T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. by Sanyika Shakur

() This novel takes you straight into the mind of a serious and 'successful' gangster. The main plot surrounds a new romance found by the main character, LaPeace Shakur, as well as his involvement in a large shootout nicknamed the Crenshaw Massacre. It was just an okay storyline. I found Shakur's autobiography, Monster, to be significantly better.

However, there were many literary quirks that were used but not well explained. For example, American was spelled 'Amerikan', and understand was always spelled as 'overstand'. Furthermore, the constant flow of ebonics was also a challenge to work through, but it did add to the atmosphere of the story.

The best part of the book was how much knowledge you gain about the gang world and its history. (Not that it's necessarily all true - it is a work of fiction, afterall.) Plus, there were some great excerpts that are worth noting:

(pg. 137) "Okay now listen. I wanna be cremated. Right? And then have my ashes stuffed into shotgun shells, and then I wanna be shot into some muthafucka's chest."
(pg. 171) "It's not that they wanted to die - or necessarily wanted to kill. Most felt their meager existence was but a living death anyway. A sinister pre-hell sort of purgatory. And so to die on the trigger was just a consummation of a slow-motion death already lived."
(pg. 309) "We all know why the sky is blue, homie." "Why is that?" "Fool, cause God is a Crip! Dang, ain't you know that?"