Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I love to read ...

... seriously, it's the only other thing in the world I couldn't live without besides writing, music and movies.
Last night, I finished Sista Souljah's latest book, "Midnight." For those of you who read her first fiction work, "The Coldest Winter Ever," this book is the follow up to that.
It really has been dang near 10 years since she's published a fiction piece and this is the result. We actually met Midnight, the title character, in "The Coldest Winter Ever," but this is NOT the sequel. It took hearing from one of my college classmates that it was not the sequel for me to actually get into it.
Just to give you a little background on Sista Souljah. She is a Bronx native who graduated from Rutgers University. She's traveled to several countries such as England, France, Spain, Portugal and South Africa for work and studies.
She's done a lot of work in her community as an activist organizing rallies against police brutality, racially motivated crime and miseducation of black children.
I got all this from the bio on her website. Since I'm no plagiarist and I don't feel like paraphrasing the whole thing, visit her site and take a look.
So, for those of you who have yet to read or see the book, it is hella long, but that didn't bother me. I'll read a story forever if it keeps me captivated and this one did. I like the way she writes and the way she describes things to the reader. Hell, even if my imagination weren't so active, I'd probably still feel like I was there watching the whole thing.
I found it to be fascinating the way she told the story completely from Midnight's point of view and how after all those words and pages, I still don't know his name. Still, I felt like I knew him and I wanted to hug him, shake his hand and take some of the burdens off his young shoulders.
But at the same time, I wanted him to know that life is not as cut and dry as he saw it. There are a lot of gray areas in life. Midnight is by far the most complex character I've read in a long time. He has so many layers that if he were a real person, I'd probably be terrified of him.
I'm not going to tell you anything about the book - what it's about, the conflicts - all I will say is I despise cliffhangers. I didn't even watch the movie "Cliffhanger" because I need to see what the freak happens. I feel gypped.
After days and days of reading this big, heavy a-- book, it ends in a damn cliffhanger! A cliffhanger! With all that, you'd think she wrote the last episode of "The L Word."
What's next? Will they kill off George in Grey's Anatomy too without an explanation? Will my dude in "Lie to Me" quit his job for no reason? This is why I hate suspense movies. I just NEED to know what's gonna happen! My imagination is too damn active to just let this rest!
Ugh!
*pops a Motrin for my migraine*

2 comments:

The Jaded NYer said...

I did not like that Winter book, so I will refrain from reading Midnight.

Thanks for the review, tho :D

ShellyShell said...

I liked the Coldest Winter. I didn't love but liked it. I've been hesitant about reading Mignight because a few told me they hated it...
I usually read thrillers. I'm a huge James Patterson, John Grisham fan.