Annotation #5: Urban Fiction

Title: Thugs and the Women who Love Them
Author: Wahida Clark

Summary: Preface—I didn’t finish this book. I got about 60 pages in, and that was a generous choice. There was so much gratuitous violence against women in those first 60 pages it made me ill. My summary will only reflect the portion of the book I finished. Major trigger warning for graphic sex and violence. Angel lives in the projects, but she’s doing her best to get out. She’s in law school, but she’s stealing handbags and perfume to pay her bills. She’s also dating Snake, descended from a long line of pimps and a notoriously brutal one, himself. In the first 60 pages alone, he violently beats up 4 different women in public, one of them nearly to death. He beats Angel, too, but she beats back...and he also helps with her mom’s bills and the sex is good. Based on the back cover, the reader will also be introduced to two other women in similarly toxic relationships with violent, lying men: Jaz and Kyra.

Urban Fiction Characteristics:

• Fast-paced stories, often including flashbacks. We start with the present day and work backwards through Angel’s first encounter with Snake, and then even further back to her childhood, where we see her brother shot and killed by the police on the family’s front porch.
• Vivid descriptions of the urban environment, including a lack of societal resources, poor housing, and poverty. The street itself as a place where action occurs or as a cause of action, like characters meeting on the street to conduct business. Snake’s “business“ literally takes place on the street, and in run-down hotels. We are often in the projects, at locations like the club, character’s homes, or restaurants.
• Protagonists are often young adults, often in the age range 19-25. I can’t tell you how old Snake is, but Angel is a graduate student which puts her in or at least near this window.
• A focus on relationships, including surviving abuse, betrayal by friends, plans to take revenge. To put it lightly, there is abusive behavior in this book. The scene that made me stop reading was Snake beating up one of his “whores” until she stopped breathing, after which he stuffed her body in a sewer in full view of partygoers at a nightclub. No one intervened.
• Status is communicated via luxury items or accumulation of tangible wealth, like bling or name-brand shoes. Angel is first attracted to Snake because he’s wearing namesake snakeskin boots, a Rolex, and a “tailor-made Armani silk suit,” drives a Mercedes 500, and pays for her lunch. When she smells his Armani cologne, she thinks, “ol boy got it goin’ on.” In the opening chapter, Angel is writing a bad check for $4,000 worth of merchandise from Wilson’s Leather. There’s also a focus on music in this book, with songs and artists mentioned frequently.
• Surviving street life and overcoming the street lifestyle, trying to move up and out of the streets. Out of what I read, I most enjoyed the chapter about Angel’s mother, Julia. The trauma of her son’s death led to the dissolution of her marriage. “And after such a long, hard road, Julia was tired. Tired of struggling to stay above water with all the bills. Tired of worrying so much about her remaining children. If Snake could help out with the bills and Angel didn’t mind their fights, then Julia was content to sit at her desk and work around the confusion. Life had made Julia numb.” In the beginning of this book Angel is a promising law student, although she never seems to be studying, and I imagine at some point those bad checks are going to catch up to her and compromise her degree.
• Language includes African American Vernacular English (AAVE), hip-hip slang, and American regional dialects. This was certainly true, and although this particular book suffered from poor editing, the author’s voice was strong and believable. Characters talked like real human beings. Language used to describe sexual encounters would make Nora Roberts blush.

Read-a-likes:

• Next in Wahida Clark’s Thug series is Every Thug Needs a Lady
• Start a different Clark series, Payback, with Payback is a Mutha
• Read a title by Nikki Turner, the so-called “Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction,” such as A Hustler’s Wife, first in the Yarni and Des series and an Essence bestseller

My Review: ★☆☆☆☆

I couldn’t finish this book, and that speaks for itself. I’m not able to stomach a lot of violence and this book sent me over the edge personally. However I was amazed and impressed to learn that Clark started writing her first novel while serving a 9.5 year prison sentence. Now she’s had multiple books on the New York Times bestseller list. She also started a publishing and distribution company for books like hers. Her books have sold more than 900,000 copies to date. I have a lot of respect for her! I can see how some communities might struggle to find a voice that sounds familiar in traditionally published books. It’s no surprise that enterprising authors in street lit have taken to creating their own companies to get books like this to fans, and that they do well in e-book format.