd all be noble. I can't believe Kola Boof recommended this crappy book to me in an email blast. This is not empowering to sisters and Sister Souljah is losing a lot of fans behind what amounts
to a royal diss of African-Americans.

Don't waste your money.

After years of waiting, this book will go down as one of the biggest literary disappointments of 2008. For anyone looking for any type of sequel from the previous book, this read is not for you. For anyone looking to read a realistic and interesting story, this read is not for you. For anyone looking to get to know Midnight the character-not just hear Sista Souljah's voice preaching about her dislike of Black American women and culture, this book is not for you. The concept of the story is an awesome and interesting one. I believe that there is a great story in there but the author didn't find it or tell it. As a reader I can get over the disappointment of this not being a sequel. What I cannot get over is that the book isn't a good read. Sista Souljah is a brilliantly talented writer but that fact didn't show in this story. Also as a side note, was her decision to put faces to the characters really about art or Hollywood politics? I'm inclined to believe the latter which makes this whole book experience even more disappointing.

We rushed to buy this book based on Souljah's "Coldest Winter..." book. However, what a disappointment. This seems like the kind of book somebody writes because they have a publishing deadline. While there are certainly good moments, the story seems contrived and unbelievable. There are also lots of missing gaps in the story (where is his father? why are they in the U.S.? Why are they so isolated from the African Moslem community for so many years (until the wedding) in, of ALL places, New York? If you are into popular fiction, you'll like this book. If you want literature / art -- this ain't it! Not only does Souljah demonstrate no actual knowledge or significant research into the people of the Sudan, the scathing commentary on African Americans is ridiculous. Forgettable, at best!

This book is very unrealistic. So much so, the story almost becomes silly. I am typically not a fan of urban fiction, but bought this book based on the strength of The Coldest Winter Ever. Like many others, I was under the impression this would be a sequel to TCWE. The fact that it is not a sequel does not bother me. The poorly conceived story line is what bothers me. The info about Sudanese culture seems so generalized, like reading Wikipedia. Aren't there many ethnic groups in Sudan? Which does Midnight and his family belong to? If his family is so traditionally Sudanese, how does his mother so easily accept his relationship with Akemi, who definitely is not Sudanese or Muslim? Everything about the book was so generalized. I wish Sister Souljah could have written Midnight as a character we readers could identify with. There is no journey, no struggle. He seems to make all the right decisions. I mean really, is Midnight 14 or 35? Also, there are so many contradictions in this story. You do not have to be a scholar to see that. What a disappointment. It is hard to believe the same person who wrote The Coldest Winter Ever wrote this book. If Sister Souljah decides to write another novel, I hope she does more research and does not underestimate the intelligence of her audience. Some of us know a thing of two about some the subjects she writes about. If there is another novel, I will definitely be reading it, but I will not be buying it. I will just put my name on the waiting list at the library or borrow it from someone.

I never wanted to read a second book about Winter. She's a spoiled detestable brat who's incapable of feeling any sort of genuine emotion for anyone other than herself. However, the difference between Midnight and Winter is that for all Winter's scheming, narcissism and decadence, she was interesting and entertaining. In this story, Midnight comes across as a judgmental, condescending bore. Oh my god, does this character love to judge! He judges the little kids who, god forbid, are scared of getting shot by the neighborhood gangsters. He judges black Americans for...well, breathing. It's like black Americans couldn't live in this book without Midnight judging them for it. His holier than thou attitude was obnoxious and grating and I found myself having to just grit my teeth and bear it to get through this book.

Questions: First of all, where was Midnight's father? What happened to the other wives? Why didn't he check up on his pregnant wife and child if he was supposed to be this epitome of what it means to be a man? If America sucks so much why didn't his dad wire them money and have them live somewhere else? Hell, what happened to all their money? These were just some of the questions that were bought up while reading this book, and unfortunately for the reader these questions are never answered.

It's no secret that Sister Souljah absolutely adores the Midnight character, I remember her saying in the re-released CWE that he was the heart of the first book. The problem with Midnight is that in this book Sister Souljah writes him as some sort of Superman--someone who's fearless and has the answers to everything and I'm sorry that's not normal for a kid. Hell that's not even normal for an adult. Normal kids get scared from time to time. Normal kids aren't exactly wise and all-knowing. Maybe she's hinting that he has some sort of genius intellect but even genius children aren't wise, mature and perfect. I just never connected to the character of Midnight because he just seemed like some sort of wish fulfillment fantasy written by Sister Souljah. Everything he did was godly and noble. He was always right and everyone else was always wrong.

Honestly this book has absolutely no connection to TCWE. As someone who never really was all that attached to Midnight in TCWE, it was amazing to me just how much more likable TCWE Midnight was in comparison to this Midnight. TCWE Midnight had a sense of humor, yes he had his morals but he also never seemed to look down on everyone and their mom like this Midnight seems fond of doing. Where was the character who told Sister Souljah, "Are you better than the n----s you supposed to be helping? You put yourself in a position to judge. Only God can do that."

I was waiting for something to go wrong. For everything to go awry for Midnight and his family like what happened to the Santiagas. I thought that if something bad happened maybe Midnight would be little more sympathetic to the plight of the people who lived in his neighborhood. Maybe he would understand the fear that those other kids feel. Maybe he would understand the big and bold front that many of the girls in his neighborhood put on. But it never happened and that's a shame.

2 stars--if nothing else her writing was really good. Too bad the characters and plot left a lot to be desired.

I guess shocked, embarrassed, hurt and anger can discribe the emotional roller coster Sister Souliah took me on while reading this book. While she attempted to open ours eyes to other cultures she also succeeded in denouncing every other culture we as black american have been taught. NOOOOOOOOO culture, religion and or race is perfect, and everyone has its issue. But the way she protrayed the young black sisters in this novel was down right hateful, I have three beautiful daughters at home whom I usually pass my books onto when I'm done,this wont be one of them. I wouldn't want them to see that going to college and maintaining their scholarships are all in vain because this is how a well respected black female in our community discribes you. There are uneducated, mislead and whorish women in every culture and for her to label her on kind that way, while raising up another culture who is know for selling sex for $2.00 in thier country to our men overseas is hurtful. I am a big fan of the book No Disrespect, Well Sister No Disrespect I have lost an enormous amount of respect for your writing. But I will give this book a 3 star rating because you had to put a lot of time and effort in beating down and berating all of us who grew up in the hood.