By Sister SouljahSynopsis: For a young girl raised in the projects of Brooklyn, Winter has few worries. Her father, Santiaga runs the neighborhood and while they might have an apartment in the projects, it is 'dipped'. Winter is raised in a culture of gangs, violence and drugs, although her dad doesn't use what he sells. He has standards that include loyalty and only high quality goods. Her mother teachers her and her sisters how to be 'a bad bitch' and is Santiaga's one and only. Winter see's her parents partnership as a love story and enjoys living with all the fine things in life, doing as she pleases.
Santiaga moves the family to Long Island and when her mom gets fed up with being stuck in the suburbs Santiaga breaks his own rule and allows momma to go on a run with him. Momma is shot and soon after the feds have arrested Santiaga, raided the house and seize all their possessions. The young girls are picked up by social services and Winter's only hope is help from one of her pops men, Midnight. However Midnight is ready to get out and while he remains faithful to Santiaga he leaves Brooklyn behind to start a new life. He continues to encourage Winter to contact Sister Souljah for help up and out.
Eventually Winter is picked up by social services and placed in a group home. She starts her own side hustle, still believing she can get back in the business and rise to the top again. Winter however can't see past a life of drugs and crime. She will be loyal like her daddy taught her, but at what cost?
Key aspects to note:
Urban Fiction can be difficult to classify into one genre, Wyatt and Saricks choose to place it as a sub genre of Relationship fiction because the stories form around friendship, family, lovers and relationships. However it also has many aspects of a Landscape, Romance and Literary Fiction. However others, like Welch classify it as Street Lit.
Urban fiction is most often plot driven and the story is deeply rooted to the street with sex, drugs and violence. Money is a key element in Urban Fiction or Street Lit and big brand names are dropped just as often as clubbing with big name rappers. Storylines whether they plan to or not have a strong thread with relationship fiction, characters learn to or speak of only trusting their inner circle and being loyal to family. Characters are typically determined to rise to the top.
Setting: Urban, with a street life focus. The Coldest Winter Ever sticks with the urban theme throughout and they storyline is always brought back to Winter's neighborhood in the projects.
Appeal: With a casual language style, most stories are told in the first person and use of street slang and curse words are common. The stories are bold, with sex drugs and violence. These stories appeal to mostly youth/young adults that can relate to some of the struggles the characters face.
Read alikes:
Books with similar urban fiction theme that fans of The Coldest Winter Ever might enjoy include:
Confessions of a Wild Child by Jackie Collins
Eve by K'wan
Sleeping with the Enemy by Wahida Clark
For readers looking for a different genre, but a strong ruthless female lead that will do anything to survive:
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Sounds like an intense read. I was not expecting to see Gone with the Wind after reading that summary haha. But I appreciate that you found a book that still featured a strong female lead but in a different genre. That is very helpful. Great job on this annotation!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was a different read for sure, and not a type of book I am drawn too with the drug and sex culture so I really struggled to start it. I wasn't really cheering for any character in the book and it wasn't until right at the end that I felt it drove home a message. But I can see where some readers would be drawn to this.
DeleteThis is not a genre that I would go towards, but your annotation was interesting and I could see how some readers would enjoy it. I think it is important to have some genres that you don't personally read in your repertoire so you can have knowledge if someone asks for readers advisory services. Did you feel like the drug and sex culture were pretty explicit or more implied?
ReplyDeleteIt is very explicit and a lot of mature language. It isn't a genre that I would choose to read but it was good to read one to understand it.
DeleteI agree with Shelby in that this type of setting is not something I tend to read just because I don't like the explicit language and sex. (I try to stay away from these type pf movies as well.) Your annotation is really good and if I did decide to read this I would know what I'm expecting.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this would be a good movie adaptation.
I loved Gone with the Wind and I can see the parallels between the strong female protagonist no letting anything get in her way to get what she wants. I wouldn't have thought of the connection.
In the second sentence of your synopsis, it says the apartment is "dipped." What does this mean?
ReplyDeleteDipped is the term they use in the book, a slang way of describing their apartment as being decked out with all the finest stuff even if it is located in the rough part of the neighborhood.
DeleteI really like the way you mix genres in your characteristics section! I was wondering this week how non-Saricks genres would work, and your analysis was really thoughtful and creative. Depending on the character's age, could this (or maybe even other urban fiction titles) maybe be considered a coming of age story? Your synopsis made this sound kind of like it, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. It also makes me wonder if books about people YA-aged could be considered YA or if the genre is limited to something more "pg-13." The articles talked about this being a classic urban lit title, so I wonder if my library has it (and where they classify it). Great post!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call it a coming of age story as she only starts to see the error in her choices at the end. Summer is about 16 in the book. It talks about her age several times. It certainly is pg-13 and I wouldn't let my tween read this, and I think she would be mortified and have a whole lot of questions. I couldn't find any urban fiction in my library, even the librarians were stumped by my request.
DeleteI tried to read this book for my annotation, but the ebooks had all been borrowed and I am too cheap to actually buy the Kindle version. I'm glad one of us read it because I saw it on the top of most "Best of Urban Fiction" lists. I like how you had Gone With the Wind as a read-a-like. Many wouldn't think of that, but the strong female lead aspect is certainly accurate.
ReplyDeleteIt was not available at my library, I couldn't find any that were Urban Fiction. I have library cards to three different libraries in 3 states and I couldn't find this as an ebook on any of them either. I ended up having to download it. Obviously Urban fiction isn't highly sought out in Montana, Wyoming or north central Pennsylvania.
DeleteHow old is Winter? Most of the books I saw in the lists I was looking at while trying to pick an urban fiction title seemed to have female main characters/female authors. I wonder if that's typical, and what the breakdown is in terms of readership.
ReplyDeleteWinter is 15/16 at the start of the book. I agree most titles I saw when I just did a search for urban fiction were by female authors and I think because of that the majority focus on the female perspective.
DeleteFANTASTIC annotation!!! You gave a nice detailed summary and did an excellent job of using your textbook and other resources to draw out the appeals. I absolutely LOVE that a readalike is Gone with the Wind, I've read this book and think that is perfect. This is one of the few that I own, although I've never completed the series. It is definitely always featured in the top 10 of this genre. Also great job at responding to your classmates. Full points!
ReplyDelete