Review: Well written and compelling
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2014
Gritty, compelling tale of two seemingly unconnected men who's lives ultimately collide in an explosion of combined fate.  Both men are victims of their parents lives. Drugs, hustling, and murder are the reality of their childhood existence, and while this is a story about survival, it is not a pretty or elegant tale of triumph. They are destined from birth for the family business, and each must learn how to manage living in a place where birthday gifts are weapons, and murder is a common occurrence. Mark Leslie writes an unsentimental portrayal of life in Harlem in stark, no frills language, giving the reader an insiders look of life in the "hood". He has written a masterpiece of the reversal of the American Dream and the failure of the system to save the children destined to repeat the sins of the parents.