Back on the streets after serving a three-year prison bid, T’RIDA is faced with mad drama and huge obstacles, including a baby mama whose troubles become an added weight on his back. The future doesn’t look promising until he takes to the streets to do what he does best — lay suckaz down! But at what price will his criminal prosperity come?When a man chooses to dance with the Devil he must pay … he must pay for his sins. Can T’Rida escape the inevitable downfall as he and his crew climb to the top in the game and prove that they are the real GORILLAZ IN THE BAY? Or will he meet a fatal demise?
T’Rida’s homies TOMMY GUNZ and VOORHEEZE are about that gunsmoke too as they clique up to form the Neva Die Dragon Gang, the Bay area’s most feared and respected organization. But on the road to riches, a man can become his own worst enemy. When that happens, the heavens will cry blood and the game will become downright unscrupulous.
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Yo this one surprised me! I don’t really read street lit, and I’m not a massive fan. Mainly due to the way men are sometimes portrayed, and women sometimes degraded. It breaks my heart.The ‘street life’ is not really for me, and y’all know I like my book boyfriends in a suit and successful! But I respect the authors, publishers and readers who live for it. I downloaded this novel on Kindle Unlimited as I crossed paths with the author on Facebook. I was really interested in his work from speaking to him, it was him himself, his level of maturity and being so gentleman like that pulled me in and really struck me. So one night, I secretly downloaded his work and started to read, I could not put it down from the opening chapters. I’m glad I read it, I did enjoy it and he did surprise me…. let’s get into this review!
Oh gosh where do I even start, first of all the opening chapters and prologue pulled me in. The story starts off so strongly right in the middle of the action, the action is actually the ending. Yes! Author De’kari penned this novel in a style I love, and have recently done myself ‘back to front’. If you think of the movie Pulp Fiction, how it starts at the end. So naturally in all the middle of the madness I kept reading. Here’s in all honestly what I enjoyed.
Storytelling- Author De’Kari is an excellent story teller, his style is kinda like writing in ‘beats’, he brought the story to different climaxes and peaks. I loved this. There were tense moments. I didn’t have the usual problem I have had with some books in the urban genre where there’s a hella-lot of violence, cursing, and no real plot. There is one, in a nutshell we follow the very bitter-sweet rise and fall of one of California’s notorious drug lords T’rida, as he becomes caught up in a very real life situation that plagues many people. This causes him to consider his self worth as a man. (No spoilers). I found the story line to be realistic, sad at times, and I started to really care about what happened to this bad boy, with clearly a big heart from some of his actions.
Characters- the male line up is fierce y’all I won’t lie. We have a male line up who literally started from the bottom, and made their way to the top. They become business men and bosses of an organised network. This I loved and respected, even though it was mainly via the drug trade, these men had hard work and hustle in them, and gave back to the community. They were not fully stereotypical little boys running around killing people, and not much aim in life. I found the male line up to be a little more mature, but deadly! I mentioned this in another novel I read by a mature male urban writer, I think when the authors are a little more mature, the characters become more mature too and realistic too. I found this with author De’Kari also. Now, while we’re talking about men ( and I laugh as I type this), about fifty percent of the way through one of the men -T’ride changed persona. I loved it. The author put him in an Armani suit and wearing my favourite smelling aftershave. ( I kinda crossed my legs, licked my lips and tried hard not to sniff my Kindle LOLZ). I really enjoyed experiencing T’Rida’s growth, maturity, and sex appeal! As he became a ‘boss’, even his appearance started to match it, and he himself realised that he had to look that part, to be a boss. Overall, I enjoyed the characters.
Overall I found this to be a true to form ‘street lit’ novel and a tale that many from the urban areas of the West Coast, in California, will resonate with. Even if you’re not from this part of the world, like me, if you have any understanding of inner city life at all then you’ll resonate with the characters and story line. For me as a first time reader of this author’s work, as it’s so bang on the money with what readers of this genre would want, I would say this author, if he keeps going will easily earn himself a ‘King of Street Lit’ title. This is a series from what I understand and books two-four are out, with great reviews also. He also has a number of other works published. From me as a first time reader, and non street lit reader four enjoyable starts for a really well delivered, engaging, entertaining, bitter sweet, tense story, that even has some romance and love and loss involved. I understand that the author wishes to write some romance and other genres too, and I would for sure read his romance.
I recommend Gorillaz in The Bay to anyone who likes traditional street lit, urban tales, mafia tales, organised crime and drug lord tales…that are believable .