I thought Solomon Jones was the only author who could get me interested in reading a story about crackheads. I was wrong. I read the sample chapters and decided to go ahead and read the rest.

WEAK POINTS: The "intelligent" conversations happening about the government and history...I wasn't buying it from a bunch of people inhaling cocaine. I've never been in that environment but I've been around enough weedheads to convince myself that people on drugs do not have these sophisticated conversations...at least not while they're high. I lost interest in the group of crackheads, until readers learned more about Roy. Once I found out about Roy's background and he started talking more, as well as Dante, those scenes perked up. The pages where readers learned how cocaine was prepared could've been left out altogether. It became very obvious to me that this author must be a fan of science, because it started reading like a technical writing handbook in that chapter.

STRONG POINTS: Every single scene with Travis, his mother, his grandmother, and Travis' flashbacks were intriguing. I loved the relationship between those three--as strenuous as it was. His mother went to GREAT lengths to show him that she was not going to tolerate him being on drugs anymore. She reminded me a lot of Madea, without the "friend" in her purse. When I could tie Dante and Travis' character together, then their friendship became just as interesting. The underwear scene with Valencia was cra-zy. My jaw fell to the ground reading about their creative antics.

ANALYSIS: The book is about how several different people survived their lives with many different problems--some resorted to drugs, some resorted to church, some resorted to sex, and some just gave up altogether and reached out for anything. This is not a story about drugs only. It's a story about self-evaluation. The way the book ended up was bitterly sweet, and I would definitely read something else from this author.

Great job!