The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Published: 9/20/2005

Pages: 384

Genre: urban fiction

Review: library book 

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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.

This was a book that was recommended to me in my online Facebook group. A lot of different people gave it praise, as well as saying this was a classic. I did not hear about this book until now, so I knew I had to give it a read. 

Winter. What a name, right? Well. We learn that Winter is a material girl lol. She has learned that she has to be the biggest b!tch on top, and she will settle for no one less to be with. She worships her father. Winter grows up wealthy, and that is thanks to her father and his big-time drug-dealing ways. As a character, I so did not like Winter. She was putting herself in harmful situations, doing things she shouldn't have been doing at her age. You just want to reach through the pages and shake her a bit, and tell her to grow the hell up and stop playing around. She wasn't going to school, and I couldn't understand why her dad wouldn't say or do anything about this. I mean, come on, you want your daughter to be successful, right? I think that with Winter being raised to think that she needs name-brand clothing, money, and cars, it put her in the mindset that this is what life is about. 

I will say that I hated Winter's dad towards the end as he had a side chick, and his wife, who was holding things down, wasn't able to hold 'em down anymore. I felt bad for Winter's mom because even though she raised Winter to grow up and be like her. She went down a bad path, and one that she wasn't going to come back from, as she had no support. Midnight! Loved him as a character. The way he carried himself and seemed to take responsibility for kids that weren't his. Shows his true character and makes you want to read more about him. He didn't flaunt things around. He kept himself in check and seemed to be a humble man. I think this is what Winter needs because the path she went down is not one that will make her happy at all. 

There is so much going on in this book that I can't tell you much, but read it. 

 

Sister Souljah (born Lisa Williamson) was born in 1964 in New York City. She attended Cornell University's advanced placement summer program and Spain's University of Salamanca study-abroad program. She later majored in American history and African studies at Rutgers University. Her travels and lectures have taken her all over America, Europe, and Africa. In the mid-1980s, she founded, in cooperation with the United Church of Christ, the African Youth Survival Camp, located in Enfield, North Carolina, for children of homeless families. In 1992, her rap album, 360 Degrees of Power, and video, "Slavery's Back in Effect," catapulted her to national attention. She lives in New York with her husband and son.