Hello friends! What’s been happening? I finally finished The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah yesterday. It was a very warm recommendation by my boyfriend’s cousin and she did NOT prepare me for what I was about to experience.. so, without further ado, here’s the book review for The Coldest Winter Ever.
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
5 out of 5
Published in 2005, by Washington Square Press
Get your copy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookdepository.
Blurb: I came busting into the world during one of New York’s worst snowstorms, so my mother named me Winter.
Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold Winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn’t want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top.
My thoughts: Is it appropriate for me to say it’s a coming-of-age story, but with an added bit of *spice*? Okay, a lot of spice! Truthfully I was not prepared for the amount of graphic sexual content Sister Souljah put in between those pages. The story is wild. WILD! And although it was slightly disturbing to read about the sex life of a 16/17 year-old-girl, there was just something about Winter that made her sound wiser than her years. Thankfully.
The Coldest Winder Ever should come with a dedicated page for trigger warnings, such as drug abuse, (underage) sex, grooming, abortion, mental and emotional abuse to name a few, but in the end it’s a book well worth reading. It has the perfect pace to keep the momentum going and will keep you turning pages for hours at a time. There was never a dull moment!
I’m a 30-something-year-old white woman, who grew up in a small coastal town, where everyone knew everyone and the closest I got to a “ghetto” was through music videos and movies. So I obviously can’t really speak about the authenticity or say that I can relate to the life, nor characters, portrayed in Winter’s story. Nor can I confidently say that I understood it all how it was meant to be understood. But what I can say is that Sister Souljah sure knows how to tell a story, and tell it well! I was absolutely hooked to every word from start to finish.
So if you’re after a character driven, fast paced and absolutely wild book with flawed and problematic main characters – this is the one for you.
