3.75 - 4 stars Not going to lie, when I first read the premise of this book, I thought it was gonna be juicy and full of suspense. Don't get me wrong it is full of the juice, but not so much suspense, which I think is why it didn't rate so high with me. There were still moments of disbelief and shock, and moments when I was laughing so hard I almost lost my place, but it's a solid 3.75-4 star
This books I think takes place in 2008, when being on "the down-low" or having and find men in the closet who were having sex with men, but were married to women was new to the scene, and it definitely brings to light all those stereotypes that Black people have against those who are gay, whether they disclose that information or not. And it def reveals all those ideas that men have about their own sexuality and what they consider "manly".
Prominent African American males are being gunned down in the streets of LA and it is coming to light that they might have been in relationships with men, and Vernetta's friend Special is being charged for this and other crimes. The rest of the book is pretty much her friends trying to get her out of it. This book was good, but it wasn't as good to me as the first one. Maybe I'm not sure that I like the way the author spoke about gay males, but there were some serious facts that were placed in the book so that people would, I think, take the suggestion to make sure that they are using condoms when engaging in sexual activities, and also for women to take responsibilty for the things that they/we do with our bodies and demand that our partners take STD/STI test regularly. The social commentary in this novel was on point about the dumb ideas people have about gay individuals, and the fact that we, both men and woman have to take care of our bodies, but the first two stories were much better.