Keith is an 18 year old high school student living in Harlem. He has a life plan that includes being the class valedictorian and going to Columbia University. His mother is a recovering drug addict and his family is broken in most meanings of the word, but he has remained unfazed by his surroundings. He meets two cousins, Jesse and Derrick, and his senior year is turned on its head as he finds himself in a love triangle that leads to the discovery of details from his past that his mother wanted to keep hidden forever.
I get it that when an author writes a story they want to keep the story and dialogue as authentic as possible. Unfortunately for a reader like me, the authenticity can be too much. Considering this story is fiction, I would have appreciated the story a lot more if the “keeping it real” was toned down.
We all have triggers, and for me it’s the OVERUSE of derogatory terms. I don't consider myself an overly sensitive person or an overly PC person, so when I say overuse, I mean it felt like every page had something nasty on it. I. Just. Can’t!!!!!
This is the story of a young eighteen years old black guy called Keith. He has lots of problems in his family. It is a dysfunctional family where the mother is a drug addict and the family ties are not strong enough. Things change for Keith when he meets a thug boy “Derrick Cummins” who calls himself D. The two fall for each other yet they struggle to accept their newfound sexuality. And what makes things even more complicated is Jesse Cummins (D’s cousin) coming into the picture and disturbing Keith’s life with his sexual advances. The story is narrated in first-person style from Keith’s point of view.
You can consider this as a coming-of-age story and a slice of life as well. It is more about the relationships between these African-American guys. The way they deal with their insecurities, vulnerabilities, and all the different issues that are affecting their lives. It is not your typical queer romance as it has other elements of storytelling that are more than just pure romance.
When I picked up this story I wanted to read something with a black main character. I’m glad I’ve read this book because it really felt that I was reading about black characters. The author made sure the characters were authentic in their dialogue and their conversation was thug-like as he intended. There are many gay and racial slurs in the book so be warned if that makes you uncomfortable. The steamy scenes were intense both emotionally and sexually. I think the author kept a good balance between love and lust in the story. The characters are well developed and each is multilayered. The story has a sequel so I will be looking forward to reading it too.
I must say that this book was a little soap opera. It was good. Keith was a little crazy, J was a lot crazy and D was a rock. It's hard to write about the story without spoilers. It was a good read.
this book was crazy from start to finish! and why wouldn't it be. it was about high school kid's who are 18, everything is crazy in high school. just because its set up that way doesn't mean more mature people wouldn't enjoy this story though. Keith is the main character his pretty mature for his age even though he live in the ghetto and has all this horrible stuff around him he knows what he wants,by the way this book those use the word "nigga" a lot so if you don't like that just a fair warning. just because Keith got is head on straight doesn't mean life isn't gonna throw him a curve ball and that's when D and his cousin comes in (don't remember the cousins name) they make life a little complicated for Kieth. i do like this book and would recommend it,just to give a try because the story is not that bad i did love this book so am bias. and personally i would like to see a Keith and D story again because they are so crazy together its kinda entertaining.so yeah am making a petition has we speak and it gonna be for another Keith and D story :).
This was definitely a slightly different romance novel. It made me realize, although they may differ, the fact is we all have family issues to overcome. Here's a young man who's doing everything to insure his future doesn't remain in the hood. Not to be product of his environment. A difficult task with a mother who's an addict. He's also avoided becoming caught up in pressure of the social aspects of dealing with his peers. His life was on track until he became snagged into a competition he had no idea was going. During this time, he discovered something about himself that left him disconnected from life as he knew it. Through this journey, not only did he find love. He found himself and happiness. I myself thinking about life. What other people are going through that I have no idea of. I've seen movies the same as everyone else. The difference with reading about it is the level of emotion. You will be affected by the emotional turmoil he goes through. You'll become really angry with his choices. This book was more than I expected.
‘The best thing you can do for yourself is acknowledge your flaws and love yourself anyway because there are enough people against us without us rooting against ourselves.’
An urban contemporary coming of age about a young man in Harlem who's forced to confront his sexuality when he meets two cousins, and gets embroiled in a love triangle while discovering himself and his past. I didn't love this, but for an impulse read, it still turned out pretty good?
