6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just One More Time and I'll Be Coming Home to My Baby, March 7, 2007
This review is from: Snow (Paperback)
Kenji Jasper, author of the best sellers, Dakota Grand (DG) and Seeking Salamanca Mitchell (SSM), returns to the genre he does best in Snow. This is the book his editor said would not sell in 2001, prior to the onslaught of the urban/street lit phenomenon.
Andre, known as "Snow", is in a good place. He has a woman, Adele, he loves beyond reason and a baby girl, Kayi, he adores. Adele, an accountant, loves him and believes in him despite his unorthodox "employment." These two ladies are his Achilles heel and being a husband and father is everything to him. Snow will do anything, whatever it takes to keep them safe and in his life. Snow was a good kid growing up in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. He was known as a helpmate to older neighbors but then came the night just before his eighth birthday, when he witnessed his neighbor's murder; a man who had extended kindness to him. Young and clueless, Snow succeeded in getting revenge on the killer by pointing the finger at him. The entire situation hardened him and gradually, as his mother was away from the home, working and caring for her own ill mother, he slowly drifted into the streets.
Snow works alone after Ray, his friend who brought him into the game, left the life of crime when he became a father. Despite the risks, Snow feels he has to rob, steal, hijack and kill; as there is no other way for a young black man to make it in the world. His business is done at night--- darkness is his companion, while the world slumbers and God help the person that gets in his way. He is a cold-blooded killer but when an innocent young mother is among the casualties during the robbery of a high-stakes card game, he steps back and takes a look at the life he is leading. He realizes he cannot do this much longer but his dreams of being a businessman cannot materialize until he has the capital to go legit. The situation comes to a climax when Snow realizes he is the victim of a set-up that almost costs his life. Despite his promises to Adele that she will not become a widow and he is getting out, he has a desperate need to go back and exact revenge. Will he make it out alive to pick up his family and leave the streets of D.C. forever? What awaits him on the other side, in the light?
Unlike the protagonists in DG and SSM, who were good kids caught up in bad situations, Snow is a callous killer, some would say a psychopath. It is hard to reconcile the cold-hearted creature with the man who playfully throws his daughter in the air and lovingly submits to his wife's wishes, but Jasper paints the contrast well; a man, tormented by his chosen profession and the man he hopes to become. This offering is a grittier, edgier read, replete with chase scenes right out of an action movie and vivid characters that will make you cringe. Nevertheless, Jasper retains his descriptive and beautiful prose in this thin volume; a novella, well-written with sit-on-the-edge suspense that sets him apart from so many others of this genre. I look forward to Japer's next urban story; I just hope he does not take too long.
Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Snow by Kenji Jasper: An PeoplewholoveGoodBooks Review, March 22, 2007
This review is from: Snow (Paperback)
Andre aka Snow starts off as a good kid with a promising future but after witnessing the murder of his next door neighbor, and life on the grimy streets of DC soon turn this kid into a cold-blooded killer. Despite his mother's best efforts to keep him on the right path, Snow can't ignore the call of the streets and soon becomes an expert at crime and killing. To Snow, he is doing what he needs for survival but to others he's a psychopath and killer. It isn't until Snow falls in love and becomes a father, that he begins to question his life and the choices that he has made. He decides it's time for a change but it may be too late as he is too deep in the game and someone is determined to keep him in.
Snow by Kenji Jasper is a fast-paced thriller that holds the reader's attention to the very last page. A violent yet heartbreaking story that ends almost as soon as it begins. Reviewed by Shay C of PeoplewholoveGoodBooks.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
(RAW Rating: 4.5) - The Pain of Living, May 1, 2009
This review is from: Snow (Paperback)
A nickname acquired because of a snowflake shaped birthmark on his cheek, Snow is a smart young man raised in the ghettos of Washington D. C. by his mother who works to make sure he is the best of the best. She does not tolerate him hanging on the corner with the boys, and she insists upon good grades. Early on Snow learns he must fight to survive and when his mother has to work two jobs to keep them fed and sheltered, he starts hanging with the boys and that's when he learns the ways of the streets. He starts off delivering drugs and soon progresses to running his own hit man business. Snow eases his conscience by telling himself he only shoots people who have shot others. Then he finds the right woman, falls in love and starts a family. The streets don't hold the same appeal for him because all he really wants is to be able to go home every night to his wife and child, but will the streets release him?
SNOW by Kenji Jasper is one young man's horrifying story of life on the streets. Snow attempts to do the right thing on many occasions and all he gets for it is a major beat down. He works a regular job and when the food court has to lay him off, he is not able to find another legitimate job, and thus he is forced to do what he has to do in order to survive. Jasper captures the angst and horror of street life and the reluctance of an intelligent young person to participate but his environment doesn't permit it. Snow and his mother are well developed characters on opposite sides and it is easy to identify with both. His harsh descriptions of street life bring it alive for those who have no idea what that kind of life is like. SNOW is a book that should be read by anyone who thinks the street life is glamorous. It should especially be read by politicians and pundits who think they know what's really going on. They might come out with a different view of our society and perhaps be led to try to change the inequalities that are ripping this nation apart.
Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
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