Nicholas McCane

Overall, the book was okay. The protagonist is a bit annoying, but some of the supporting characters (her friends) help out a lot. I have two issues with the book.
1. All the men in this book are incompetent, weak, and/or bad. You can make a book about strong women without making all the men weak.
2. The protagonist is the hero, but most of her actions
seem unrealistic.

Social media was raving over this book so I had to check it out. This book is about finding your “Personal Legend”. Your mission on earth. It's about a boy named Santiago who is a shepherd. He goes on a journey to find his personal legend. It was slow paced but still a gem. I love the message of the book. I'll leave you with two quotes from the book.

1: “If a person is living out his personal legend, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure”.

2. “And anyone who interferes with the Personal Legend of another thing never will discover his own”.

I love the ending. The only reason why I didn't give it five stars is because it was too slow. I kept falling asleep and having to reread paragraphs.

I really enjoyed this one. I have went down a rabbit hole of memoirs that have taken place in black neighborhoods in major cities during the 80s and 90s. This one didn't disappoint. Although my race has been through hell for centuries, this time period is unique due to the Crack Cocaine epidemic and gang culture. This memoir captures that from a Philadelphia teen's perspective. We go on a hood journey from the eyes of Malo. A teenage black male. He and his family goes through hell. I love how the author uses rap music and R&B to help tell it. And how he uses hood references to describe the scenery. Be prepared because this book is heavy on slang. This was a masterpiece. And although his story was amazing, I pray that his mother and brother both write a memoir because their stories seem interesting as well.

I wanted so bad to like this book. I am a real life Black Detective who has spent the last 15 years assigned to the Crimes against Children's unit. I was immediately sold on this book when I found out that Alex Cross was also black. I'm thinking, finally I can read a book with a detective that looks like me. But no, it was immediately obvious that the writer was white. The story is supposed to have taken place in the 90s.

It was like the author kept trying to remind us that Cross is black. The dialogue between black people was horrible. At one point there was dialogue involving a young black teen. The author tried to use ebonics. It was so bad that I didn't even understand what she was saying and I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. At one point Cross referred to himself as the n-word (with the ER) to a black woman. We don't talk like that James Patterson. You could've at least used the a at the end.

Someone also called Cross's girlfriend/killer a n-word lover. It's the 90s James, not the 60s.

Then there was the cross burned in the yard by the KKK

I really enjoyed this book. It brought me through several emotions (which I like). I laughed a few times, was upset with her a few times, sad with her a few times, and shared her anger. I even slammed the book closed once. Any book that can do that, earns some stars. Good read, felt like some parts dragged just a little though.