I tend not to love books that are super big on drama, and this definitely had a lot of that, so I was kinda worried... but I ended up enjoying my time with this anyway. The writing was fresh and down-to-earth. It wasn't great, but it was just so easy to forget that I was reading a book, and slip into these characters' lives. Keith is absolutely going through it, and things get so so messy with D and Jes. Messy in a way that had me yelling like, dude why would you do thaaaaatttt. ;; That type of book usually just turns me into a puddle of anxiety, but this managed to be entertaining, and sad, and cathartic. The characters are the textbook definition of imperfect, all of them, and no one makes the best decisions all the time. It got so stressful, but also, I sped through this. The romance with D was really sweet, when it wasn't messed up. And I appreciated all the realism, even the fact that not everything gets resolved neatly.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Alonzo Riggs and it was really good, really immersive. I don't know that I'd have been able to get through it otherwise; I took a look at the ebook, and it has a bunch of formatting issues that would have driven me nuts. And I mean, this is just a book that's meant to be listened to; so much of the emotion came from the narration rather than the writing. So kudos to Riggs for that. IDK if I would ever read the sequel, but this was a good intro to the author, and a nice time capsule into black lit from ten years ago.
I think it is a truely great book and it teaches you about what it means to have morals, and not to be afraid of who you are or who you like. Great read!
Loved this book. So engaging and well written, and I LOVED the characters. Would have been five stars if Keith hadn't made that stupid comment about Jes at the end, even after all D had done for him; that kind of messed up my happy ending a little bit. The author did a really good job of painting a realistic picture of the struggles of urban life, while leaving the reader with hope at the end. Also, even though Keith was a very flawed character and did many stupid things that should have made him unlikeable, I was completely able to empathize with him and be happy that he and D got their happy ending. Unlike other books where I felt the more ardent partner was unappreciated, and would have been better off moving on, I rooted for D and Keith all the way.
Editing wise, there were very few errors, with the only glaring exception being that the past tense of 'lie' as in 'to lie down' is not lied; it is lay. I was very surprised that this error was allowed to happen many times during the book, given how well edited the rest of the book is
Final answer - this is a fun, funny, engaging, well written, book with an easy to read, conversational and light writing style. Highly recommended. Would absolutely love to read more by this author.
In the typical world of urban fiction so often the lead characters’ socio-economic realities are usually bleak, raw, violent, hopeless, and psychologically; even irreparably damaged. Much of that is true in author LT Ville’s literary universe. But Keith, the 18-year-old black high school senior and narrator, is a refreshing enigma in this exceptionally well-written, funny, romantic, heart-breaking and thought-provoking novel.
Keith, who shares an apartment in a run-down Harlem projects with his on-again off-again crack-head mother (while his three younger siblings live with his no-nonsense Nana in Queens), is a bright, intelligent and conscientious student who everybody knows will be the class valedictorian and will surely be accepted into Columbia University. Although many in the high school campus thug community laughingly assume he’s gay because he pursues his studies like they pursue their women, Keith is little bothered by this.
But make no mistake. Keith is nobody’s nerdy push over. Six feet tall, good-looking, one of the best basketball players in the hood, and with an already established reputation for taking names and kicking ass, he’s as focused on his academic future as he is on the thin thread that vicariously holds his family and friends together. And he’s no cock-eyed optimist. His hopefulness is real but chilled. We get that from the first words he shares with us:
“The streetlights were ghetto stars. I looked out my bedroom window and all I saw was darkness and light—streetlights. I was 18. My mother was 32. I didn’t know my father. Nana said he was probably a lowlife, locked up for murder or some shit like that. Mama said he was probably a lawyer or somebody really important and he probably owned a mansion in the Hamptons. I knew she was dreaming, but I liked her dreams better than knowing the truth.”
Life changes for our bro-wonder when a 6’ 4” wanna-be thug transfer student who calls himself D, and his mixed-race, messed-up cousin Jes enter Keith’s life. Keith must seriously re-evaluate his sexuality when he clumsily responds to D’s romantic come-ons and finds himself sexually attracted to Jes:
“He was breathtaking. I noticed him at his seat when I first walked in the room. He had a really light complexion, with hazel eyes, plump pink lips and soft looking curly black hair…He was saying something else, but I was too busy noticing that he was beautiful. The thought of his beauty made me sick. I didn’t understand why I was looking at another guy that way. I tried to smile and laugh it off in my head, but my mind was at war with itself…I spent the entire class bashing my thoughts and trying to convince myself that it was just the normal musings that most people had, but nothing calmed my nerves. I was ready to run out the class when it ended, but the teacher asked me and Jesse to stay after for a few minutes. “Keith would you get Jesse up to date in this class?” “Sure, sir,” I told him as I glanced over at Jesse to get a peek. He was smiling. Even his teeth were beautiful.”
Barely on the DL, D falls hard for Keith. Keith realizes he’s in love with D, but something inside him makes it hard to be sexually intimate with him. This is so not the case with Jes whose sexual advances Keith tries to resist mightily. After all, D, the guy he loves and the guy who loves him, is the cousin of Jes, Keith’s irresistible sexual fantasy. The battle between Keith’s heart and his hard-on is a frustrating draw. The revelation of a devastating childhood trauma Keith had long since forgotten explains a lot about Keith’s stilted physical relationship with D, while Jes’ ulterior motives for coming on to Keith reveal the aches and pains Jes has suffered throughout his young and tattered life.
Keith’s best friend, heterosexual Lemar, is Keith’s voice of reason and soul mate who constantly urges Keith to cherish the unconditional love D has for him because one day it can turn conditional, or even disappear. Lemar’s mother is also a crack-head and his living situation is even worse than Keith’s. Suffering a childhood trauma of his own—Lemar’s father was shot dead by a drive by when his father came looking for him while he, Lemar, was out playing late past his curfew. Constantly reminded by his mother with cursings, rants and beatings that he was responsible for his father’s death, Lemar is a dedicated son out of guilt and genuine love for his mother and his young nephews he fatherly cares for nightly while still keeping his grades up at school.
These young high school seniors carry a mighty emotional load crammed unfairly into their still fragile teenage lives. That they have each other and lift each other up through the good and the bad is a tribute to why Black lives matter so much. Sure, they may live in a physical ghetto, but their hearts, minds and soul are not confined behind those walls.
It is not a spoiler to reveal that Keith indeed becomes valedictorian of his high school class—just read his remarkable graduation speak at the book’s close—and goes off to Columbia University, and that love conquers all. It is not the ending—though it brings beautiful tears to your eyes—that remarkably tells the story of these remarkable young black souls. It is the journey they traverse and survive that holds us in humanitarian awe.
So far I’ve read this book twice. I will soon read it again. Mr. Ville. You, sir, have written a Young Adult masterpiece!
Algo completamente diferente no por la historia en sí, sino por la ambientación de la misma (el Harlem más desfavorecido), los personajes (adolescentes negros en familias totalmente desestructuradas) y el lenguaje que utilizan ( totalmente coloquial lleno de slang, todo acorde con el sitio en el que viven) El libro y el desarrollo de la trama de de 3* porque tiene bastante peros por todo todo lo anterior lo subo a y pues le dio una frescura al libro que agradecí infinitamente.
This book was ok I guess. It was basically about first love, being gay, child molestation, drug abuse, poverty and families struggles. The lesson one will get from this book is that being gay can cause heartache and grief but if you push through, all of it will be better at the end. Don't let anybody make you feel less then and unworthy of love.
Sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the characters or the story I have an issue with. I really wanted to love this book and I started out loving it. I enjoy that it's a different kind of romance. I appreciated that the characters were flawed and realistic. Some reviewers took issue with the language. I did not. I accepted the language as part of the world we were witnessing.
So, I started off loving the story. About a third in, I started to roll my eyes. Not a hard roll. Not enough to stop listening (I listened on Audible and the narrater was amazing), but there were some cheesy inconsistencies in the characters.
I won't post any spoilers, but there were times I wanted to shake Kevin. These were some toxic people who had no business being together. A Codependency meeting would be in order for most of them, but I understood how each of them had gotten there.
As much as I wanted to shake Kevin sometimes, I could relate to him. Sometimes the smartest people can find all kinds of ways to sabotage their own happiness. Kevin got pretty good at it.
In the end, I found most of the characters' stories had played out. I gave the book four stars because even with the things that annoyed me, I couldn't stop listening. The characters made their way into my heart.
To say I was not expecting this book to be as good as it was, is an understatement. When I first started listening to it I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t really like the “N” and this and the “N” that. The whole gang vibe /street vibe with a little annoying. But, and that’s a but with a B, I’m so glad I kept reading/ listening. This book turned out incredible. I was so sucked in and dying to find out what happened.
My heart was so torn. The two cousins were so different and I loved them both. I don’t want to say too much or give anything away, but I was in tears a couple of times. I really felt like I was walking along side the characters. I could feel their pain, their passion, and even their lack of passion.
Truly an incredible read and I can’t wait to start the next book.
This book follows Keith and his rocky relationship with D and his cousin Jess who constantly tries to sabotage their relationship.
It was refreshing to see flawed characters make a bunch of mistakes even if it was the same one over and over again.
The thing I enjoyed the most, besides the ever evolving plot, was the detailed character of Keith's friend Lamar. He was a teenage boy in high school that took care of his cousins, mother, and Keith while never admitting his own pain. He was strong for everyone else.
Also the valedictorian speech by Keith at the very end was honestly beautiful and touching.
So I need to get my eyes checked and start reading the blurb at the back of the books going forward. I thought this was a short haired woman and a man on the cover. LOL. I did not know what I was getting myself into when I started the read. I also try to distance myself from coming of age books given that I'm no spring chicken. It was however, a good read. The evolution of Keith and his supporting cast was interesting and disturbing at the same time given the harsh environment they grew up in. In the end, I enjoyed the book.
I liked the story. I've never read a story from a High Schooler's perspective. I think the base of the story was good, but I did find some of it a bit repetitive (the same story action repeated). There were a few issues that were missed in edits (MacDonald's for example). But it wasn't too distracting. I can't say I'm happy with all the resolutions and character arcs but I'm looking forward to seeing where the story and characters go in the next book. I guess there's only so much arc to get during a senior year of high school.
Interesting story. Often too fantastical to believe, however, it provides a glimpse into a lifestyle hidden in plain sight that, I fear, may skew the truth of the situation a tad due to people not completely understanding how complicated homosexual love in the "hood" truly is. Some neighborhoods are extremely tolerant, to say the least, and some outright are violently hetereosexual. However, the story is captivating and allows for a narrative that would otherwise escape the imagination.
I would give a 3.5. It was a pretty cool book but I would've wanted a little background about the two cousins. I loved that the author touched on realistic issues in the black and gay community such as gun violence, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and lack of family acceptance/support. At times it felt a little overwhelming with all the issues but at least we got a good ending because that doesn't happen a lot in books with black gay characters.
It’s wasn’t a full on sexual assault with this book. However, I really do think it showed a realistic story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality along with dealing with real life issues that plague many broken homes that suffer the effects of addiction, abuse, and poverty.
I thought after reading so many heavy and political books. I would try something new and fresh. This was an " ok" novel! Nothing to brag about, it had a great story line, but just too much buffoonery and profanities. If you want a fluffy read. This is for you. Happy reading and happy holidays to you all.
This was was sweet coming of age story. I enjoyed the development of the characters and the storyline. I couldn't put it down! The author describing the different realistic situations that people go through everyday had me riveted! This is a five star read!
This was a very good book although the ending could have been a better ending. I guess and hope there will be a sequel to Bump This by the way this book ended. Not a boring book. A sequel to this book needs to be thought of ASAP.
I could not finish this. Maybe if I’d been reading this, I could have skipped the unnecessary derogatory and foul mouthed language. But listening to it turned my stomach. I kept waiting for the story to move on and the language to mature, but in the end, after chapter three I just had to give up.